Book Review: “Roping the Cowboy” by Kennedy Fox

Hello again!

EDIT: I didn’t really have a good time of figuring out the best way of publishing my posts – I do hope you enjoy this review just as much though. Don’t worry tomorrow, we’ll carry on as normally!

April was productive but not as much last month…

I was able to finish six books. I have never done this before; my usual quota is three to four books each month, but I was able to convert the majority of my reads into audiobooks or they were a part of my second list of books I am keeping track of this year. If you are curious about this, you can click here to be transported to that blog post.

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Originally on the Read Me Romance podcast. This eBook release is a novella set in the world of the Bishop Brothers with bonus chapters & an extended epilogue!

An unforgettable one-night stand filled with heat and passion starts the unraveling of a love-hate feud between a small-town baker and an arrogant cowboy.

When Katarina shows up at the Circle B Ranch Bed & Breakfast to serve her new gluten-free, sugar-free, organic pastries, Braxton decides to make her life hell for kicking him out the next morning and then pretending he never existed.

First step, make fun of her tasteless muffins.
Second step, get revenge.

Soon the duo are at each other’s throats, getting even until things go too far and the chemistry burns too hot.

Kat claims their night together meant nothing.
He’s determined to prove her wrong.

taken from Goodreads.

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If you didn’t know, I absolutely love the ladies of Kennedy Fox and I’ve actually had this book for a few months now. Anytime they have multiple books out for free, I am taking an advantage of the opportunity and I had just finished a great month of reading and wanted to basically sink my teeth into something juicy so I thought I could get a move on with the Circle B Ranch series, since I have quite a collection piling up on my Kindle, and I just thought if you needed a nice and sexy short story, you could look into these books soon!

“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.” I smirk. “You know I’m immune to that cowboy Casanova bullshit, right?”

This quote is exactly something I’d say prior to reading any cowboy-ish books. I thought I would only fold for Vanessa Vale’s stuff since she loves to discuss dirty cowboys, but oh no, apparently Kennedy Fox is taking me for a ride as well!

Honestly, this was a great way to start the entire series. You rarely see novellas at the top of the series–or at least I don’t!–but I think the main reason why it worked so well is because not a lot of women out there enjoy cowboys. I live in the Midwest and I can personally tell you that I’ve found country dudes somewhat fake. There’s a difference between acting the part and actually being a cowboy, like Ree Drummond has herself a true cowboy, with husband Ladd. He works on many different areas on the ranch and not a lot of guys who want to be like that can do it physically.

I will be diving into the other books of this series this summer as a little treat to myself. Here are the ones that have been sitting in the depths of my e-reader for way too long: Catching the Cowboy and Kissing the Cowboy. There are many reasons why I absolutely love Kennedy Fox books but the one thing I love the most is that all of their books (until said otherwise!) are standalones! They may belong in a series and some characters from the other stories can join in through background scenes, and this makes me feel better for not having the exact order to know everything. Jasinda Wilder writes her books in the same way, or at least the Badd Brothers series can be read out of order too, which has helped me get over my insecurities for not knowing certain players and stories.

Are you reading the ‘Circle B Ranch’ series by Kennedy Fox too? Which book or couple do you love the most? How are you about the cowboys involved too?

Book Review: “Shield-Maiden: Under the Hunter’s Moon” by Melanie Karsak

Hello!

It is time to discuss my thoughts on the second book of “The Road to Valhalla” series by Melanie Karsak. If you have yet to check out how this whole journey started, click here, and you might want to skip this post, so you don’t see any spoilers.

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When the gods play in mortals’ lives, the only certain outcome is uncertainty. Especially when that god is Loki.

In the course of a night, I found out my entire life was a lie. Now, Yrsa, Eydis, and I will set off to recover Tyrfing. I must leave Dalr—and the dream I’d shared with Hofund—behind. Eydis is sure the gods have plans for me. I hope she’s right. For on the distant island of Bolmsö, the last of my father’s line is besieged by enemies, and only the blood of a berserker can make things right again.

taken from Goodreads.

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Once I finished the first book, it didn’t necessarily take me long to get into the sequel. The one thing I was a bit worried about was the sheer number of pages it had compared to the other but then I got over it and was able to enjoy the continuation of Hervor’s story.

Some people have never experienced feeling unconditional love from their families, even in the same case as Hervor, as her mother does in fact adore her truly, but she has never been of sense and mind up until the end of the ‘Howling Moon’ and so she has relied on other people for care and protection but now she knows the truth of her parenteral side and she intends to make it known within herself but to others as well. You could look at this in the same way of Jon Snow finding out about his heritage on season six and seven of “Game of Thrones”.

Although the plot is based around Hervor proving herself worthy of others around her, you still have the comical side with characters like Eydis and newcomer Utr. They were a nice separation of the serious events happening all over.

“The gods have surely brought you here, Hervor.”

There was one part of the story, and everyone was getting ready for an upcoming battle, and there was a tiny scene that puzzled me because I wondered if it was plausible for this character–who is fictional I know–to actually know and understand the measures it took on the battle itself. Eydis had explained that she had received a vision of a certain Trojan horse that was moved into the other side’s camp, however it was not hollow on the inside, and everyone was massacred once the ruse broke.

The story of the horse was featured in Homer’s Odyssey and although it is still unclear whether or not the horse even existed, they time the war between Greeks and Troy to be around 1194 to 1184 BC. If you are even more curious to learn about the myth, you can click here. After finishing my research, I went to look into the sagas of Hervor and I found that her story is placed sometime in the 13th Century BC, which is fairly close to the story of the horse, so with that, it seemed like a clever way to connect both sides of history into this series.

Despite all of this, I realized as I was searching for everything that I was just like Hervor in this book. It can be difficult to decipher between myth and truth. There were a lot of speculations who Hervor’s father was in the beginning and it has been interesting for me to wonder about the these two settlements; the Vikings were brutal warriors and ruled the waters with axes, shields, and sheer strength in their bodies plus knowing they will be drinking in the halls with Odin in Valhalla as they dead on the battlefield wasn’t a bad passing, whereas the Greeks lived in massive cities of concrete buildings and sophisticated armor with swords and horse drawn chariots. I mean, certain parts of history do have a way of repeating itself.

I never meant to doubt Melanie’s information or overall work, but from the moment I read that paragraph, I found it odd but then of course I let it fester in my head as I continued reading and knew I would eventually look everything up to my curious heart’s content and that’s what happened. I feel better and pleased to learn more about how our ancient selves lived, and thought you, if you are like me and love history, would appreciate the insight too!

Have you read ‘Under the Hunter’s Moon’ by Melanie Karsak yet? If you have, what were your favorite parts of it?

Book Review: “Shield-Maiden: Under The Howling Moon” by Melanie Karsak

Hello!

I want to say, I can’t believe I am talking about another series by Melanie Karsak, but it’s happening! Although, if we’re being technical, it was actually my mom’s fault we are here in the first place as she told me shortly after I finished The Raven and The Dove by K.M. Butler last month.

Back in December, while I was reading my way through Christmas inspired stories, I attempted to read Melanie’s prequel novella called, “Shield-Maiden: Winternight Gambit” but I just couldn’t get into it as much as I thought I would. I’ve never been able to enjoy Viking fiction and trust me when I say there are TONS out there, which is both a blessing and a curse because it is super difficult to find anything outside of the Norse mythology. The fact I found Melanie’s “Celtic Blood” series first was interesting, but honestly both mythologies are somewhat similar, and I think that’s why I’m able to mesh with it now, because I have grown to learn more about “earth based” and/or pagan lifestyle, even if the story itself is fictionized.

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Chosen by Odin. Destined for Valhalla.

In my dreams, Odin whispers to me. 
He tells me I’m destined to wield a legendary sword.
He tells me my road will bring me to Valhalla.

But when I wake, I’m only Hervor. Fatherless. Unloved. Unwanted. Jarl Bjartmar, my grandfather, calls me cursed. My mother, her memories stolen by the gods, has forgotten me. Everyone tells me I should have been left to the wolves, but no one will tell me why.

None but Eydis, a thrall with völva magic, believes I’m meant for a greater destiny. Yet who can believe a devotee of Loki?

When the king and his son arrive for the holy blót, the runes begin to fall in my favor. A way forward may lie in the handsome Viking set on winning my heart, but only if I unravel the mystery hanging over me first.

Fans of Vikings, The Last Kingdom, and The Mists of Avalon will relish Shield Maiden: Under the Howling Moon. This sweeping Viking Historical Fantasy retells the Norse Hervarar Saga, depicting the life of the shieldmaiden Hervor, the inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien’s Éowyn.

taken from Gooreads.

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I didn’t know what to expect from this story, but once I started, I felt comfortable with my surroundings. Anytime I jump into Melanie’s work, I instantly felt happy on the inside. Everything came together and I fully allowed myself to dive deep and embrace all of these characters and the events mentioned throughout the story.

I truly love having to focus on one character’s point of view and I think this is what I drive for in all of my books honestly. It was a freak accident that I was able to enjoy K.M. Butler’s book so much, because it had two views, but in order to understand the lives of those characters, you needed separate views as a reader. However, with this story, we follow only Hervor, and to me, she was just as powerful as Halla and Taurien. If you haven’t checked out my review of that book, the link is located in the first paragraph.

“Of all the places to live. Like a dwarf in a cave. Not in a glen. Not in a tree. Oh no, up the side of the steepest mountain,”

The entire book was exciting, but there were some interesting twists throughout the pages. Despite being the granddaughter of a jarl, she wasn’t very respected among her family. This is one of the biggest wonders of the story, because her mother somehow lost part of her memories, and even though Svafa is the beloved daughter of the jarl, Hervor is not.

She has constantly in the book said that she is unloved, but I don’t believe she is, she has multiple people in her village that adore her plenty like Eydis, who may be a slave to the family; she and Hervor have a beautiful friendship and I think Hervor tends to forget about that. She also has Yrsa as well, who has been teaching her all about being a shield maiden and her hopes is with her cousin Leif, who like Eydis, has been with her for the majority of her life and wants to see her flourish as well!

Besides Hervor being a big favorite for me, Eydis reminded me of someone I know. She is one of my sister’s friends from school and I basically used her face and goofy antics to picture this character a little better. She is a devotee of Loki, who is very mischievous in both the Norse mythology and the Marvel universe, so she has her weird moments too but there is a scene towards the end that really got me good. I physically laughed because not only was it perfect, but it showed you how funny she naturally is. I had saved like six quotes throughout, and I could have used any of the ones that came out of Hervor that could reflect her story, but I couldn’t see this post without sharing what Eydis has upon coming to Yrsa and Hervor.

After I had finished, I immediately went on Amazon and grabbed both the next and third book of the series. And I hate to say that it took me to four days to write this post and but they’ve currently sitting in my Kindle; I didn’t want to get any of the information confused once I began reading the second book, so I had to wait it out, which was tortuous, but I’m done here so I’m off to find out what happens to these wonderful characters! PS: I’m currently in the middle of “Under the Hunter’s Moon” so I’ll have the second review finished at the end of April.

Have you read “Shield-Maiden: Under The Howling Moon” by Melanie Karsak yet? If you have, who were your favorite characters and scenes? What other Viking books can you recommend to anyone out there?

Book Review: “The Bratva’s Heir” by Jane Henry and Sophie Lark

Hello.

I can be easily influenced when it comes to books. Sometimes the cover can be enough but every once in a while, I find a book that is being shared by a favorite of mine: Brooklyn. I follow her on Goodreads and somehow I found her on Instagram and she is a lover of romance books like me, but she creates edits and shares cover reveals, deals and steals and the occasional recommendation, which is how I found out about this book: The Bratva’s Heir by Jane Henry and Sophie Lark.

I still consider myself a newbie while reading these dark romance stories, it can usually be a hit or miss, especially if any kind of mafia is involved which I know a lot of these books are–I mean this series is called Underworld Kings, which the concept is both odd and superficial in a lot of ways, that being said, I find it incredibly interesting how this series isn’t written by one author. There are over 17 books but they are all written by various women! I have the first book “”Razor’s Edge” by Mia Crawford on my e-reader to hopefully get me through these cold months a little easier! The entire series is available for FREE on Kindle Unlimited at the moment so if this book seems right up your alley, you should check them out soon. Every story is a standalone as they can discuss a different gang from each ethic background and it’s not just Italian and/or Irish. This is my second mafia dark romance where it is centered around the Bratva, which is the Russian branch and this was definitely my favorite of the two so far!

WARNING: There are spoilers below, along with some trigger that I discuss in more detail, such as bondage, rape, and regular BDSM terms!

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Prison’s a dark, bleak place.
But Clare brings me light.
My sweet little bird will be my ticket to freedom.

The first time I saw her, I had to have her.
From her big, dark eyes, to the curves she can’t conceal…
The way she can only hold my gaze so long.
The way she shivers every time I move inside these chains.
And most of all, the way she’ll bend the rules when I order her to…

I know a natural submissive when I see one.

Her degrees and titles don’t change who she is: a woman who will bend to my will.
She doesn’t know it yet, but Clare is mine.

Mine to train.
Mine to protect.
And mine to control…

taken from Goodreads.

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When I began, it had a similar backstory like when Harley Quinn meets and falls in love with The Joker, however, the main defense with this, Clare did not have any romantic feelings for Constantine when they first met. He scared her like he should have for any woman honestly! Despite the events that happen within that first day together, I do not believe she was interested in him as much as he was, and even after they make their escape and what happens at the club would technically be in a form of rape. I know she doesn’t give rise to either situation but this part was a bit difficult to pull away from the act itself.

I understand that this is one of the main factors of these darker romances, but this was my first time since reading Fifty Shades of Grey back in 2011 that I’ve been brought to a similar scene where both female characters are subjected to things they may not want to experience but yet do not voice the other person’s actions immediately. This was one of my reasons why I abandoned Christian Grey in the first place. What I want to explain is that, I immediately saw a different side to both of these characters than what I saw between Christian and Anastasia throughout reading Fifty Shades. Clare was understanding and become much more confident as we continued whereas Constantine was able to flourish as a person outside of his persona there within the Bratva.

My whole body fits inside his in our reflection. I’m fully outlined with raw, muscled, inked alpha male, and I. am. here. for. it.

When there were BDSM elements, and the book is full of them by the way!

They were almost sensual which I really enjoyed since that lifestyle seems so frightening to outsiders, myself included–even though I read these types of books, I don’t consider to know the ins and outs of this style! The one thing I do know is there it is mutual understanding between the couple, and the other’s limits so even though Constantine is definitely an alpha male in this story, he was amazingly gentle to Clare. One thing that I am also learning about these books is that the authors are trying to portray these violent people as real human beings. Who they allow into their inner circles, much less their bed, has to be understandable about their intentions as a whole and change can be accomplished in some form or another too.

Have you read “The Bratva’s Heir” by Jane Henry and Sophie Lark yet? If you have been reading the rest of the Underworld Kings series, do you have a favorite book?

Book Review: “Badd Motherf*cker” by Jasinda Wilder

Hello!

I have finally decided to go back to the beginning of the Badd brothers series. In May, I saw that this and the fourth book, Good Girl Gone Badd on Amazon for free (and then on Prime Day, I got the second book in the series for free as well!) and I didn’t expect to really enjoy the books this much but they are very funny and steamy that apparently I can’t get enough of so I’m just going to read until they don’t make me happy anymore.

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From New York Times bestseller Jasinda Wilder comes a sexy new romantic comedy.

Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, right? That’s what they say, at least. I went into that day hoping I’d get the happiest day of my life. What I got? The worst. I mean, you really can’t get any worse of a day without someone actually dying.

So…I may have gotten just a little drunk, and maybe just a tad impetuous…

And landed myself in a dive bar somewhere in Alaska, alone, still in my wedding dress, half-wasted and heart-broken.

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Eight brothers, one bar.

Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, yeah?

I kinda think so.

Wanna hear another joke? A girl walks into a bar, soaking wet and wearing a wedding dress.

I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. She was hammered, for one thing, and heartbroken for another. I’ve chased enough tail to know better. That kinda thing only leads to clinginess, and a clingy female is the last thing on this earth I need.

I got a bar needs running, and only me to run it—at least until my seven wayward brothers decide to show their asses up…

Then this chick walks in, fine as hell, wearing a soaked wedding dress that leaves little enough to the imagination—and I’ve got a hell of an imagination.

I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. Not so much as a finger, not even innocently.

But I did

taken from Goodreads.

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Jasinda has done a very good job at getting every detail to the reader, since this was the first book in the series, she made it her mission to not only create eight brothers but made sure they were all different and pleasing to your imagination’s eye, but my favorite part of how she went to describe Sebastian was to compare him to Henry Cavil, and it all started to feel very right in my brain but I just can’t necessarily picture Henry with tattoos, so technically I’m still working on it.

It’s funny, when I got the books, I just wanted to read more about these tattooed burly men. Well, according to Sebastian’s descriptions, he, Zane, Brock and Baxter are the huge, fully built, and look like it would be effortlessly to do bodily harm to someone type of guys, while the other four are lean, not a lot of tattoos, with longer hair. It wasn’t until we start hearing about Dru and her story of how she got to Alaska and ultimately met the entire Badd clan in a matter of three days that I saw the book itself in a different light.

You’re so bad. So bad for me.” “Spell it with two Ds and you’ve got it right, honey.”

As fucked up as Dru’s life was at the moment she arrives in Alaska– and it is, trust me!–it quickly does a 180 in a matter of seconds. I could say they both fell in love at first sight and I don’t necessarily believe in that shit and I still think that’s the best way to explain that moment in the bar. It was at that moment for me too, that I fell head over heels in love Sebastian too.

Sebastian sounded very intimidating in the fourth book, but now that I’ve read this one, my outlook has changed because he is an absolute sweetheart, and the fact that we get to see a big man like Bast be emotional once his brothers start showing up, it was so heartwarming! Since he is the oldest, he has really done a lot to keep the roof over his aging brothers’ heads growing up and then learn about Dru and her backstory on top of that, it was a very fulfilling story!