Cards on the Table by Josh Lanyon (5 Stars)

Nov13

Highlights of this story included the addictive writing style, being inside Tim’s head, and Jack’s character. I always find it intriguing when an author can say so much with a single sentence. There were just enough bits of information to make sure I understood the character better. Although the romantic interactions were light, the way Jack continued to go out of his way to help Tim spoke volumes. The murder mystery, which took place decades earlier, was interesting and had plenty of fun suspects. The revelation of the murderer and the motive made sense.

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Drinker Class X by Sasha Miller (3 Stars)

Nov10

It’s a new world, where humans co-exist with drinkers–people who must drink blood to survive.

Drinkers that go rogue, by attacking and turning other humans, are hunted down by the Department of Drinker Control. Laurence Wickes was a member of the DDC, until he was attacked and turned into a drinker. Now he needs to meet with a psychiatrist to determine if he can join society again and under what circumstances.

The author built an interesting world with drinkers and humans living together somewhat comfortably with each other. There are a lot of rules for the drinkers to follow, including getting classified in order to determine what rights they’ll have. Laurence was a good cop who is now forced to figure out what he’s going to do with his life after being turned into a drinker. He develops a crush on his psychiatrist, Dr. Ira Ashdown.

Ira has a secret that ends up putting him and Laurence into imminent danger. Although the two of them are locked up together for a few days, they didn’t spend that time getting to know each other better. This definitely made the story more of a mystery than a romance. Although both of the characters were likable, I never developed any kind of emotional connection to either of them. If more time had been spent on dialogue, instead of detailed descriptions of clothing and surroundings, it would have worked better for me. In the end, it was an easy read with some new concepts.

If you’re in the mood for a paranormal mystery, along with a light romance, this is an enjoyable story.

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Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
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Heart Knot Mine by Lily Velden (5 Stars)

Nov8

Noah finds out in a very unique way that he is gay. As he and Robert develop a friendship across the world, while living in each other’s homes, Noah also begins to falls in love with Robert. Although a bit slow to start, with a tad too much descriptive details of items that held no interest to me, the connection I eventually developed with Noah and Robert was very deep. The majority of the story is Noah telling us everything as opposed to us being a part of watching it happening. While this usually doesn’t work for me, it’s hard to argue with the results.

Once hooked, I couldn’t put the book down except to dab my eyes. I became emotionally invested in everything that happened to Noah and Robert. There are a lot of masturbation and voyeurism scenes in the story when the two aren’t together, and several steamy sex scenes once they hook up. The story builds up to some moments that are heart wrenchingly beautiful and poetic.

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Originally reviewed for Swept Away By Romance. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
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Raising the Rent by J.L. Merrow (3.5 Stars)

Nov6

Told only from Nathan’s POV, this was a cute romance. The story was a bit sad because Nathan was dirt poor, trying to go to college while working the streets, and then he gets physically assaulted. Stephen, Nathan’s professor, takes him in, but they never really have any serious conversations to make me understand why they were together. The ending was also really abrupt, which would have worked if I had believed in the relationship.

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