Friday Book Club #15

Friday, May 4, 2018



Read & Have Opinions On:

Hot and Badgered by Shelly Laurenston
It’s not every day that a beautiful naked woman falls out of the sky and lands face-first on grizzly shifter Berg Dunn’s hotel balcony. Definitely they don’t usually hop up and demand his best gun. Berg gives the lady a grizzly-sized t-shirt and his cell phone, too, just on style points. And then she’s gone, taking his XXXL heart with her. By the time he figures out she’s a honey badger shifter, it’s too late.

Honey badgers are survivors. Brutal, vicious, ill-tempered survivors. Or maybe Charlie Taylor-MacKilligan is just pissed that her useless father is trying to get them all killed again, and won’t even tell her how. Protecting her little sisters has always been her job, and she’s not about to let some pesky giant grizzly protection specialist with a network of every shifter in Manhattan get in her way. Wait. He’s trying to help? Why would he want to do that? He’s cute enough that she just might let him tag along—that is, if he can keep up . . .

My Thoughts: I am a Shelly Laurenston fan girl. Full stop. While this particular book was a bit heavier on the cast building than main relationship, I still enjoyed every dang page. She excels at writing characters - especially women characters - who are well rounded individuals with "colorful" vocabularies (lol) and a tendency to kick ass. She is probably my #1 comfort read author at this point, which is saying something when I'm a women with two packed bookshelves of Nora Roberts. Hot and Badgered is the beginning of a new direction within Laurenston's larger shifter world, and while I would say you should read all of them just for the enjoyment alone, this new book is mostly a stand alone, and perhaps an even better introduction to the hilarious pandemonium Laurenston writes.

The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune

Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City Of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident.

Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam’s pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the King's Wizard, Morgan of Shadows.

When Sam’s fourteen, he enters the Dark Woods and returns with Gary, the hornless gay unicorn, and a half-giant named Tiggy, earning the moniker Sam of Wilds.

At fifteen, Sam learns what love truly is when a new knight arrives at the castle—Knight Ryan Foxheart, the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.

Naturally, it all goes to hell when Ryan dates the reprehensible Prince Justin, Sam can't control his magic, a sexually aggressive dragon kidnaps the prince, and the King sends them on an epic quest to save Ryan's boyfriend, all while Sam falls more in love with someone he can never have.

Or so he thinks.

My Thoughts: I was very much on the fence for about 60% of this book. Reading it felt like watching a season of RuPaul's Drag Race set in the world of Tamora Pierce and my brain couldn't decide what to do with it. Plus I had to go look up TJ Klune because so much of the verbiage seemed specific to a certain population of gay men and I wouldn't have felt nearly as positive about the ending if it was being written by someone unfamiliar with that world. This book is hilarious, graphic, heart-warming in a way I haven't read in a while and at times way too long, but in the end it's a book about finding yourself and family, so shocking no one I've already picked up book two :).

Cardinal Witches Series by Alyssa Day
First in a funny, sexy new paranormal romance series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Alyssa Day.

He's a warrior, hardened by years of protecting his town from vampire attack.
She's a garden witch who sees the world in shades of sunshine and delight.
Opposites don't only attract, they go supernova in this sizzling tale of magic and mayhem.

“Alejandro, meet Bob,” Rose said, and he quickly looked around the room, only to confirm that nobody was there.
“Bob? Who is Bob?”
“Bob is my cat,” she said, that quicksilver grin again crossing her face and then vanishing. “The basilisks got him just after I rescued Ninja.”
“The basilisk attacked your cat after you rescued a ninja?” he repeated slowly, realizing he’d been right. There was no way a woman this beautiful could have a personality to match her looks.
She was nuts.

My Thoughts: Despite the fact I could only include the summary for Alejandro's Sorceress, I read through all 3 of Day's Cardinal Witches series and I think on the whole I'd call them fine? A bit of love-at-first-sight combined with happy-for-now resulting in quick reads featuring some of the usual characters for paranormal romances. Since they're novella length and priced accordingly I'd recommend them for someone looking to pass the time, but they're not life changing.

I'm Looking Forward To:

Planet Dragos by Thea Harrison (May 14, 2018)
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Thea Harrison comes the final novella featuring Pia and Dragos…

Pia’s latest pregnancy has become a daily challenge, her relationship with Dragos strained with argument. That hasn’t stopped them from achieving a compromise and traveling to Las Vegas to celebrate their friend Rune’s wedding to his mate Carling.

From the moment they arrive, the trip goes awry. Death walks in Vegas, and Pia is kidnapped as an ancient enemy makes a move to destroy the Great Beast once and for all.

But the Great Beast has other plans.

On Planet Dragos everything goes the way he arranges it—unless someone decides to cross him, and God help them then, because he doesn’t know how to back down, and he doesn’t ever, ever let up….

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews (June 6, 2018)
Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.

Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself—and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.

Hugh needs a base, Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?

As the prophet says: “It is better to marry than to burn.”

Hugh and Elara may do both. 

Ocean Light by Nalini Singh (June 12, 2018)
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh dives beneath the surface of her Psy-Changeling world into a story of passionate devotion and selfless love...

Security specialist Bowen Knight has come back from the dead. But there's a ticking time bomb in his head: a chip implanted to block telepathic interference that could fail at any moment--taking his brain along with it. With no time to waste, he should be back on land helping the Human Alliance. Instead, he's at the bottom of the ocean, consumed with an enigmatic changeling...

Kaia Luna may have traded in science for being a chef, but she won't hide the facts of Bo's condition from him or herself. She's suffered too much loss in her life to fall prey to the dangerous charm of a human who is a dead man walking. And she carries a devastating secret Bo could never imagine...

But when Kaia is taken by those who mean her deadly harm, all bets are off. Bo will do anything to get her back--even if it means striking a devil's bargain and giving up his mind to the enemy...

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