GaleMR

This year is a time of finding new discoveries while reading and challenging myself, choosing tropes I usually skip over. But Sinful crimes's blurb was a temptation, I wanted to try out. The author is absolutely new to me, a greatest unknown so to say. That means I was sold out from the start.
And I am pleased to say the reward is 100% worth it! Action-packed and overflowing with adrenaline; an endless, breath taking adventure that took me on a wild journey, like 80 days around the world, but better - because it has a fascinating glimpses into the human history through the artifacts Percy was obsessed with and Joe's in depth knowledge about them. These two men were such interesting companions while I followed all the turns and twists of the story, the ups and downs in their unconventional relationship. Percy is that kind of annoyingly loveable and temptingly frustrating characters, you want to stuff into a closet and ship off straight to Neverland or Narnia. But on the other hand, I realized, his warped moral compass, hovering into the vast grey area, neither white, neither black, reflects in a startling kind of way the diversity of people in real life, where no one is perfect and everyone is chasing their own kind of a Dream, often disregarding other people's well being in the process or using every tool in their disposal, no matter the pain they can cause or the price to achieve the end result.
And to help you seal the deal, I have to say, the heat level between the characters, their explosive chemistry, combined with their incredibly different personalities that clashed more than fit, added a “You can't be serious” kind of vibe all along the main plot line. The bedroom scenes/sorry but the bots aren't fond of the three letter word in a review/, that were a heap a lot more than that and definitely not confined to a bedroom, the refreshing originality in every element and setting, lit my Kindle app with their hot delicious unpredictability.
Last, but not less important, is the main fact I was so hooked of the story, besides the impressive world building. The descriptions - so rich and vivacious, they resembled more scenes in a movie with the great attention to each detail and extensive vocabulary that helped me live through everything happening on page.
If you are worried mystery, suspense and fast burn romance with a pinch of toxicity in one defying the logic relationship between a sweet looking priest with a dirty, dirty mind and a k*nky, know it all villain, can't co exist, than I hate to burst your bubble, but they sure did make a Grand entrance here. The name Sinful crimes just fits perfectly to the flavour of this story.

I am always sceptical when reading shorts but this time? I loved the combination between dark erotica, urban fantasy elements and strong dystopian vibe. Gavin's House of pleasure - The Unicorn's horn, isn't just a gay brothel. It's a Safe haven, a beacon of hope, the only home for the resident boys living there, who have only each other to rely on and survive.
Bad times call for desperate measures and when the call is answered, the question is, will life get better or more complicated. The plot line is engaging with a lot of spice, a grain of violence and grittiness, hilarious banter and interesting characters. I am jumping right into the next to check on Daddy Gavin and how are the boys doing. Happy reading!

I am still reeling after reading this new masterpiece of Gianni Holmes - I wasn't sure ‘till the end will I survive the onslaught of emotions that slammed into me from the first pages like a freight train. The intensity of the pacing, the brutal yet realistic colors of the detailed descriptions, the yawning chasm of so vivid emotions really threatened to drown me from the start. At the core of this story is the question of how far one would go when feeling betrayed and lied to. Clearly for our main character - Yaroslav the answer is very, very far. As someone who learned at an early age the bitter lesson of how easily loyalty can be bought and how fickle love can be, if there is any, Yaro keeps everyone at arm's length. The one time he didn't, history repeated itself. The story is so well written, Yaro's feelings so hauntingly clear, that they resonate painfully deep in the reader's soul. No one could remain a bystander to the description of such painful despair and helplessness. Yes, Yaroslav's actions and decisions are questionable at best, cross many moral boundaries, and lead to even more complications in the future. This is not a typical romance, no, far from it in fact - it shows the ugly face of what a broken trust and betrayed love can lead to. When a man chooses the darker path of revenge and seeks pleasure in inflicting pain on those around him as a substitute for what he has lost. And just when I was dreading the next twist of the story, the past came back with vengeance and with it came a miracle. A miracle called Daisy who had a nightmarish childhood filled with brutal abuse and neglect, but somehow managed to retain so much incredible kindness, light, naivety and faith in humanity in his own unique way. Even as a fictional character, Daisy is a rare and precious image of something that almost doesn't exist in real life - an innate primal goodness and an ability to find a grain of it even in the utter darkness and hopelessness. When Daisy entered Yaro's world in its terrifying toxicity, the explosion was inevitable. But after it came the change - step by painful step. From the very beginning Yaro and Daisy's Daddy - boy relationship was unusual, wildly unconventional, with a touch of taboo.
I'd recommend reading the TW because it's definitely a heavy, darker story.

A story that begins on the road to revenge and ends up being one of the sweetest love stories I've ever read.
Love could be the surefire way to your biggest downfall - Kieran Sullivan learned this most important lesson of his life the hardest way possible. After 2years in jail for a crime he didn't commit, weary, bitter and forever changed, Kieran is an ex con firmly on the war path of revenge. All bets are off, all breaks out and the only goal is taking his ex boyfriend down no matter the price and what's the collateral damage. But not everything every time goes the way you want it when a man like Finley Ashe rolls on his road and changes not only the constants but the variables in Kieran's equitation as well.
From the moment they met, at Redemption ridge ranch, where Kieran starts to work his first job after prison, both of them knew that the chemistry between them is an explosion in the making.
Finley - the horse whisperer, the sunny, adorable goofball, the clumsy elephant in a china shop who often talks or reacts before he thinks through is hiding an ocean of hurt behind his smiles, sparkling eyes and sweet disposition. He's got a thing for broken boys and every time he puts his heart in the open for them, it got stomped over and his dreams shattered and scattered in the wind. 6 months prior to meeting Kieran, he said No more, locked his heart and threw the key. Until Him!
This is well written hurt/comfort story about the price and risks of second chances, love, redemption and revenge, all of them rolled into a blanket of deep emotional revelations, buckets of laugher and touch of soul healing.
I received an ARC and this is my honest review.

These are the 2 authors whose creativity always surprises me. The way they write dark never seems so dark, triggers not so triggering and even crossing personal and moral boundaries is like a play in a fairy tale. The Dragon and his knight isn't an exception. The compelling way the story was written somehow takes away the attention from the questionable choices and moral greyness of the characters. The story feels like a comedy with darker edges and until the end is more an anti romance. Why anti romance? Because the relationship between Opal and Tristan, if we can call it that, starts with manipulation, deception and taking the free will of one of the partners. What happens when a bored and lonely dragon who has read a ton of romantic books decides to go on a quest to find his own human and Forever love!?! And what if the human doesn't want to be part of the forced on him fairytale? It gets messy, sometimes awkward with a lot of sad and happy moments thrown into the mix. I enjoyed reading this unusual story of one a little bit crazy dragon longing for his own happily ever after who just took what he wanted no matter the price and his not so dashing, definitely not dazzling knight who didn't want to be a knight. And even though the tone is humorous, the triggers shouldn't be ignored. The deception and hidden secrets put both of the characters on the path of heartbreak and facing hard truths and tragic results.

Once upon a time there were four men who came together for different reasons - yearning for home, internal insecurities, loneliness. And during the college years for some of them and early days at work for others, that sense of false security and belonging grew into an unlikely friendship, but a friendship nonetheless. The last shreds of that friendship, the struggles, failures, dreams and accomplishments of these four men - Ethan, Anthony, Chris and Jay - blend into a strikingly raw, emotionally intense and heartbreakingly profound story of how life can turn in an instant based not only on choices made, but also on external circumstances that sometimes cannot be prevented, no matter the efforts done. What made an immediate impression to me from the very beginning of the book was the foreboding sense of a storm brewing, and the tension that built as the plot unfolded. I was intrigued to see the slow unravelling of the foundation of their so called bonding, the way the illusion of something meaningful and deep between them started to dissolve and most of everything how these changes affected their lives and choices. One of the best examples was Chris, the social climber, who didn't hesitate for even a moment to use and manipulate his “best” friends - Anthony and Jay - for his own gain and to leave them behind like broken toys. Given time he would have found a way to utilise his friendship with the most delusional of all of them - Ethan- too. What the book described disturbingly well was that nothing is only black or only white but a variety of shades of grey and no one is 100% innocent.
The story reached an even darker, grimmer climax when the four were reunited in a place that held particular emotional significance for them - the cabin. It was fascinating in a deeply disturbing, emotionally jarring kind of way to finally see the reveal of a big part of the secrets between them and how much they hurt each other while chasing their inner desires and goals. It was a dark sinister game of mind manipulation and heavy dose of humiliation with the cruel bite of the promise of even more to come.

The title of the book is absolutely precise - Oblivious! Because Noah and August needed quite the push to really look at each other and see in depth. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, but the way their friendship transitioned to relationship definitely left me with the feeling of something missing. They were together as friends in all important moments of their life, but somehow never learned how to communicate honestly without holding back, always hesitant will the other understand. So the red flag in their friendship was the communication. August and Noah were the typical neighbouring kids - growing up together, going to school together, hanging out together most of the time. They even built a successful business together. And all of this in the span of 25years. The Key word here is Togetherness! Like 2 well oiled cogs in a machine, they were seamlessly working in synchronisation but when it came to personal interaction and intimacy, the synchronisation was gone. They tried to fool around in their teen years which ended badly because of the mutual lack of experience. And somehow these attempts put an invisible barrier in their interactions, unspoken distance and the proverbial elephant in the room anyone of them ever talked about. In the eyes of their friends and families though, they were the perfect item, the ideal couple, years before they found the courage to delve into their feelings and untangle all the hidden emotions, longing / for Noah/ and insecurities. I enjoyed the originality of the idea about sending inappropriate msgs in the most inappropriate time - it was like their own secret language. The banter was also great fun to read. Once August decided to go all in, he definitely forgot the brakes and was a force to be reckoned with in showing Noah how precious and cherished he is/and the numerous marriage proposals didn't hurt the incredulity of the situation either - August was relentless /
Overall it was a pleasant, low angst book with elements of office romance and found family trope in addition to the main line - friends to lovers.
I received an ARC and this is my honest opinion.

So dark, dark, dark, it was pitch black dark. Actually if there is a need of synonim of dark, black and twisted, it has to be a book of R. Phoenix and Adara Wolf. I love stories for morally grey characters and morally grey choices and this one delivers spades of extraordinary, deliciously filthy and twisted mind games, perfect for everyone who loves to delve into the dark. This a magical fantasy world where 2 thieves - Myth and Callan - set on their own paths, chase their goals - ruthlessly, without remorse and the hindrance of inner moral dilemma. And while Myth is a skillful street tug, who steals money, magical artefacts or jewels to survive and feed his mother's gambling addiction, Callan is far more interesting and complex - he steals memories to feed the darkness that is part of his immortal nature of a shade. Both of them play elaborate game of dominance and submission that is an additional delight while I was reading and following the main plot...

Joel, ah, Joel - this little, rowdy, impish, cheeky, smart mouthed rascal had to wait the end of the book about his friends Eli and Noah's /Breaking the stallion/ so he could shine bright in his own book. And he really stole the attention from the start of The Bulls and their boy and kept it till the end. There wasn't a single boring moment while I was reading and laughing at all the antics. But alongside the witty banter, there were a lot of other meaningful moments, creating and strengthening bonds between Damon, Burke and Joel, finding their groove, building up trust and learning - learning curve for Joel how to be a submissive, learning for his 2 Doms how to handle such a creative, mischievous, fiery ball of energy as Joel, learning for the 3 of them how to exist as an open triad and navigate their complex relationship.

This story managed to perfectly combine the serious and the enjoyable into breathtaking and heart-stopping moments that held both the warmth of friendship and the power of love and the impossible to deny sexual attraction.
And to top it all off, we had the pleasure to see the kink retreat Burke, Joel and Damon built on their ranch as a safe haven for like minded people. Sooo, lets the shenanigans explode now...

Do you love bikers, cowboys and a wild ride? If so, this is your book - a dash of danger, a delicious bite of kink, a hint of the unexpected and a lot of heat, everything rolled in a brand new beginning for Noah and Eli. I was thrilled to see how everything will play out. For both of them wasn't easy to put their hearts and trust on the line a second time. But in the end, it paid out and they built a strong, loving and wholesome relationship.
I saw the birth of this book, every step of the way which made it even more special to me. I loved every second of reading and now I am waiting to see how the bond between Noah and Eli will expand and develop in the next installment as well as the next adventure.
I received an ARC for honest and fair review.