What's on the Reading Radar? #rejectedmate #WishList #TBR #Read

Lots of reading and writing going on this week, which makes it a typical week. 

Last week I'd asked for recommendations for the rejected mate trope on my FB group and timeline and in one of the RH groups that I'm in. There was a twist though. I want a story where the MC didn't return to the mate who rejected them. No @hole redemption arcs.

You would be surprised how hard these are to find. That trope is usually about forgiveness and second chances, and you can find them everywhere with a simple search of "rejected". I've read a few of them myself, but many times I find the redemption arc lacking and I still hate the @hole. Here lately, my reading mood really wants the rejected mate trope with "no take backs". I want the mate to find a new life, love, and be happier without that toxic relationship. So I asked.

A lot of the MM romance recommendations didn't quite meet my request since most had redemption arcs, though I think that I'd read all of them accept perhaps two before. The request in the RH group got more hits, enough that I'll probably have enough recs from them for a second post.

Title: Omega Reclaimed

Series: Omega Reimagined

Author: Tanya Chris

Length: 101 pages

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / Gay

Notes: This was one of the ones that met my requests. I've seen this off and on for a while but mood and anxiety had me putting off reading. I'll be digging into it this weekend. :)

Blurb: "Of course I smelled him—smelled him and was drawn to him. Rich, ripe, male omega—not far away and well into his heat. Unsatisfied heat. I laughed, realizing that in this moment, at least, the omega was the boss of the alpha. I needed to help him."

Angel, an alpha who's left the violent, strictly hierarchical rules of his pack to find success in the big city, and Leo, an omega on the run from his abusive alpha, are thrust together to satisfy Leo’s urgent heat-lust. But can a once-hurt omega ever trust an alpha to care for and protect him again? And can an alpha sensitive to social injustice learn to enjoy his naturally dominant nature?

Angel and Leo must both face the pasts they ran away from before the two can build a new future together. They may not be able to change the laws of nature, but they can change the language of love.

Omega Reclaimed is a MM alpha/omega shapeshifter novella.

Content warning: this book includes references to past physical abuse and a description of suicide. This is not an MPREG universe. None of the Omega Reimagined stories include MPREG

Title: Unforgivable: Tale of a Luna
Series:  (Not Quite An Alpha)

Author: Leona Page

Length: 479 pages

Genre: Erotic Romance /  Paranormal / MFMM / 

Notes: This is an interesting series. I started with the first one, Teague's Breeder, which is a rejected mates with a redemption twist. I liked the difference but there were a couple of things that Teague did that grated and I'm still conflicted over it. 

Unforgivable was really great, though. Set in the same world, this is basically a plot of "how does a pack implode". It's a train wreck and it's impossible to look away. The alpha of her pack made one decision that had a domino affect and the author gave us his POV (even though he isn't a MC) so that we could see how his pack started to disintegrate.

Lyri experienced a great deal of trauma because of her alpha. It was really terrible, she barely survived and took weeks to recover. So take the trigger warnings very seriously. Though that scene happens off page, there is mention of it periodically, and it is heart wrenching.

There is a crossover with Teague from book one and Carmichael from book three. I tried to read book three because I liked the twins from book one. I thought I was prepared. Carmichael was called out a couple of time by Lyri for being mysoginistic, I thought I could deal. Nope, I couldn't. Carmichael's book is a redemption arc but I couldn't make it to the redemption part. I wanted to throat punch him for how he talked to Cassie and she just took it and let him do whatever because of the mate bond. Honestly, she might have really liked it but I didn't get back to her POV to find out. And with Mattie being an omega too, I just couldn't. I thought about skipping it and reading the last book in the series because I really liked Inuit in Unforgivable. He wouldn't be stupid and reject his mate, but I'm still peeved at Carmichael's book. I thought I had a couple issues with Teague, yeah, Teague is a complete saint next to Carmichael. I tried convincing myself that the read would be worth it if Teague kicked Carmichael's butt--like a lot. (Cassie and Mattie are Teague's adopted pups). But I still can't make myself.

Boy, I had a lot to say, didn't I?

Blurb: A Reverse Harem Wolf-Shifter Erotic Romance.

Lyri is a rejected she-wolf, but only she and her mate know the devastating truth. Her pack lives in ignorance of their alphason's betrayal of his truemate. Instead, his choice is celebrated and loved. Fiercely determined to gain her place by her mate's side, Lyri fights with everything she has... and fails spectacularly.

Her mate's father, the Alpha, declares Lyri nulla venia, unforgivable, and sentences her to suffer a brutal punishment under the Moon.

Lyri would have died, but three males take her to their home to heal. Now, Lyri must make a decision, does she stay and choose to belong to these males, or does she flee to live alone in the wilderness?

Her decision will have consequences that she never imagined, but she is already unforgivable. Can she finally win her battles, and become the she-wolf she was meant to be?

Warning - This story contains mature subjects including sex, mention of sexual violence, violence, and language.

Title: Her True Alpha

Series: 12 Sectors, 3

Author: Isoellen

Length: 110 pages

Genre: Romance / Post Apocalyptic / MF

Notes: This sort of fit the bill. This is an Omegaverse but not a typical one, which is usually my cuppa tea. Here, Omega's contract with Alphas. Her alpha breaks the contract after a couple of things happen and Phee goes back to her parents house. There is a slow reveal about what Phee was raised to believe, and with the rejection of her alpha, Phee now has a bit of clarity and is seeing her parents with new eyes.

Phee's sister bonded with an alpha of a different sector and she's coming to visit, bringing with her an unbonded alpha who will change Phee's life.

I liked this right up until the end. This is the third book in the series and I was thinking about reading book one and two, but now I don't think so. It's not that anything bad happened in the story. The world is interesting and the reveal came at the right pace to keep me interested. But it just stopped after all the claiming happened. There was a lot more story to tell. The king was visiting. She needed to tell her sister what their mother did. She and her mate needed to face the parents and move back to his territory. We get none of that. It just stops and made me wonder if the first two books just stopped like that. It was unsatisfying even though the two got their HEA. I might convince myself to go back and read the series from the beginning, it just depends if it keeps bugging me.

Blurb: Phee was a proper Omega.

She’d done everything society expected of her–Obeyed her parents, married an appropriate choice of Alpha, tolerated his infidelity.

And what was her repayment? To be cast out by her husband in favor of his pregnant mistress.

With their marriage contract canceled and her reputation in tatters, Phee’s future seems hopeless.

Then, the most unexpected suitor appears… Right as her long-absent heat begins.

~*~
Her True Alpha is a side novella set in the world of the 12 Sectors, featuring the secondary characters Phee and Alreck, and features a HEA for the characters involved.

Title: Shameful

Series: Rejection Island

Author: May Sawson

Length: 254 pages

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / RH

Notes: This was suggested in the RH group and I'm keen on the revenge part of the blurb. I'm reading it this coming weekend. 

Blurb: I’ve had a crush on Lucas Harley, the alpha’s son, since fifth grade. So when one moonlit night reveals Lucas and I are fated mates, I think I’m lucky. I have no idea my happy life in the Northwoods pack is about to crumble.
Lucas isn’t the only one drawn to me. When I’m attacked by a stalker with supernatural powers, I do everything I can to save myself… and I accidentally reveal my abilities to the human world.

Lucas rejects me. My pack turns on me. And I find myself kidnapped by surly shifters and taken away to Reject Island, where the unwanted—and unstable—wolves are both abandoned and guarded, until they can prove themselves worthy.

My stalker is still out there, still hunting me. Now he thinks I’m an easy target. But I’m determined to redeem myself by destroying him.

And as I get to know my grouchy but gorgeous guards, I realize I need more than redemption.

I need revenge on not only my stalker, but Lucas and the pack who wronged me. And I need a second chance at love.

Shameful is a standalone reverse harem romance that is part of the Reject Island shared world, which can be ready in any order. If you don't enjoy rejected mates, cocky shifters, snarky heroines and hot scenes, back away now.

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

What's on the Reading Radar?

 What's Up? Nothing much here. Just a week that went by too fast and not fast enough. I'm sorely tempted to buy a couple of family sized bags of Doritos and just eat them in my back yard and bird watch. Weird, I know.

Title: Bad Blood

Series: (The Godbearer Book 1)

Author(s): L.C. Davis

Length: 336 pages

Genre: Romance / Friend to Enemies / Paranormal / Vampires /

Notes: So this was an unexpected surprise. The enemies to lovers trope (in this book its enemies with benefits out of necessity) isn't something that I normally read just because I'm a bit on the unforgiving side if they are truly enemies have done horrendous things to each other. This promised vengeance and I was hoping the MC would find something better. That last is not in the cards it seems but the devil in me loved the vengeance. I was like, "Oh, man, he is really going there." And I didn't blame him one bit. I kept reminding myself that this was supposed to be a romance, but I would have still kept reading it with glee if he demolished everything. I seem to be in a blood thirsty mood. There is no doubt about how he feels about these four. I know that there is going to be a redemption arc (I really wished the hunter for him, but is not to be, at least in this book) and you can see thread of it with a couple of characters but there are some major road blocks when it comes to betrayal, trust, and something else I can't say without giving away spoilers. 

Even though there is going to be a possible redemption (there should be lots of groveling & something huge to make up for what has happened) I'm going to read the next book. I absolutely loved the unforgiveness toward Alex (I mean, really loved and enjoyed every second of Alex being rebuffed and ignored. Imagine all the evil cackles coming from me--loved.) but that also means I probably won't like his redemption arc.

A plus in this story's favor is it's not an ABO world though there is mpreg.

I haven't read LC Davis before and I might look up their backlist to see what else they have. There is a light cliffhanger-not cliffhanger. You see it coming and it's not stressful.

Blurb: The bitch is back.

It's me. I'm the bitch. And thanks to my traitorous bestie Sarah's vampire cult having a funny definition of "virgin sacrifice," I'm back from the dead rather than back from a much-needed vacation in Cancun.

Now I'm possessed by their snarky deity, and my afterlife depends on keeping it a secret from her cult of four reincarnated vampire lovers. Budget Edward—I mean Cyrus—and his way more obnoxious twin, Cameron, are at the helm. Then there's Sam, the guy I thought was my friend, who apparently takes backstabbing way too literally. And because things just couldn't get any shittier, my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend Alex is involved. Ex-alive, that is.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold, which is perfect considering the frosty new powers at my disposal, but I think I took it a little too far. When my plan goes sideways and all I get is the attention of a hunter, the cult doesn't try to kill me a second time. I fall under their unwanted protection instead, and they claim I belong to them now—body and soul. And it turns out hate—and heat, which is a whole new experience for me, just like being with a guy is a whole new experience for them—spices things up.

Are enemies with benefits a thing?

Author's note: This is the first book in an MM Vampire Romance series that follows the same main character with multiple love interests. He won't have to choose between his men to get his HEA, and there is eventual male pregnancy in this series. This book ends on a cliffhanger, but not a distressing one.

Title: Jinxing the Warlord

Series: Coletti Warlord, 15

Author(s): Gail Koger

Length: 174 pages

Genre: Romantic Elements / Alien Romance / Action-Adventure / 

Notes: I have never read any of these in order and it hasn't mattered. My introduction to the series was book 6 and I still cherry pick which ones I want to read. Some of them I will probably never read and it won't affect what I do.

This is an alien romance so it has the trope's typical features of an alien race that has lost its females and now steal human women for mates. In this series, it's humans with psychic abilities and the women are all related in some way (large Jones family). None of them are wilting flowers, they are devious, do what they want though they usually choose the male pursuing them, and collect strange creatures/beings along the way.

This one has some super cute and fluffy moments. Jinx quickly collects an extended family of sentient creatures/beings and I loved them all, especially the spider-scorpion beings. There's also a cute winged crocodile-centipede being and a baby dragon. Oh, and can't forget the baby cthulhu-like being. Caleb is alright for a Coletti.

Blurb: My name is Jinx Tuva. To say my early childhood was rough is putting it mildly. I grew up on the isolated mining world of Cygnus. The population was a whopping three thousand. Loneliness was my constant companion. I dreamed of having friends, meeting new species and traveling the galaxy.

Turns out Fate is one twisted bitch. She granted me my wish. It’s hard to feel lonely while caring for the three feisty, alien children I had rescued. To make things even more fun, a bad-tempered Coletti War Commander has decided I’m his. As if. Okay, he does have a great ass and his kisses are pretty awesome, but bossy doesn’t even begin to describe him.

Mallox, the most hunted villain in the galaxy, is doing his level best to take the children from me. My psychic powers are unique, but are they enough to keep the kids safe? Maybe. The only way to guarantee their safety is to mate with Caleb Jones, the sexy War Commander.

Title: Infinite Bond

Series: 

Author: L. Rose

Length: 415 pages 

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / Poly / Slow Burn

Note: This author is a hit or miss for me but I really like poly PNRs. Plus it's a standalone.

Blurb: With three hearts to worry about, as well as my own, time will tell if I’m up for the task.

I’ve always been normal. Okay, maybe more of an average guy, who’s quiet and awkward. Just someone who’s trying to survive living in my trailer while dodging my mom’s debt collectors.

Everything changes when a power within me surfaces, and my eyes are thrown wide open.

Humans aren’t the only ones who walk the earth.

Read that again, but slowly. I know. I can hardly believe it either.

There’s more. With my newfound power, I’m expected to attend a college to learn how to use my slightly terrifying and temperamental telekinetic ability, a power I apparently should have received when I was a kid, not at twenty-one.

Throw in my new roommates and my brain threatens to overload while my heart can’t figure out who or what it wants. All my traitorous heart is sure of is that it’s greedy and beats far too fast when any of the three not-completely-human men are around.

Not that my wanting will do me any good. There’s Cade who hates me, Zeke who’s super nice and understanding but way out of my league, and Hyde who’s as scary as he is quiet.

I have no idea if I’ll survive the changes, but I really want to. Just wait and see for yourself. As soon as you meet these guys, you’ll understand and see our undeniable connection. Just be warned, nothing but death will stop me protecting my hearts.

Note: this is a standalone, slow burn, paranormal romance for adults only.

Title: Omega Reclaimed

Series: 

Author: Tanya Chris

Length: 101 pages 

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / 

Notes: I've been wanting to read a good rejected mate story where the rejected gets on with their life and leaves the pond scum behind. This was recommended to me and I'll probably read it this weekend.

Blurb: "Of course I smelled him—smelled him and was drawn to him. Rich, ripe, male omega—not far away and well into his heat. Unsatisfied heat. I laughed, realizing that in this moment, at least, the omega was the boss of the alpha. I needed to help him."

Angel, an alpha who's left the violent, strictly hierarchical rules of his pack to find success in the big city, and Leo, an omega on the run from his abusive alpha, are thrust together to satisfy Leo’s urgent heat-lust. But can a once-hurt omega ever trust an alpha to care for and protect him again? And can an alpha sensitive to social injustice learn to enjoy his naturally dominant nature?

Angel and Leo must both face the pasts they ran away from before the two can build a new future together. They may not be able to change the laws of nature, but they can change the language of love.

Omega Reclaimed is a MM alpha/omega shapeshifter novella.

Content warning: this book includes references to past physical abuse and a description of suicide. This is not an MPREG universe. None of the Omega Reimagined stories include MPREG

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

What's on the Reading Radar? #WishList #TBR

It's bee an alright week. I was sick last week and thought I was free and clear for this week but I was kidding myself. Caught some extra sleep and watched what I ate because nausea would pounce when I least expected it.

I'm rereading again (Murderbot). Surprising, yeah I know. Just so unexpected. :) So, I'm going to post about what I have waiting for me on my ereader.

Title: Relativity

Series: (Lateral Parallax Book 1)

Author: Carole Cummings, Andrew Q. Gordon 

Length: 416 pages

Genre: Magical Realism / Urban Fantasy /  New Adult / Gay / 

Notes: 

Blurb: We’re not alone. There are an infinite number of universes and no two are the same.
For Nathan Duffy, life involves several truths—he has an iron grip on his talent, he will never walk again, and he will never stop putting his best friend Camilo Almenara ahead of his own well-being. In a world where talent can kill or save, Nathan’s nearly did both at the same time. When a drunk driver T-boned Cam’s car, Nathan lost control of his talent. He saved his best friend and nearly killed himself.

Nathan thought the accident that left him with lifelong mobility issues was the worst pain he would ever experience. He was wrong. After years bottling up his talent, it finally breaks through. The hallucinations he experiences induce pain beyond anything he’s felt. It also means he is a danger to everyone he is close to.

For Cam, life has its own truths. Nathan only had the power to save one of them, and he chose his friend. Cam walked away without a scratch, but the guilt is never far. He’s spent the years since the accident taking care of Nathan—or at least trying to. Now something is happening to his best friend and Cam can’t help. So he goes to the one person who can--his father, Colonel Caesar Almenara, a walking legend whose talent has no equal. And who also refuses to help.

If Cam and Nathan don’t find a cure fast, Nathan will quickly find himself drugged, drafted, and shipped off to war. Desperate and angry with his father, Cam takes Nathan to the one person he thinks can help, a friend of his deceased mother who helped work on a top secret military project that could be behind Nathan’s condition. A project Cam’s father led.

When Cam’s father tracks them down, Nathan is out of time. He offers to go quietly, but the Colonel has other plans. One that includes the other personality that keeps taking over Nathan’s mind. If the Colonel succeeds, Nathan has a chance at a better life. If not….

Title: Swept Away

Series: Rabbit Hallow, 1

Author: Amy Bellows, C.W. Gray

Length: 176 pages

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / Mpreg / Gay

Notes: I've not ready anything by Amy Bellows before, but I love the sweetness of CW Gray. I reread her Hobson Hills and Blue Solace series all the time. 

Blurb: Tru Willis refuses to feel sorry for himself.

Sure, he’s a barren rabbit shifter who has to spend his heat alone every year. And of course, he’d love to have a mate and children of his own. But he’s too busy nursing wild animals back to health and babysitting his cute nieces and nephews to feel lonely.

Until someone starts leaving gifts on his doorstep. Sweet, handmade gifts that make Tru feel special and treasured. The gifts all smell of alpha–an alpha Tru has never met face to face.

One day Tru finds a letter on his doorstep instead of a gift. In it, the alpha requests to help Tru through his heat. He even leaves a photo of himself, and he’s breathtaking.

But the stranger doesn’t offer anything else. Just one heat. Just a handful of days, and then he’ll be gone.

Can Tru handle giving himself to a man he won’t be able to keep? And if he can’t, does he have the willpower to say no?

Swept Away is shifter romance set in the omegaverse with MPreg, knotting, and nesting. It’s book one in the Rabbit Hollow series.

Title: When He's Ruthless

Series: (The Olympus Pride Book 4)

Author: Suzanne Wright

Length: 370 pages

Genre: Romance / Paranormal / 

Notes: I'm a little behind on this series. I'm in the middle of book three. There's nothing wrong with it, I'm just in that rereading mood that has been hanging on since January.

Blurb: Blair Kendrick was just twelve-years-old when she stared into slate blue eyes and sensed that her world was about to change. She’d known down to her bones that the broody alpha cat shifter was her true mate. For the past six years, Luke has watched over and supported her. When she turns nineteen in a few months’ time, he’ll officially claim her and she’ll then join his pride. Or that’s the plan. Knowing her parents are extremely opposed to it, she isn’t surprised when her mother attempts to derail it. But the recent discovery on her porch comes as a shock, forcing Blair to face that she’s become the focus of a predator that lurks in the darkness and now intends to close in on her.


Not even the most ruthless of men are without a weakness. Luke Devereaux has only one: a fierce, lethal bush dog shifter who is also his mate. Before Blair, his mind was a place of endless blackness. She gave him purpose, peace, and balance. It’s finally nearing the time he can make her his, and he’s done playing nice with her interfering parents. But it turns out that they’re the least of his problems, because Luke isn’t the only one who has been watching and waiting for Blair to grow. There’s another who believes he has a claim to her. Someone who has so far kept to the shadows. Someone who is proving difficult to unmask. Someone who has already shown he’ll do anything to possess her. Even kill.

Title: Nightmare's Dance

Series: Dream Bound

Author: Dakota Brown

Length: 

Genre: Romance / Urban Fantasy / RH

Notes: I jumped the gun on this one by a little bit. Dakota wrote the series about the pizza shop exorcist that I liked and in one of the groups she had a cover reveal and I grabbed it thinking that there would be a preorder. oops. Not yet, it seems. Pre-order is going up on June 15th.

But the premise, I want to read that. The wedding you had with your friends when you were four was real. 

Blurb: Playing pretend isn’t as innocent as it seems when your “imaginary” friends turn out to be all too real.

Running wild in the woods with three amazing friends is a great way to grow up. Even if my parents think they're made up. Everything is better with them by my side—hide and seek, pirates, wedding...

Twenty years later, I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I travel all over the country with my circus troop and our aerial silks acts are always sold out. Time stops while I'm in the air, and I live for every daring performance of aerial skill with my best friend and lover, Geraint Knight.

That all comes to an end after our last act of the season. Bloody Mary herself forces us through a mirror and drops us into the world of dreams and nightmares. My captors claim I'm the princess of Nightmare after my childhood "wedding."

And my princes want me back.

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!