Knitting, Sci-fi and other stuff...

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....

4⭐️ 1🌶 I finished The Sapphire Sailor's Tale by Julia Lovely last evening.  This was a solid debut novel.  I'm assuming this is a standalone; the story arc was completed.  It was short at just under 400 pages so it was a pretty quick read.  Cordelia the FMC is a junior officer in the Navy.  She is on her first tour aboard a ship.  She is running herself ragged doing her own job and going through all the training a new officer is required to take on as well.  When the ship enters the Bermuda triangle Cordelia starts feeling odd, like she's being pulled toward the ocean floor.  During the swim day Cordelia is pulled by that force down to the bottom of the ocean. She assumes she should be dead, but she wakes up in a completely different world.  She finds herself in a castle built into the walls of a cavern with lava streaming down the walls.  She steps out onto the balcony attached to her room and comes face to face with a fire...

4.5⭐️1🌶 I just finished The Merrow's Wrath by Mallory Wanless.  It was a good.  It's a second chance romance where the FMC is the pirate captain of The Merrow.  Cressida fled her abusive past 15 years ago and made a life for herself at sea.  Now she's stumbled across her first love the MMC Tristen aboard one of her abusive grandfather's merchant ships.  Instead of letting Tristen go with the other crew members of the ship she pillaged she decides to abduct him.  He recognizes her immediately.  After she fled her life 15 years ago her grandfather faked her death so Tristen though she was dead all these years.  He never moved on though, and is still in love with her.  He immediately wants to rekindle their relationship.  Cressida has been through a lot in that time apart and she must navigate the expectations of her crew and the all the memories her proximity to Tristen dredges up for her.  She starts having panic attacks...