The Alpha of Bleake Isle

by Kathryn Moon

This book gets a 4 star from me.

Mairwen is the geeky girls who hides in the corner of all events. Lord Ronson Cadogan needs an heir and is ready to choose one. Maiwen is not on his radar at all.

I bought this book from Kathryn Moon at Writer’s on the River. My daughter loves her stories and I decided to try one. I fell into this story. I like shy smart Mairwen. I like grumpy Ronson. More I thoroughly enjoyed Moon’s writing style. Her characters are well developed and her world is vivid and has depth.

Moon created a story which drew me in and held my attention. She created main characters who I liked but also secondary characters who filled in the cast nicely – whether good guys or not. The plot was divine. It was a touch of Jane Austin with a touch of Anne McCaffery. The dragon aspects where delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and this book.

Hunger

This started out as a short story. It was supposed to go into an anthology. And then it grew and grew and the characters kept telling me more and more. I realized it wasn’t going in an anthology – so now it’s a book. This is not a cliff hanger. There’s a complete story here. But the overarching plot will continue into the next book.

Book 1 Silent Death Series

by Eileen Troemel

Earth cannot grow its own food. Chemicals and pesticides pollute the soil, water, and air. Chaebul Conglomerate designed and developed space stations to grow organic food for all the people on Earth. These stations are vital to the survival of all. Who, then, would try to damage the food and space stations?

When Tree Space Station 41 has a mysterious illness hit their workers, security and management suspect sabotage or a sick out. But the workers are determined to prove they aren’t faking their illnesses. Betsy Canfield and her coworkers agree to stay working even when breathing becomes difficult. Nearly out of oxygen, Betsy realizes something is very wrong on the branch. She pulls the alarm before she passes out.

Investigator Colin Casteneda arrives on the station determined to find the truth. He has more questions than answers but with Stephanie Vaccaro, a top toxicologist, and his team, he will find the answers. When he sees Betsy, his ex girlfriend, he knows he will do anything to protect her. She may have left him to work on the station two years ago, but he never stopped thinking about her.

What kind of monster tries to sabotage the only source of Earth’s food? Can Colin, Betsy, Stephanie and his team stop this monster before the food supply is destroyed? 

End Game

by GA Mazurke

I give this book a 4 star review

Let me start by saying – I don’t like sports and I’m not thrilled with first person books. Having said that, I enjoyed this book. Mazurke did a good job of staying true to the first person POV. Liam and Gracie’s story is funny, engaging, and worth the read. Muzurke takes over six hundred pages to develop her characters who are flawed and interesting. Gracie is a ball buster hiding her hurt and vulnerability. Liam is a jock with a heart who’s been traumatized. The book starts erratic jumping through time in these two people’s lives but quickly settles into a solid story where the couple come together with both hiding their feelings. It evolves into a complex love story which I could not put down.

Fruits displaying in the stall of a market

Summer Vacation is Done

Since it’s 1 am it’s technically Monday so my vacation ended yesterday. I’d like to say I spent a leisurely day writing and being a bum. Instead we worked on cutting up watermelon, musk melon, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, peaches, and cucumbers.

The cucumbers became relish but we added too much salt so we’ll label it as salty and see if we can make tarter sauce with it. The fruits we froze a number of them so we can have them in winter for smoothies / slushies. Some were just cut up to have for nibbling on all week.

We picked from our herbs again. This time we managed to actually get them chopped up and put into ice cube trays to freeze. Those will go into ziplock bags for use over the winter as well.

Ken picked tomatoes and peas. Vicki picked potatoes. Can’t wait to enjoy all of those. We also have a lot more growing. It was a busy morning with all of us working to get the food processed and either in the freezer for winter or mixed into what we wanted for consumption this week.

We made homemade pizza for supper with leftovers for lunch this week. It was delicious. It was also the first time we made pizza dough in the breadmaker which was much easier on my hands.

Now all of that took me to about supper time. I spent a little time playing on my phone and being mindless. But after supper, everyone left me alone and I was supposed to write but an author friend sent me her book. I started it last night and instead of writing I had to finish the book. It was delightful. So I didn’t start writing until 10 pm.

Very unusual for me, I have an outline (very rough and only ideas jotted down) of how this short story should go. I had around 3100 yesterday when I finished writing. Tonight I managed to add an additional 1500. Now I’m being cautious because I think this will go into an anthology but there’s a short deadline. I think If I can get through a few more scenes by Friday I will commit to being in the anthology. But I want to see how far I get in the story before I give a firm yes to the organizer. I don’t want her to do more work if I can’t get it written by the deadline.

Overall, I had a good vacation. It was relaxing but I still accomplished tasks. I finished off manuscripts and got most of them to my formatter. She’s gotten them back to me. So I can upload as I need to and set up preorders.

I’ve got a story in my head which keeps returning so I may be starting a new one soon but we’ll see. I’d much rather finish off a couple of works in process.

Later today, I’ll be catching up on a week’s worth of emails and dealing with the demands of my job. The nice thing is, I feel relaxed and refreshed from having time off.

Book Sale

Want a paperback? Missing books in one of my series? Always wanted to try a book but…

Well here’s your chance. I have a stock of books with old covers or that I planned to take to events in the last year or so. I’m opting to offer them up for my readers. Some are in sets – like Wild Magic and Hostile Magic. Most are individual.

There are limited quantities of items. Once the items are gone, they are gone. For single items, prices range from $4 to $7.

Check out my shop!

The covers represent some but not all books available during the sale.

Sharon’s Submission

Sharon’s Submission

Behind closed doors, Brent and Sharon have shared a secret and elaborate fantasy life revolving around Bondage and group sex.

Each weekend they would live out one of their bondage scenarios in the privacy of their bedroom. This weekend had been Sharon’s turn as submissive, and she was eager for the night to begin. That is, until a chance storm stranded two of their longtime friends at their home threatening her night and their secrecy.

In her wildest dreams Sharon never thought she would live out the private dreams she’d shared only with her husband. Then, this fateful weekend with two of his friends would change their lives forever.

The question now isn’t, how far will she go…. Now it is how much further can she go?

Go to the series page to get both books! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099QS5WK3

Sharon’s Punishment

On the surface, Brent and Sharon are a typical mid-west couple. Married, settled, and content.
Behind closed doors?

They explored anything they wanted – the kinkier the better. They made their sexual fantasies come true. This weekend was supposed to be like no other. Sharon was desperate to live out one of her favorite bondage fantasies. She needed to be punished.

That is, until a chance storm stranded two of her husband’s friends at their house.

How kinky were Sharon and Brent willing to go?

You can learn more about Kyle through his podcastSpeak Seductively

Scifi Fantasy

Do you read and enjoy reading science fiction or fantasy? Kyle and Lily Canon and I discuss science fiction on their podcast. It was a great discussion on new and old scifi/fantasy. Here’s a snippet.

If you want to hear the whole discussion, go here: https://anchor.fm/kyle-canon/episodes/Talking-Sci-Fi-and-Fantasy-with-Eileen-Troemel-e11p6b5

The Bookshop

Simone Francis  The Bookshop

https://amzn.to/38aSPz5

It’s 1908 and Amelia Slone is bored until her friend Frances disappears. The bookshop and the haughty, arrogant Prussian Konrad von Schellenberg are her only clues. Determined to find her friend her search leads her into a world of sexual submission, kidnapping and murder that hides just below the surface of Edwardian London.

Desperate to find her friend it seems romance will have to wait or will her new passions help her find love as well?

Perilous Love – Review

by Jan Selbourne

Blurb

As the world rushes towards a war, the British government orders wealthy businessman, Adrian Bryce to leave his mistress and accompany his estranged wife, Gabrielle, to Belgium. They require proof Gabrielle’s uncle is supporting the German Empire. Adrian discovers secrets which plunge him and Gabrielle into a nightmare of betrayal. Forced to run for their lives as Germany invades, they must trust each other in the midst of danger, brutality, and injury.
Gabrielle enjoys her role of mother of their two children. Wanting only to be with her lover, and now fearful of exposure, she readies herself and her children for a difficult trip. With no way out, Gabrielle knows the visit with her aristocratic traditional family will be a trial, and Europe is on edge. She had no idea the danger she, Adrian and her children would be in.
Will Adrian and Gabrielle reach safety? If they do, are they out of danger or will the intrigue and treason follow them back to England?

Review

This is a 4.5 star read for me. It’s a book where I was annoyed each time I was interrupted when readingBy it.

Set in the first world war, Perilous Love (which has a much better new cover) has been newly updated and rereleased with a new cover. The cover is much more fitting. The story takes right before the start of the war. The two main characters I didn’t like – Adrian and Gabrielle. They are rich and spoiled and obnoxious. They travel from England to Belgium for their annual visit to Gabrielle’s family (Belgium royalty). What occurs in Belgium forces these characters to look at themselves, their marriage, and each other.

Selbourne takes them through the hell of a country invaded and under siege. The violence and the horror of the time is handled beautifully by Selbourne. Instead of forcing the reader to go through horrific scenes of rape, debauchery, and violence, Selbourne has the reader experience it as the characters do. These keeps the horror of what were realistic events of the war from overwhelming the central story. Her characters are well researched and fit the time period she’s using. Her story line is well paced with a balance of fast paced OMG what will happen next to the moments when the characters connect and are real with each other.

I don’t typically read historical novels. Too often I find mistakes on word usage, setting, or items in the book being out of place or time. Selbourne clearly did her research when it came to all of these things. This is well written. It’s got depth and heart in it. When you read the book, you feel like you’re in the time period with the characters.

Gregor

Gargoyles are no longer hiding in the shadows. They are no longer merely the stuff of legends. They are flesh and blood and walk among us. Well, at night anyhow. 

The White Bluff Clan has been assigned Tulsa, Oklahoma and one of their first cases with the Tulsa Police Department is to search for the missing Tulsa World reporter, Lynne Clark. Her car is found abandoned near a homeless encampment. Did they hurt her? Do they know who did? Can Clan Leader Gregor save her before it’s too late or will his desire distract him? 

Gargoyles of Tulsa

Gregor Preorder: https://books2read.com/u/bQdXQP