Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

6⭐️2🌶 I've gotten exceedingly behind in my blog posting.  I had to rapid fire read several of these books to make the publication deadline so everything else went by the wayside.  Smoke, Mirrors and Misdemeanors was exceptional though and a cozy joy to read.  The MMC, Ark, is a total green flag.  Reserved, quiet, private but fiercely loyal to the scant few people he's let into his inner circle over the years.  He falls first for the FMC and falls hard.  Cassia is a Kitchen Witch, which in this realm puts her pretty low on the totem pole.  She's also the mixed daughter of two orphans, so she doesn't have a family name with clout either to help her out.  She's the caretaker of an orphanage.  One that cares for mixed blood children.  It is the orphanage her parents called home and where they met.  Cassia is a baker and owns The Witching Flour.  The profits from the bakery are what keeps the orphanage afloat.  A d...

5⭐️2🌶 Starshipped is book 3 in the It's Definitely Not Aliens series.  I didn't have enough time to read books one and two prior but I was able to figure out what was going on well enough and I loved this book.  As soon as I get caught up with ARCs, which will be soon, I'm reading the other books.  This one was alien/human romance and it was great.  Sky is the alien, Raven is the human.  She's an anthropology student and winds up getting an ancient alien map downloaded to her brain.  Evil killer robot aliens are after her for the map.  Sky and his alien partner Bast are Pladians and are stranded on earth.  There's also a secret government agency after all of them.  Rae's best friend Amelia comes into play in this book.  She and Bast are like oil and water and their interactions are hilarious.  Sky and Rae have caught feelings for eachother and they're both trying to deny it because Sky and Bast will be leaving once they...

5⭐️🫑 I've gotten behind on my blog posting.  I had some looming ARC deadlines so I ploughed through three books in only a few days.  So first off, Fount and Fortune by Mickey Schoonover.  I received the ARC of the second book.  I read the prologue and about a page of the first chapter and decided I really needed to read book one to know what was going on.  I'm glad I did.  This duology is amazing.  It's an alternative history dystopian set in a Fascist Dictatorship in Florida.  A governor appointed by the Spanish government during colonization of Florida back in ~1516 stumbled on the fountain of youth.  He declared himself the Conquistador and kept control of the Fount.  He used the healing abilities of the water to become immortal basically.  Florida became the Empire Eternal and the book takes place more or less in present day 565 years later.  The FMC, Evangeline, is a farm worker who lives and works on the Conq...

5⭐️2🌶 I finished my ARC/ALC of Blood of Truth and Traitors by Aria Ashbrook a couple days ago.  They kill off one of my favorite side characters so it's taken me a couple days to wrap my head around the book.  It was phenomenal even though it was soul crushingly sad.  It picked up right where book two left off.  Rose and company discovered an Issen city in the mountains.  I don't want to get into it too much because of spoilers but the entire book takes place in and around this Issen city Isthyr.  Rose "travels" via her Raven sight abilities to check up on Kay, Jonas and William.  She's also able to see some other key pieces of events while in raven form.  She discovers a ton of information about her lineage, all key plot points and the gang find out there is a prophesy to boot, because of course there is and Rose is basically the chosen one.  She has to go through a trial of sorts in this book.  It is meant to teach somethi...

4.5⭐️2🌶 I finished my ARC of The Reaping Rose by Eva Simmons a couple days ago.  It was good.  My original plan was to reread the first book, The Hanging Heart before this one but I just don't have time.  I remembered virtually nothing from the first book, other than I enjoyed it.  This was a solid middle book in a trilogy.  It completed some plot arcs, then blew open a whole new can of worms.  An even badder bad guy, potentially, was revealed at the end of this book.  We got to see a good amount of Wilder and Elorie together, happy and having extremely hot nooky, which is always a treat IMO.  Several side characters got more characterization and two characters started their own love story.  At least I hope it ends up being a love story.  Once my plate isn't overflowing with arc obligations I plan to revisit these books and give them the attention they deserve.  The writing is great and the existential implications that...

5⭐️1🌶 I finished my ARC of The Last Fury by Talina Arden.  It was phenomenal.  It's a little hard to describe as its a dark dystopian urban fantasy romance.  It had traditional fantasy creature elements like Fae, Vampires, Warewolves, Witches and Demons.  It was also set in a near future dystopian city with modern technology and terminology.  It seems as though the magical world pushed its way into "ours" at some point and although humans are aware of the magic most of them try to avoid it.  Magic weilding folk also keep to their own parts of the city as do the humans.  The FMC is an EMT who works graveyard shift and has done so for the last eight years.  Sera has been feeling a power growing for the last few months.  When the book opens she has just utilized her power for the first time.  She has no idea what it nor how she's done it.  Her and her shad partner take another call.  In this alleyway while attending a...