Connor Ward is Greywood’s resident psychopath. And now, he’s my boyfriend…
One impulsive decision is all it took. I needed a ‘boyfriend’ for the year; Connor needed a redemption arc with his legion. So I announced to the world we were dating… before he even agreed.
Connor nearly strangled me for my gall. Then, he named his price: my body, my choices, my complete surrender.
Who am I to refuse such a delicious deal?
Everyone sees him as a monster. Cold, calculating, untouchable. But as our twisted game begins, I start spotting cracks in his armor. He’s undoubtedly brutal, but he’s also beautifully broken.
The longer we fake a relationship, the more real it becomes… and then our pasts catch up with us. My ex wants me back, and he’s getting violent. Connor’s enemies are circling, and I’m caught in the crossfire. The legion’s fed up with Connor, leaving him without backup.
In the face of our conflicts, Connor reminds me that I don’t matter to him and never will. That he only knows how to destroy, not love.
Realizing he can never give me what I’m starting to crave, I try to walk away from Connor… only he changes his mind and doesn’t let me go.
Now, I have to choose my destruction—my ex’s fury, Connor’s ruthless enemies, or Connor himself… who’s breaking me apart piece by piece.
Maidens and Mercenaries is a dual-POV spicy dark college romance featuring a morally grey MMC and a strong, cunning FMC. If you enjoy Rina Kent’s Legacy of Gods or Shantel Tessier’s LORDS, you’ll turn feral for the men of the Greywood Legionaries!
I knew going into this that Connor, the MMC, is the darkest of the legionaries. And true to form, he got too dark for me. This contains unsafe BDSM with a lot of pain and choking. It was a turn off for me. So I can only recommend this if you like this content. If you do, go for it!
It didn’t stop me from finishing the book, but it did curtail my enjoyment. I’m glad I got a resolution to the overall story arc that began in Book 1. This is well written with fleshed out characters, a nice sprinkling of humor, and some good action.
But for me, it just wasn’t right. Kresley Cole is one of my absolute favorite authors, but I wasn’t into her Gamer Maker series.
Contains graphic sex scenes.
Frequent foul language.
1st person past tense from Cara and Connor.
Errors: Very frequent issues with dialogue formatting – not capitalizing and separating action sequences, 1 wrong word, 1 missing word, and 1 missing space between words. So not awful.
A deadly secret. A dangerous captor. A dark love that teeters between obsession and salvation.
A simple night hike turned into a nightmare…
I stumbled upon something I was never meant to see—a deadly secret hidden deep in the forest. Before I could escape, Dorian Acheron—Greywood University’s notorious vigilante—chased me down. His hands pinned me to the cold ground, and his piercing gaze promised retribution for my unwelcome intrusion.
The choice he gave me was no choice at all: vanish into the grave he’d dug for someone else or become his temporary captive.
Now, I’m confined to his gothic home, and every breath I take is steeped in unease. Dorian watches my every move, a predator lying in wait. His unseemly roommates threaten me each time I cross paths with them, convinced that my silence can never be trusted.
Dorian promises I’ll be free after a week—as soon as he’s sure I’ll keep his secrets. But as the days drag on, I begin to see cracks in his icy armor. Beneath the terrifying façade lies a man capable of tenderness, even vulnerability. Against all logic, I find myself drawn to him. Yet his dark world suffocates me, so I yearn for the moment I can escape.
Unfortunately, my past resurfaces. When Dorian discovers that I’m far more than a quiet college student, his fixation on me transforms into a dangerous obsession.
Now, I no longer know whether he’s keeping me captive to protect his secrets… or because he’s claimed me as his woman.
Luminaries and Legionaries is a spicy dark college romance featuring a morally grey MMC and a shy, intelligent FMC. If you enjoy Rina Kent’s Legacy of Gods or Shantel Tessier’s LORDS, you’ll turn feral for the men in Greywood Legionaries!
It’s not the most realistic narrative, but I don’t think we expect that with a college mafia novel. It’s a fun, entertaining, spicy, quick-paced, escapist read. I enjoyed and recommend it, but I don’t think it’ll be something I want to re-read, so 4 stars from me. Well worth your time once, if you like this type of story. I intend to try the remaining books in this series.
It’s billed as “dark” and contains dubious-consent scenes. Unwanted touching of a sexual nature occurs but no actual rape. There is seduction but not coercion. The woman does not feel violated.
Warning Included:
Please be advised that this book contains some dark and triggering content. If any of the following triggers bother you, this book probably won’t be for you.-Dub-con.-Mentions and depictions of child abuse (flashbacks to abuse).-Alpha-hole, domineering hero. Dorian is a character with questionable morals and a skewed perspective on the world. Only proceed if you enjoy your MMC’s morally grey.
The FMC, Mira, is empathic, seeing energies on people and animals, and highly perceptive in an almost paranormal-genre way. It’s not totally realistic, but I’m okay with it. I loved The Mentalist and Medium TV series, so I’m not averse to believing someone could have these abilities. Wild animals are drawn to Mira, which I found very cool.
The alpha’s head lifts from the ground and he turns around to give me a narrow-eyed look, letting out a growl of warning. It’s as if he’s saying, “stay right the fuck where you are, and don’t you dare stop petting me.”
Mira is on her way to becoming a vet. She’s independent, strong, skilled in firearms, and damaged by previous abuse. She has her coping mechanisms and is usually very quiet. I found the believability stretched when this was contradicted by her word vomit and oversharing.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re fucking fascinating, love?” Brit questions, gazing at me with a deepening interest.
“Usually, they tell me that I’m insane.” I can’t exactly disagree, since I’m yet to meet anyone who can feel other people the way I do. Cara swears I’m an empath, but I don’t like the supernatural connotation around that word. It’s not like I see dead people or smell emotions, I just sort of… sense them.
The Brit walks behind me, and I feel his gaze burning a hole into the back of my head. I think he’s trying to figure me out—both men are—and that confuses me. Most people don’t care to figure me out. They catch a whiff of my brand of crazy and run in the opposite direction. I prefer it that way, since I’m not very good with people. I get along much better with animals.
“I think I like you,” Dorian says, sounding perplexed by the prospect.
“Please don’t. I’d rather you disliked me and wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible. Not in the permanent way, but in the Jesus fuck this girl is so annoying I’m gonna let her go back to her dorm room way.”
The MMC, Dorian, is billed as morally grey and that holds up. Murder when justified, theft, and drug business is okay, but hurting “innocents” is not. The organization he belongs to seeks to destroy sex trafficking operations. Dorian and his “legion” started out as vigilantes, cleaning up their college town. Overall, I found Dorian likeable.
There’s something panicked in her eyes that I really don’t like. I’m not a rapist, I’m not someone who will ever get off on forcing women. I have my fair share of kinks and taboo enjoyments, but desire on both sides is a must for me, otherwise I don’t have any interest.
It looks like other books in this series will have other dominant-submissive kinks, but Dorian’s is orgasm control. No beating or degradation required.
I live in a house with dominant guys. Connor is the type to spank a girl’s ass until she’s sobbing for mercy, then squeeze it while he’s fucking her—sadist through and through. He needs to deliver pain to really get his blood rushing. Seamus, on the other hand, likes scenes of all kinds—tying a girl up any number of ways and playing with her however he feels like in the moment. It changes from person to person and scene to scene. He leaves his bedroom door open, enjoys other people watching him work, so I’ve witnessed him do a whole range of shit with girls. I think the thing that really gets him off is begging.
As for me… I certainly have particular tastes, and all of them center around the pleasure of my partner.
“So many men are terribly unoriginal. Disappointingly so. A punishment is easy when you redden someone’s ass, but pain tolerances build. That gets old. Forced orgasms? Not so much, that’s an entirely different form of torture.”
Everyone is amazingly gorgeous, except the bad guys who always have oily hair. The sex scenes are hot and interesting. There are quite a few, but the story is definitely there and interesting in its own right. Dorian is built like a porn star god with the huge package to match, which felt farfetched. At least Mira has some scars to prevent her from being physically flawless.
This contains insta-love on part of Dorian and almost-insta-love on the part of Mira. I noticed it, but it didn’t bother me. The action scenes are pretty good but end too fast. They could use more suspense and detail. There is humor sprinkled throughout, which I appreciated.
Contains graphic sex scenes.
Frequent foul language.
1st person past tense from Mira and Dorian.
Errors: 10 – Misspelled words, 1 set where the space was in the wrong place between them, 1 missing space between words, 2 missing quotation marks, a few capitalization inconsistences, 1 subject-verb disagreement, the color of an object changes, and the name of the cat is spelled differently a couple of times.
406 Pages
$4.99 at Amazon and part of Kindle Unlimited.
Received free from BookSirens in exchange for my honest review.
Lykae imprisoned and tortured for over a century by vampires discovers his mate is a vampire – or is she?
Blurb:
A mythic warrior who’ll stop at nothing to possess her . . .
After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he’s waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.
A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy . . .
Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents — until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae — and their notorious dark desires — ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.
An all-consuming desire . . .
Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?
The Valkyrie:
Millennia ago, Wóden and Freya were awakened from a decade of sleep by a maiden warrior’s scream as she died in valiant battle. Freya had marveled at the maiden’s courage and wanted to preserve it, so she and Wóden struck the human with their lightning. The maiden woke in their great hall, healed but untouched—still mortal—and pregnant with an immortal Valkyrie daughter.
In the years that followed, their lightning would strike dying women warriors from all species of the Lore—Valkyries like Furie were truly part Fury. Freya and Wóden gave the daughters Freya’s fey beauty and his cunning, combining these traits with the mother’s valor and individual ancestry. Though the daughters were half sisters, they were all unique. But according to the Lore, one could recognize a Valkyrie if her eyes fired silver with strong emotion.
Lykae, or werewolves, in the “Lore” do not shapeshift into wolves. They get a little more muscular, their face changes to slightly more lupine, and they get a shadowy spirit-like halo of the werewolf-type monster we might expect. They each have a fated mate.
Lachlain, the king of the Lykae, had been imprisoned and tortured by Horde vampires for over a century when Emma’s scent from the Paris streets above gave him the will to free himself through excruciating pain. Emma is his Mate. But then he discovers Emma is a vampire and hates her. This is a dark romance with non-consensual sexual situations.
He took her by the wrist and forced her hand to his naked shaft. “You feel me hard. Know that the only reason I’m no’ inside you right now is because I’m weak. No’ because of any concern for you.”
Face flushed with embarrassment, she tugged at her hand until he let it go. “You would hurt me that way?”
“Without a second thought.” His lips curled. His gaze seemed intent on her face, but his eyes were still vacant. “And that’s just the beginning of the things I’ll do to you, vampire.”
She simply wasn’t the type of person who could give it up without some kind of bond or commitment. She didn’t think of herself as old-fashioned about sex—there was a reason for her familiarity with Skinemax—and she had a very healthy attitude about the whole subject, for all that she’d never had an orgasm. But she knew deep down that she would need something lasting—and that it could never be with him.
She narrowed her eyes, realizing what this was. Stockholm syndrome. Identifying with your bullying captor? Check. Forming an attachment to him? Check.
But in all fairness to herself, how many captors—actively acquiring—were six-and-a-half-foot-tall gods with delicious, sun-darkened skin, the coolest accent, and the warmest, hardest body she’d ever dreamed of? All this and he liked to wrap that body around her? All this and he thought she was beautiful.
But Emma grows strong facing this situation. She used to be known as Emma The Meek, but she is a Valkyrie and starts acting like one.
In the past, she would’ve meekly accepted this as yet another time her wishes and feelings were ignored. Now she refused. Lachlain needed to learn a lesson. He needed to learn that in the last seven days, she’d become a creature with which one did not fuck.
Lachlain learns that Emma is a unique creature in the Lore, half-Valkyrie and half-vampire. And eventually things are good.
“Lachlain! I’m not walking around willy-nilly naked. Okay?”
His lips curled as if he found her modesty endearing. “Then go put on the silk I’ll soon be ripping from you. You’ve no respect for your clothing.”
But Emma has another thing to face – the question of who her vampire father is.
The fantastic lore is matched with fantastic writing. The pacing makes me fly through and keeps me up way too late at night. The sex scenes are scorching hot. The action scenes are riveting. I just can’t gush enough about these books, which I don’t often do.
The Warlord Wants Forever is the first in the series. This novel has some spoilers for TWWF, but we all know that these have happily-ever-after endings anyway. So I really recommend reading A Hunger Like No Other first. AHLNO is the first full-length novel. TWWF is a novella. You get hints about the lore, but you get so much more detail in AHLNO. I think it’s a better primer. Other reviews recommend reading TWWF after the third full-length novel, Wicked Deeds On A Winter’s Night. There have been 19 books so far, counting the forthcoming Munro, so there is lots of delectable lore to eat up.
I love how the stories from each novel intersect with each other. We won’t know what is going on with a little snippet appearance of a new character until many books later. It goes hand in hand with the complexity of the unique paranormal lore in this series – spectacular!
Contains graphic sex scenes. Their first full sex scene was graphic. Subsequent ones are just mentioned.
Occasional foul language.
Prologue is in 3rd person present tense. The main body is in 3rd person past tense from Emma and Lachlan.
Errors: 8 – mostly formatting issues where there is a space missing between sentences.
This is 357 Kindle pages long. It contains previews of other books at the end.
Vampire finds his Bride, but she wants nothing to do with him, in this series opening novella
Blurb:
The Warlord Nikolai Wroth, a ruthless Vampire general, will stop at nothing to find his Bride, the one woman who can “blood” him, making his heart beat and filling him with strength. Coldly interested only in the power his Bride will bring, he can hardly believe when Myst the Coveted awakens him body—and soul.
The Seductress Famed throughout the world as the most beautiful Valkyrie, Myst has devoted her life to protecting a magical jewel and to fighting the vampires. Wroth provides her with the perfect opportunity to torment her sworn enemy—for with his new heartbeat comes a consuming sexual desire that can only be slaked by her. Denying him, she flees, struggling to forget his searing, possessive kiss.
The Hunt is on… She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen her enchanted jewel, giving him absolute power over her. Now that she’s his for the taking, he intends to make her experience first-hand the agonizing, unending lust she subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Nikolai realizes he wants far more than vengeance from Myst and frees her, will she come back to him?
Vampires in Kresley Cole’s world, called the “Lore”, drink blood, are immortal, and can be killed by the sun. But they also have some unique traits.
He was the walking dead. No respiration, no heartbeat, no sexual need—or ability. Not until he found his predestined Bride and she “blooded” him fully. With his blooding, something inside him, some essence—maybe even his soul—would recognize her as his. He would see her as the one he was meant to spend eternity with, the woman he could love without measure, if one believed in that, and his body would wake for her.
Myst is a Valkyrie, the immortal child of Norse gods and a female warrior who showed extreme bravery in battle. That warrior could be human or another creature from the Lore. Each Valkyrie has her own unique traits, but they are all badasses – “creatures with which one does not fuck”.
Before he’d come, Myst had been powerless here. She could handle weapons as well as most in the coven, though a sword and bow were not her strengths. Her preferred weapon was men. She manipulated them, played them, made them believe she lived for them alone in order to have them do her bidding. That was her m.o.
Myst is Nikolai’s Bride. She brings his body to life but wants nothing to do with him. A vampire must at least be touching his Bride to “finish” after he becomes sexually excited for the first time by her. If he can’t do this, he is stuck “excited” until he can. Poor Nikolai doesn’t get to finish and is stuck in this state for years!
For just the merest second he imagined he saw compassion in her eyes, but when she shrugged, his hazy mind finally grasped that she was going to leave him here with nothing but a body knotted with lust for her and a taste of blood that he would go to his knees for. “You’re the most malicious bitch I’ve ever known.”
“I will find you,” he bit out. “I will find you and make you pay for this a thousand times.”
I love how funny the Valkyrie are! So snarky, witty, and just damn cool.
“But Vampire Bride just sounds so B-movie. He just dragged you down to B-moviedom.”
Nikolai is definitely a dominate alpha male. And Myst likes it. If you don’t like that, these books aren’t for you. There is a scene that can definitely be read as rape. Because we are in Myst’s head, we know she wants it. She wants to be overpowered. But he doesn’t know that. After Myst has been “defeated” she becomes a willing participant. If you are bothered by non-consent in your fiction, then steer clear.
I love that Cole’s characters aren’t promiscuous before meeting. Either because of lore, like un-blooded vampires can’t physically have sex, or by choice, this is lovely to read.
I absolutely love the intricate world-building and lore that Kresley Cole has written in the Immortals After Dark series. They have dominant alpha males and sassy strong women to meet them toe to toe. The Valkyrie are equally funny and kickass. There are monsters and darkness. But there is hot sex and humor to combat it. The writing is wonderful, so fast paced that I’m kept up way too late because I can’t put the book down.
The Warlord Wants Forever is a novella. It’s a nice introduction to the Lore and the type of dark romance this series abounds in. These aren’t for people with triggers. It’s fantasy, fiction, and we can enjoy things in our minds that we would never abide in reality. So if you’re with me on that, then delve into the world and see if you aren’t one-clicking the next book a few hours later. Once this vampire turns you, there is no going back 😂
Contains graphic sex scenes.
Occasional foul language.
3rd person past tense from Myst and Nikolai.
Errors: 4
This is only 112 Kindle pages long. It contains previews of other books at the end.
In the summer of 2019, Kresley Cole went silent on the interwebs. These days that likely means death, right? Highly anticipated new book release dates came and went. These dates were changed to generalities like Summer 2020, and those came and went. No clues were given, and we still don’t know what happened. But she’s back! Kresley sent a newsletter out giving “proof of life” and followed that with a specific release date for “Munro” of January 15, 2022.
Do you know who Kresley Cole is and why you should care?
“Munro” is #19 in the Immortals After Dark series, #17 in the main series as there are 2 Dacian novels—a parallel series. These are among my favorite books ever written!
Kresley Cole has crafted a paranormal world called the “Lore” that is far and beyond the best I have ever seen. Forget everything you thought you knew about vampires, werewolves, witches, gods, demons, and so on. It’s all wrong anyway, just PR those among the Lore want you to believe.
Here you will find the truth!
By that, I mean you will find details, explanations, and histories that are so good you can easily suspend your disbelief. Fly through these fast-paced stories going, “Uh huh”, “Yeah”, “I follow”, “That makes total sense”, “I remember this”, and “This is so cool!”
I don’t read series that haven’t been completely published. I’m spoiled by technology. I binge-watch and binge-read. I want the entire story available before I begin it. This series isn’t finished, but I can read it. I’m not left with cliffhanger questions. Each story is intertwined with the others, but they can all be read as standalones! Major characters see very minor characters doing things in Book 2 that make little sense. In Book 12, that minor character is now major, and we see that scene from Book 2 as an important part of a bigger picture. This means a detailed outline of Book 12 had to exist when Book 2 was written. That is craft!
Or it’s all true.
Some of this is set in New Orleans. I live near there, hence the “NOLA” in my web address. And I have seen some very spooky things around here!
Now this series is dark romance, but that’s true only part of the way through each book. We always get a HEA. It contains nonconsensual sexual scenes, so it isn’t for those with trigger issues. There is unwanted touching, confinement, and bullying, but no actual rape. If these things don’t bother you, then you are blessed because these books are awesome. Part of what makes the darkness, the lack of consent, palatable is that none of the characters are human. In most of the paranormal books I’ve read, the couple consists of one paranormal and one human. But here, neither are human. They are older, sometimes centuries older, so we can more easily forgive them for their archaic “lock the women up and control them” ways. Plus, those women are badasses who aren’t going to take that for too long before they rise up and prove they are that man’s equal.
The Arcana Chronicles is another series, pitched to YA/NA audiences. This is a completely separate world, but one that has also been very finely crafted. I read “Poison Princess” and “Endless Knight” years ago but stopped reading the series because each book can’t be read as a standalone. I’m glad I stopped because Kresley Cole’s disappearance delayed the last book’s arrival massively. I will be very happy when the last and 7th book, “From The Grave”, comes out in 2022 and will read the series from the beginning.
In the meantime, I’m reading the Immortals After Dark series from the start right now and will be giving reviews on each individually. I hope you take the journey with me and love it as much as I do.
We are still left of the mystery of Kresley’s disappearance. Writer’s block? Personal tragedy? I don’t think so. You see, in order for a human to be changed into a creature of the Lore, they have to die and come back to life. Maybe she’s been turned. A vampire perhaps? Being turned Lykae wouldn’t have happened this fast. A ghoul wouldn’t be able to write anymore. So yeah.
Vampire Kresley, welcome back! 😀
Congrats on the immortality. I look forward to reading new books in this series for the rest of my life.
Dark, reverse harem, high school, organized crime, romance
There is a ton of sex in these books! It’s very long, and it has a lot of story too. But the sex to story ratio is much higher than I usually see. Harlow could be a nymphomaniac, so it’s good she has four guys to keep up with her. I mean there is sexually confident, and then there is, “I draw the line at full-on prostitution, but most everything else is fair game.” It’s downright raunchy. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is hot, but some of it was a bit much for me, mostly the hate sex. And I regularly read and enjoy novels with graphic sexual content.
The beginning of this is a bully story but make that a gang, as in large criminal organization, bullying the girl. The whole backstory for this novel is disgusting. I hate that all the teens treat sex so casually, completely separating it from emotions. It’s difficult to get past all this. If this were me, I would have gotten the hell out of there, moved to a different country or something.
The gang stuff and what the guys do to Harlow in the beginning was crazy. I was having trouble suspending disbelief. Harlow’s superhero level skill set, strength, and attitude in the face of all this was stretching credibility. It’s like all the main characters are a trained army. Death means nothing to them. Natural born killers.
By Chapter 18 of the first book, I was feeling like this was going to be too long. I was waiting for something to actually happen. By Chapter 26, 22% into the box set, I’d had enough of the hate sex and was still waiting for something to happen. I had to take a break and read something else. I am glad I went back to this because it got much better, but I can see a lot of readers dropping out at or before this point. When I got back into it, things really started to happen in the story, and the sex scenes got very hot. By the end, I was happy I had read this. But I can only give it 3 stars. I liked Surviving Amber Springs so much better!
It’s got an HEA with a cute bonus novella at the end.
1st person present tense, mostly from Harlow, but with a smattering of chapters from each of the guys.
This is well edited. I only found 9 errors.
Favorite Quotes:
Harlow: I have zero desire to live in my own twisted romance novel.
“They built the facility in the middle of Mantiss Forest and—” “The Sainthood sure is obsessed with forests,” I interject. “It’s ideal burial ground,” Saint replies, glancing at me as he steers the Land Rover out onto the highway. “Perfect for disposing of enemies and annoying girls who interrupt people midsentence.”
“I think I got pregnant just watching that,” Caz jokes.
“I was so tempted to slice off his dick,” I admit. “Like, I seriously had to talk myself off that ledge.” Caz chuckles. “You couldn’t deprive us of that sight. When you chop his cock off, I want a front-row seat.” I lean back for a knuckle touch. “Deal, dude. Wouldn’t want to deprive you of such quality entertainment.” “
Harlow and her mom move from Arizona to a wealthy east coast town. Her mom is hired to be the live-in Executive Housekeeper for the Black family. Their teenage son Lincoln and his best friends, River, Dax, and Chase hate Harlow immediately. They rule the school and lead her torture there. Then the five of them witness a murder by a man in a mask.
I liked this a lot, but I wouldn’t want to read it again. Murder mysteries have much lower re-readability for me, since I’m not going to forget who done it. I’m not a big fan of mystery novels in general, so it’s harder to make me love them. And this is very long. I can see why it was broken into three books, but it felt overly long. The pacing was good for most of this, but I got bored for a while in the third book.
This is definitely teen erotica. If you’re against that, walk away now. Personally, I’m a fan. I don’t want to do things with teenagers in real life, but I like to imagine myself back as a teenager. And reading about teens having sex doesn’t bother me. When I was 16, everyone I knew was having sex. I haven’t forgotten that just because I’m older now. It’s actually quite realistic in that regard. There are many sex scenes in this, some with just one guy and others with two or all of them, but there is a lot more story than sex here. Recreational marijuana use appears a few times here, which also matches my teenage experience.
I liked all the characters. Harlow isn’t timid. She’s got a mouth on her and takes the initial abuse well, doesn’t cry and moan about how unfair it all is. She just says how these rich fucks must be bored. I liked that Harlow had a very realistic reaction to seeing someone die. She goes into shock for a bit and then can’t sleep or eat for days. Too many times I see characters handling things like this like it was no big deal, the story on to something else. I’m glad to see a realistic reaction for once.
I loved that all four of the guys had distinct personalities and weren’t just clones of each other, even the twins. Chase and Dax are almost identical twins but have enough physical differences to be told apart. Their personalities are widely different. All four guys are somewhat possessive and protective, but they don’t smother Harlow. I also loved Harlow’s mom and that someone in this novel has a good parent.
1st person present tense, all from Harlow’s perspective.
This novel is well edited until the end of the third book. I found 3 errors between the first two books. I found 11 errors in the third book alone, mostly subject-verb agreements.
Favorite Quotes:
“Don’t fall in love with any rich boys. They’re trouble.”
When Harlow’s mom is going on a date: I make her promise to be home by midnight and use protection, because I’ve gotta give her a little shit while I’m at it, right?
Having four boyfriends, as amazing as it is, isn’t great for staying clean.
I grit my teeth. “Because I’m collecting boyfriends, and I want to raise the average age of my harem.”
Cora is the sheltered daughter of Baltimore social elite. Her world comes crashing down when her father is arrested and put in jail, all his assets frozen. Cora and her mother have to move across to a town to dilapidated rental house. Cora has to go to the public school there, where she is hated by everyone. Three boys, called the Lost Boys, Bishop, Kace, and Misael, offer her protection, if she will be theirs.
It’s called a dark romance, but I didn’t find it that dark. I wouldn’t even really say it is hate to love because the hate doesn’t go on that long. There is no dubious or non consent. The character’s ages aren’t given until the last book. We just know they are seniors in high school. There are some very hot sex scenes, not many in the first book, but they pick up in the second and third. It’s definitely an erotic novel. This contains recreational use of marijuana and underage alcohol use but no other drugs.
Cora is strong. She discovers her inner strength because of what she goes through and grows across the story. She’s a fighter and holds her own with the boys. I liked all three boys and very much appreciated that they all have distinct personalities and differences. It always bothers me that many menage romances have lead men that are basically clones of each other.
This is fast paced read with a lot of drama. I’m glad all the books are packed into one because they really are one. The last paragraph of the first connects to the first paragraph of the next without any introduction. I wouldn’t really call the “endings” cliffhangers because the current action has wrapped up. We just don’t have all the story yet. There is a satisfying full ending at the end of the third book. There isn’t an epilogue with future scenes, but I didn’t think it was needed. The characters go through enough that you know what will happen in their future.
I loved this. It was a perfect blend of story and erotica. 5 stars because I would read it again.
1st person past tense, all from Cora’s perspective.
The dialogue is often in the next paragraph after the action sequence. It’s weird but consistent. Might be done for style effect. It didn’t bother me.
This is very well edited. I only found 2 errors, which is amazing.
The All Saints High books are about the kids of the people in Shen’s Sinners of Saint series. I found them when I was looking for dark high school romances. I haven’t read the parent’s series but went ahead with these. It’s a mood thing. These all had crazy amounts of reviews, mostly 5 star, and are tip top ranked on Amazon. All of these books are written in 1st person present tense with chapters from the two main characters. They each have a couple of chapters from the parents of one of the main characters, which I loved.
I’m so glad the first book was as good as all the reviews and rankings said it would be. It’s actually SAFE, which I was surprised by, but it’s true. And the editing was amazing. I found so few errors in this! 4 since I always say. What a pleasure to read. In all these books, the bitchy banter is very amusing, there is a lot of great humor, and the sex scenes are hot.
When I was about 12 and started keeping a diary, my mom told me I shouldn’t write anything down that I didn’t want my grandmother reading in a newspaper. This is what code that can only make sense to you is for if you can’t stop yourself. I think everyone should pass on this wisdom to their children!
Favorite Quotes:
Daria: The only way I could protect myself from the fire was by creating a bigger blaze. If they thought I was untouchable, they’d fear me instead of taunt me. If they thought the hard-nosed principal had my back—or had me on my back, for that matter—I would not be messed with. So I nurtured the rumors, made them grow, gave them wings, and let them fly, like butterflies from a Mason jar.
Penn: I need to make sure that Daria is a hobby, not an addiction. Adolescent hearts are trash and as loyal as a starving stray cat. They’ll take anything. Even scraps. I don’t want to feed my rusty tin heart junk. And Daria, she stomped on it hard enough for me to know she’s not even a greasy burger. She’s a Pop-Tarts covered in cyanide.
Daria: High school is an aquarium full of sharks. People are always broiling with the need to burst free. Only the strong survive.
Penn: A perceptive little thing, she is. I don’t think people give Daria the credit she deserves. She could’ve found Bin Laden in a week had she been given enough Red Bull and good internet service.
I was hating this for a long time. I mean it’s beautifully written, but it is one hell of a tearjerker! It reminded me of Present Perfect by Alison Bailey, which kept knocking me over the head with tragic events. I read that in December 2013 (I keep a spreadsheet) and still remember it for screaming, “Enough already!” Broken Knight wasn’t that level of angsty and got better, happier, as it went on.
I have to give it only 4 stars because I don’t want to go through that (read it) again. Thankfully, there are very necessary moments of laugh out loud humor in this book. It needs the comic relief. The humor got me through it. This one is definitely not SAFE. We have to suffer through sex scenes with Other People. At least they are short snippets and not detailed.
This is the first book I have read in a very long time that I didn’t find any errors in!
Favorite Quotes:
Knight: Footsteps thudded in the hall, and I stretched in the large bed, nudging the woman sleeping on my chest to wake up. “Your husband’s back. Pretty sure he won’t be so happy to see a stud like me in his bed.” Mom looked up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. She swatted my chest, then coughed. “Hide. I wouldn’t mess with him.”
“We always thought we were going to have girls, Rosie and me.” I couldn’t help but smirk, mainly because all they had were boys. And we were about the most testosterone-filled creatures in the history of mankind. Sometimes I wondered if I had blood or jizz in my veins. Mom looked down, flattening her palm over my linen and brushing it absentmindedly. Bad idea. This shit is ninety-nine percent spunk, one percent fabric.
After Broken Knight, I had to take break and read some other books, afraid of another tearjerker. But Angry God was back to what I loved in the first book. I’m glad I came back because this was fantastic.
This one isn’t SAFE because we have to endure Vaughn getting blowjobs from Other Women. But I knew this going in from the previous books. He wasn’t in a relationship with Lenora at the time. What really bothered me was the casual way all the teens thought about this. I wanted to scream that you can catch STDs from oral sex too.
Favorite Quotes:
Vaughn:
Empedolces emerged from the rosebushes, strutting his ass like a Kardashian in my direction. I’d named my blind black cat after the Greek philosopher who discovered the world was a sphere. This cat, like the philosopher, thought himself to be God. He had a fierce sense of entitlement and demanded to be stroked at least an hour a day—a wish that, for a reason beyond my grasp, my sorry ass granted him. It was by far the most human thing I ever did, being pussy-whipped by a literal pussy. Emp brushed past my dirty boot. I picked him up, rubbing the spot behind his ear. He purred like a tractor.
I came buckets. I hadn’t come often before my arrangement with Good Girl, and never this much. I’m talking enough to fill a milk carton. I had to Google that shit to see that it was normal.
I pushed the door open, hoping to find her working or reading or converting to a religion where she could only have sex with people named Vaughn Spencer.
Hot adult romance, with flashbacks to teenage years, continuation of Devil’s Night series
“Book 4” is Conclave: A Devil’s Night Novella. It takes place between Kill Switch and Nightfall. It’s a nice setup for Nightfall, “Book 5”.
Will and Emory.
Again, I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t read the previous books in the series. It was very good, just like the others. 5 stars. I loved the snippets we get where Emory witnesses a piece of a story we know so well. We don’t see much of her in the earlier books, but she was actually everywhere.
We finally get a solid resolution to the overarching plot lines of the series. Everything was tied up nicely. There is an epilogue that introduces some intrigues with the next generation that will lead to another book or series, which hasn’t come out yet. “Fire Night: A Devil’s Night Holiday Novella” takes place between the end of Nightfall and it’s epilogue. It’s a good, fast read and gives us some more clues about the next generation to look forward to.
This is darker than books 2 or 3 but not as dark as 1. There is unwanted touching of a sexual nature, lots of violence, and physical abuse.
There are graphic sex scenes, including some same sex ones.
Now for the grammar:
1st person past tense with chapters from both Kai and Banks.
16 errors: missing words, wrong words, missing periods, and quotation mark issues.
Favorite Quotes:
Frankly, I’d been surprised he even spoke English. Figured him for someone who communicated solely in emojis.
That was the hardest fucking thing I’d ever had to do. Like harder than prison, detox, and the Doris Day double-feature at the drive-in my mother asked me to take her to when I was seventeen. Combined.
V. B. Law 