Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

5⭐️2🌶 I decided to participate in Mer-May and picked a book off my TBR.  I'd been planning on reading this one for a while now so this was the perfect excuse to move it to the top.  Oh my goodness, this book was phenomenal, I absolutely loved it.  It's a Hades and Persephone retelling essentially.  It covers some very deep themes that are cut with humor and a sweet MMC.  The FMC, Cindi, escapes her abusive marriage by stabbing her husband in the neck.  She flees the US and makes it to China after stealing proprietary microchip information from her deceased husband.  His powerful rich crime family comes after her.  She keeps moving around and eventually winds up in Indonesia.  The MMC Ordus is a Kraken.  He's a mutant Kraken though who has alot of human features.  When I read the blurb for the book I assumed it was going to be fantasy, but it ended up being contemporary or urban fiction taking place in present day. ...

5⭐️4🌶 Sometimes you just need a spicy fast paced reverse harem book with no annoying tropes and a low stakes plot.  This book was perfect.  I was in the mood for some well written spice with a decently believable reason three men would want to share one woman.  When Summer learns her ex-boyfriend Aiden is back in town three years after they mutually called it quits she asks him to come over.  He does and he floats a very unconventional proposal by her.  They both regret breaking it off.  Aiden and his two business partners are super busy jet setting successful people.  The three of them realized they don't have time to devote to three women individually but they would have enough time for one if they shared her.  It would take finding the right open minded woman who could work remotely so she could travel with them.  Aiden immediately thinks of Summer.  One of Aiden's business partners is Ryker, his best friend, who also alw...

April was a record month for me.  I read 8 books total and 5 of those books were ARCs. I read over 1000 more pages this month than I did last month.  My average book length was about 100 more pages.   I doubt I'll have another month like this.  I find these statistics interesting but I'm not making this a competition.  I did find that 5 ARCs was too many.  I'm trying to be more careful about how many I apply to and when those books are being released.  I think two or three a month is doable for me.  I want to be able to put enough energy in the promotion part.  I am greatful to these authors for allowing me to read these books so its the least I can do to help launch them at release. All the books I read in April were enjoyable save one.  I didn't care for Hunted by the Demon's Vow.  I have a detailed post about so I'm not going to dwell.  Time has not really softened my opinion either....

5⭐️2🌶 I've gotten a bit behind on my reading posts.  I finished Scripted Fate by Aeva Vox a few days ago.  This one is book 2 in the Bound Across Realms series.  I read the ARC of 3, loved it then read book 1.  I've been meaning to read this one and finally got to it.  It was good.  I liked it but not quite as much as the other two books.  I think the pacing was a little wonky or the storyline didn't resonate with me quite as strongly, or it was just me.  The perils of being a mood reader.  I still very much enjoyed it and it tied the gap between book one and three very well.  They are officially interconnected stand alone books but it really makes more sense to read them in order.  They are quick at about 250 pages per book, really the perfect weekend read.  All three are a cozy fun time.   This one follows Abby and Khari.  Abby is a human living in the human realm, our realm, in California.  S...

4.5⭐️3🌶 I finished the ARC of The Betrothed by Vira Wade.  This one comes out 4/30/26.  It was a good solid story and I enjoyed it.  Aeryn is a half-human half-elf princess of the Unified Crown.  Her marriage to the Orc chieftain of Clan Druin seals the peace treaty.  She is forced into this situation by her father, however Khaeric has volunteered.  He believes in the treaty and wants a better way forward for his people.  The Orcs are Highlanders and speak with very obvious Scottish Highlander accents.  This gave me series Outlander vibes and I absolutely loved it.  The humans and elven have been propagating terrible misconceptions of the Orc people.  Aeryn expects primitive monsters but finds Khaeric and his people kind, patient and talented craftspeople.  She slowly begins to acclimate to her new surroundings and her new husband.  There is an undertone to this one as well.  Humans are prudes and overly conce...

5⭐️2🌶 I finished reading the ARC of this one last evening.  I stayed up too late to finish it, but it was so worth it.  This one blew me away.  I was hooked by this story from the beginning.  Elorie is a human living on a freezing cold island devoid of magic.  She tends to the dead Fae prisoners and human dead from her village.  One day during a rebel attack in the village she flees and runs into the Fae prison thinking that the Fae rebels won't chase her there, but they follow anyway.  She stumbles her way through the dark corridors of the prison and comes upon a mysterious Fae who then saves her from the rebel attack suffering a fatal wound himself.  Elorie can't just let him die.  She somehow resurrects him with powerful magic.  Magic that not only she shouldn't possess but magic that should not work where she is.  News of her impossible feat gets back to the king and she is summoned to him.  She enters into a b...