Something To Talk About: July Reading #Bookshelf

I spent the majority of this week at a family reunion at a camp/RV resort near-ish to Kansas City, Missouri. The cabin was cute and came with air conditioning (thank God) but we spent the days outside in the sweltering heat and humidity. This was the first road trip we have taken the dogs on. Dyson acted better than I thought he would. My meet & greet Hoover, not so much. With so much strange, Hoover thought everyone was a threat to us and it took him time to understand we were just fine.

I wasn't sure if I should be annoyed or relieved that the WiFi for the resort only worked occasionally. Between that and the poor cell service in the area I barely got on social media. I missed seeing what friends were up to, but honestly, the rest of the negative crap I didn't miss at all. 

I've been home all of 36 hours and I practically hopped back into editing Releasing Chaos after the suitcase was unpacked. I'm going on another trip this coming Thursday (no husband or dogs this time) and I need to get the book to beta readers before I leave.

In the meantime, here's the fun post about what I've read this month.

Pirate of Fathoms Deep is the second book in Megan Derr's Tales of the High Court. Lesto the pushy, bossy second to the High King has met his match in Shemal.

Shemal is a... recovering pirate, trying to turn over a new leaf when a couple of idiots kidnapped Lesto and dumped him on Shemal's front lawn. These two have a history that can either complicate the matter or make the situation one of serendipity.

This was a fantastic read that I've reread more than once and made me smile. Love Lesto and Shemal together. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

I've read and loved everything by Lyn Gala and so when I noticed Deductions on Loose ID's coming soon page the count down began. 

This is an urban fantasy where the world knows there is magic and magic wielding people. A peaceful balance is precarious and in order to police the magic population there is a branch in the FBI that employs a Talent team, including a non-magical human. 

Darren is that human and he's fallen in love with the team leader, the shaman Kavon. The only problem is they can never have a intimate relationship because shamans have to have certain kind of magical partner to balance their power. As a plain old human, Darren doesn't meet the requirement, but that doesn't dampen Darren's feelings. But not all is what it seems and as things unfolds the story gets better and better. There is a complexity to Gala's worlds that always captivates me. Her characters are relate-able even though the setting is fantasy. The next book, Derivation, came out while I was melting in the heat. I'll be taking it with me on my next trip. :) 

I don't read many contemporaries. I need a balance between the romance and a plot arc that isn't about the relationship. I need other things to be going on.

To be honest, I bought this one because I liked the cover and then I forgot about it. I was going through my kindle and it kept coming up. I went back several times to reread the blurb, see-sawing back and forth about whether I wanted to try it. July was the month where for every good book I read, I set aside six that weren't for me. I hate wasting my reading time because I only have so much in a week's time.

Once I started Absolution, I was captured. Shadow group of assassins that deliver vigilante justice? Awesome. Jonas, is the target with a questionable background, but for some reason the assassin, Mace, can't pull the trigger. A former Navy SEAL, Cole, who is looking for answers about his sister's death throws a wrench into the situation. The story totally delivered on the promise laid out in the blurb. I devoured the book and jumped to the next two. 

Salvation and Retribution are about different characters, but the people from the prior books play a part in the stories. By the end, I still couldn't get enough. I searched through Sloane Kennedy's backlist and cackled with glee because there was plenty of stories to choose from. Reading up on her stories, I found they were all interconnected through cross over characters and I chose a couple to start out with. But I'm really, really looking forward to the next installation to the Protectors series. Since Retribution came out earlier this month, it'll probably be a while but with her nice sized backlist I can catch up on her world.

F*ck Forgiveness is a re-release. I read the original version awhile ago and loved it. When I read more word count was added, I bought the new version.

I liked this just as much as I did the first time I read the story. It's short but was able to pack a punch without leaving me feel as something was skipped over. I'm thrilled there will be more in the series.

Along the shifter vein but leaning more towards sci-fi is Maze For 3. Set in a post apocalyptic world that has made contact with aliens. The cities have a great amount of advanced technology. There the aliens live along side the humans, not quite fitting in. 

Even though the land outside the metro areas are practically wastelands, people scrape by making a living. Miah has his degree and a plan to change the lives of the people but is injured right before he has to go home. The two aliens he met want to help him, hoping that Miah will fall in love with them. But they have secrets and Miah's dreams sit on the precarious edge of failure...

Great story and I look forward to the second book in the series. 

I read the first book to the series last year. I developed a soft spot for a side character, the little troll Fred. Life happened and when I turned back around, there were another six books out in this series. Seriously, that some fast work. I read through them this month. Different kinds of shifters from gargoyles to squirrels, this series runs the gamut of the familiar to the not so familiar with a light quirky humor. Plus the whole series is menage(+). Yay for me! 

Besides Fred remaining a side character through the series, the human from the second book, A Dragon's Destiny became another favorite. I found Samuel to be adorable. With Vincent and Desmond at odds because Desmond doesn't want to have a mate, the... I want to say Samuel's sweetness but I'm not sure that is accurate. Samuel is naive and innocent and is the glue that brings Vincent and Desmond together. This series is mpreg so the less dominate mates do get pregnant in each book. In this one, I was shocked into laughing out loud because I didn't expect things to go the way they did. This is a fun and quirky humored series that I've really enjoyed. A Dragon's Destiny is one of my favorites because of, you guessed it, baby dragons and Samuel. Plus there were times through the series the Fred really rocked.

This is one of my favorite series that I own in all forms, ebook, paperback, and audio. Well, not audio for Cosmic Inception because it just released, but I will.

I'm thrilled to finally get the story of Nick and Fieo who've been dancing around each other for the last two books. I loved how different Nick was from the other humans and how hard Fieo worked to care for Nick. There is a lot going in with this plot that kept me on the edge of my seat and cussing when I had to put it down because my reading time was over. Poor Jason, I kept insisting it was time for him to go to bed because I wanted to read more of my reward. (yes, there are some days that the rewards I give to myself help me get through the work day. :) ) I loved this from beginning to the end and I hope there is more to come. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the list. Everything here I'd highly recommend. I supposed I should get back to work. :)

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!