I'm having one of those 'where did [insert month or season] go' weeks. I spent the majority of the week reviewing and editing so that I could find spots to insert character development scenes and kept getting sucked into the story and had stop and go back to re-review. With so few new words added, it feels as if I should still be on Tuesday, not entering the weekend.
I've read-read a lot this week (the majority of my book consumption is audio so that I can do other things while listening. Not this week though.), most of which didn't make the radar because I don't put things up here I wouldn't recommend. But there are times I read books that have issues (i.e. plot holes galore, wait where was the consent, why are you going back to the vampire who explained NOTHING, wait you're not suddenly gay but bisexual) and instead of DNFing, I'll finish the book/series (that series I completed because I wanted to see how the bad guy plot arc finished up). Mainly it's because I'm a mood reader and sometimes I cannot find what I'm looking for. I don't do this for long because I my reading time is precious. But for some reason I stuck it out with some of those not-recommending stories. BUT I did read a couple of gems.
Series: The Dragon's of Serai
Author: Amy Sumida
Length: 369 pages
Genre: Romance / Fantasy / Enemies to Lovers? / Gay
Notes: This was a pleasant surprise. There are no triggers in this expect possibly violence, which, hey, Assassin plotline. There is a mystery to solve and I did guess it long before the characters wised up, but I didn't mind. The way this was written I think the reader was supposed to put the pieces together first. :) I put a question mark on the trope because they are/aren't enemies. Lock doesn't hate the king but neither does he have any particular emotion for the king. There were a couple of times I laughed out loud because Lock has the right kind of snark and attitude in startling moments. I like that Lock wasn't suddenly this good guy who dropped his criminal ties. I really enjoyed this and if it comes out in audio, I would totally buy that too.
Blurb: My life changed the day I tried to take his.
Mhavenna is a glorious city but, like every city on the face of Serai, it's run by Dragons. As a human, I'm on the lowest rung of the racial ladder here, as far from an illustrious Dragon as I could be, and I've made me peace with that. I don't like Dragons much, but like or dislike has nothing to do with my work. So when my broker offered me the task of killing the Dragon King, I took it. It was the sort of kill that could make an assassin's career, and I was certain that I had the skills for it.
I was wrong, nearly dead wrong.
The King caught me before I could finish the job, but instead of killing me, he made me his. I'm now the Dragon King's assassin. A warning and a weapon. A way for him to bypass his own laws without personally breaking them. But that's not all. He's tasked me with guarding him against future attacks. Who better to stop an assassin than another assassin? And who better to find the one who hired us? If only the King didn't have a body that made me salivate, a face that made my knees weak, and a pair of teal eyes that made me whimper. If only he didn't stare at me with those stunning eyes as if I could be more than property to him. Maybe then I could do my job, find the person who wants him dead, and save my own life. But I don't believe in miracles.
Mhavenna is a glorious city but, like every city on the face of Serai, it's run by Dragons. As a human, I'm on the lowest rung of the racial ladder here, as far from an illustrious Dragon as I could be, and I've made me peace with that. I don't like Dragons much, but like or dislike has nothing to do with my work. So when my broker offered me the task of killing the Dragon King, I took it. It was the sort of kill that could make an assassin's career, and I was certain that I had the skills for it.
I was wrong, nearly dead wrong.
The King caught me before I could finish the job, but instead of killing me, he made me his. I'm now the Dragon King's assassin. A warning and a weapon. A way for him to bypass his own laws without personally breaking them. But that's not all. He's tasked me with guarding him against future attacks. Who better to stop an assassin than another assassin? And who better to find the one who hired us? If only the King didn't have a body that made me salivate, a face that made my knees weak, and a pair of teal eyes that made me whimper. If only he didn't stare at me with those stunning eyes as if I could be more than property to him. Maybe then I could do my job, find the person who wants him dead, and save my own life. But I don't believe in miracles.
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Title: She Who Became the Sun
Series: The Radiant Emperor Duology, 1
Author: Shelbey Parker-Chan
Length: 408 pages
Genre: Fantasy / Non-Binary?
Notes: This was a book suggested for a BOM in a group that I'm in and I've looked at it a couple of times. I finally picked it up this week when it went on sale.
Blurb: To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything
“I refuse to be nothing…”
In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
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Title: Talismaker
Series: Stray Magic, 2
Author: Megan Derr
Length: 32 pages
Genre: Romance / Fantasy / Gay
Notes: A quick, sweet read.
Blurb: Since losing his arm and being discharged from the army, Millé has been struggling—for money, for work, for a home. Though he is a highly skilled talismaker, his 'devil eyes' keep anyone from hiring him.
Then he saves a man from a footpad, and in gratitude the man takes him home—where Millé finds far more than the warm meal he was promised…
Title: A Cursed Legacy
Series: The Bestiary Book, 1
Author: Kaye Draper
Length: 468 pages
Genre: Romance / Paranormal / Poly
Notes:
Blurb: My family is dead and gone. But they left their grimoire behind. Now it's my job to free the powerful magical beings trapped in the pages. I might just find a whole new family…if they don't kill me first.
I was just a kid when my family was executed for starting a magical war, forcing me to live my life in the human world, far away from the judgment and scorn of the magical world—and far away from the weirdos who want me to tell them all my dangerous Lovell family secrets. But when a cursed grimoire containing enslaved magical beings falls into my lap, I can't continue to avoid my family's craptastic legacy of pain and suffering. Now, thanks to the nagging of an annoyingly moral ghost, I'm off to free the powerful (and pissed-off) creatures in the bestiary.
I'm nothing like my horrible family. But my newfound attraction to dangerous magical beings who could murder me without a thought… yeah, that might indicate otherwise.
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Title: The Ghost in the Hall
Series: Beyond the Veil, 1
Author: KM Avery
Length: 472 pages
Genre: Romance / Paranormal / Gay
Notes: I came across this series through book 3, which caught my attention with its blurb. For some reason, when I saw this series before, I thought it was mainstream romance. It's not and I sent myself a sample. It sounds like something that I would love.
Blurb: Something is very wrong with the Fitzwilliam estate...
It was supposed to be a regular séance job.But from the minute I met an angry ghost in the hall, I knew there wasn’t going to be anything ordinary about this house or its dead residents. First of all, there were way too many of them. Second, some of them had been helped along from living to dead. Third, my attempt to figure out what was going on got a bit sidetracked when I met the gardener.
He was tall, dark green, and handsome.
And really, really smart. So I hired him to help me figure out what was going on. And that’s when things got interesting, in more ways than one.
I think I’m falling for an orc, and that’s making it really hard to concentrate on doing my job, but if I don’t, I’m going to be in a whole heap of trouble.
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