Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

5⭐️1🌶 I finished the ARC of Of Bargains and Betrayal by Ashley Bresee last evening.  That ending, wow, I'm still processing it.  I'm hoping some of it is a misunderstanding, because if not, then one of my favorite side characters is a bad-guy.  This was a really fun book and I really really enjoyed it.  I will be getting a shelf trophy of this one; it instantly became a favorite.  Enora Wynn is the bastard daughter of a king.  She has, for the most part, been able to skate through life without the typical expectations of a princess.  She's in her 30s and is able to live her own life and keep her own friends.  But once her father passes away suddenly her crappy half-bother inherits the crown and promptly marries Enora off to the old king of the neighboring kingdom.  Enora and a party of Odessans depart for the long and arduous journey through the Wastes to Grimmoria.  She gets a little too sloshed one evening of the journey a...

4.75⭐️3🌶 I finished the audio of Leather and Lace by Samantha Cole on my way home from work last night.  I liked this one more than I thought I would.  It took a while for me to really get into it.  The subplot hooked me and now I'm tempted to read some more in this series.  This was quite spicy, which I enjoyed and it really dove into the BDSM lifestyle.  I found that part interesting, engaging and very spicy.  This wasn't a full 5 stars for me for two reasons.  Some word choices by the author really pulled me out fo the story.  I didn't think I had ick words, but when they're read aloud to me, apparently I do.  Reason two was that I didn't love the narration on this one.  The FMC Kristen is supposed to be 26 and the female narrator sounded much older, in her 40s maybe.  The male narrator didn't change his voice that much for the other male characters and he pronounced some words a little weirdly for my taste.  Ye...

5⭐️1🌶 I finished my ARC of A Beautifully Crafted Lie by Evelyn Ash early this morning.  It was really good.  It was atmospheric and mysterious.  It follows more traditional Irish folklore concerning seely and unseely fae.  The FMC Bryndis is a witch.  But being a witch will get you reaped by the fae.  She also has a voice in her head.  It takes the entire book to reveal what that voice really is.  The MMC, Odhran, is a bastard fae prince who is very complicated; very dark, brooding shaddow daddy.  Humans and fae shouldn't be together, fae feed off humans, so there is a forbidden element to their attraction.  This is a slow burn that goes off the rails in the last few chapters.  I'm still not sure I've fully grasped everything that happened at the end.  The world building was phenomenal.  There was a found family element and the tension is the slow burn was superb.  I loved the depth of the story and witho...

5⭐️1🌶 I finished City of Lost Kings by Kristen R. Moore a day or two ago.  This one came up in my Instagram feed because the artist who did images for this book also did some character art for LJ Generous.  I was immediately hooked by the vibe description of this and saved it to my kindle library immediately.  Once I finished Sapphire Sailor's Tale I decided there was enough of a time interval before my next ARC deadline that I could read a book of my choosing.  I thought about reading The Wildborn but that book is over 600 pages so I'll save it for a little later.  This book was very good and different.  I really liked it.  The vibe description that hooked me was Atlantis meets The Mummy meets Game of Thrones.  Now that I've read it, I'd throw Treasure Planet in there too.  It's got flying ships and some steam punk elements.  It was different while still being really well written fantasy romance.  Realistically there a...

5⭐️2🌶 Oops, it appears I've been slacking on my book blog posts.  I finished the audio of Long Time Coming by SL Scott a couple days ago.  I got this audio book in a promotion Bookfunnel ran a few months ago.  I just had to sign up for the author's newsletter to get a free audiobook.  There was a selection of 6 or 7 books.  I chose 4 I thought I'd like then kind of forgot about them.  I decided to monopolize my time and listen while commuting.  I had forgotten the premise of all the books so I picked at random.  This turned out to be a super cute book and I loved it!  The narration is duel for this one, which took a little for me to get used to as all two of the audiobooks I've listened to previously have been duet narration.  After a couple chapters though, it was fine,  my brain adapted.  Both the narrators were great.   So this was a small town, brother's best friend, childhood crush, single dad, cowbo...

5⭐️2🌶  I finished my ARC of Red Runs the Blood by Angelina J. Steffort last night.  It was so freaking good.  Better than the first book which I loved, but found to be a tad slow at the beginning.  This one picked up right where 1 left off and did not slow down at any point.  I sadly can't say too much about it because I'd be spoiling so much of it.  We do get a couple chapters from Elina's POV.  Elina is Khayrivven's sister who is being held by King Ulder as leverage over Khayrivven.  Khay let's Lory into his carefully crafted facade just a little bit more.  He reveals several more secrets to her.  Lory continues to hone her powers and gains better control over them.  There is an undertone in thus book, there is something rotten at Ashthorn Ward and people are starting to get a whiff of it.  The found family is as strong as ever in this one.  Some new alliances are formed and new allies brought into the fold....