April

I really enjoyed this book. I was not expecting to love it this much because I hadn't seen many enthusiastic positive reviews. In fact, I owned this book for about a year before listening to it. Now I'm so happy to have discovered a new-to-me series and author. I won't do this book the justice it deserves with my review, but I can definitely talk excitedly about it for a bit.

This is a sci-fi novel on an epic scale, with very high stakes. Some of the plot elements are familiar, although a lot of it feels original to me. From the summary I guessed Kendi was the main character, but he's just one of several point-of-view characters. It's very much an ensemble cast, and several of the PoV characters are different from those I have usually encountered in fiction, which is always refreshing.

The prologue is quite a gripping scene. I definitely wanted to find out exactly what happened to those characters; the rest of their story does get told, but it's pretty far into the book. It was a little jarring to switch to a spaceship, with a totally different group of characters, right after that prologue. It took me a little while to figure out how they tied in with the prologue at all. I was also expecting the m/m romance to be central to the story; while it's definitely important, it's just one of many things happening. However, there were a couple of moments where I felt like Ben and Kendi's true love saved the universe, which is always great in any book! So this book very much took me by surprise in a number of ways, which I liked a lot.

Sejal's journal entries and his plotline were similar to a lot of YA novels. I don't mean that as a criticism, though, as it was done very well. I liked him and was definitely cheering for him. This book didn't feel like a YA novel overall, because of all the different PoVs. Also, Sejal has a number of very real flaws, as do all the important characters. I liked Harenn right away because she was so blunt and rude. I think her plotline would've felt melodramatic if she had been sweet-natured. I could really understand her reaction when Bellerophon was hit with the Despair. Overall, this is a really well-crafted book, with small details planted often in order to set up large and satisfying payoffs.

The audiobook narrator, P.J. Ochlan, is exceptionally talented. The characters are of different ages, nationalities, etc., and the narrator had totally distinct voices for all of them. If I had only heard Sejal's journal entries, for example, I would have thought this was an actual teenage narrator, and Kendi's Australian accent seemed great to me (although I'm American so I don't know for sure). I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and this performer is absolutely top-notch.

This is a nice, short erotic romance. It's the only one I've read in the series, and I didn't have any trouble understanding the plot or setting. But I enjoyed it a lot and may read more of these books. I've never read a published m/m/f work before, only fanfics, and I'm glad I decided to give this a try.

I really like the crisp writing style, and it's a great premise for m/m/f: in this society men bond with each other, and some claim human women as their mates. Thalia comes to the planet unclaimed; after life as a slave on Earth, she wants control over her own future. There are some difficulties with her plan. So, although I'd classify this work as erotica, there's also an interesting plot.

Thalia, Korsik, and Lox are all well-developed characters, and it was easy to see how each one needed the others. The two sex scenes (one m/m and one m/m/f) are hot, and I also like all of the detailed sensual descriptions of Thalia. The last scene is especially sweet, and I definitely believe that these three will build a happy life together.

A new favorite for me. I love the slow, gentle pace of the romance, but there is also a lot of focus on Carter finding his place in life. His state of mind in the first few chapters hit very close to home for me, so it was especially nice to read about a character I could relate to earning a happy ending. This is definitely one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year.

Almost everyone in this book is super geeky. Carter has spent his professional life as an editor of speculative fiction magazine, and his best friend Freddy is a GRRM type of guy who is in a relationship with his #1 fan. Because I've always been a sci-fi fan, I really enjoyed all the references in this book, as well as the frequent musings on the importance of sci-fi and fantasy.

It was also great to read a contemporary novel with so many queer characters. Too often in m/m, I find that there's one gay couple in a sea of straight people, which does not seem realistic. I gather that many of the side characters are from Kim Fielding's other books, so I know I'll have to read those too.

I didn't enjoy this book very much. I'm giving it two stars instead of one, because I feel like there is the seed of a decent book in there somewhere, although it really doesn't manage to blossom.

I'm an avid fanfic reader, and I've written it too. It's very easy to accidentally write characters that are too perfect. I've also read a lot of published books with too-perfect characters, and it isn't something that usually bothers me. So I don't throw around the term “Mary Sue,” because I don't really have a problem with Mary Sues, and also because I don't usually mind it when writers create highly idealized characters - especially writers who belong to and/or are portraying members of marginalized groups.

But Gib, wow. Not only is he a Mary Sue, but beyond that, I don't agree with the morals or character traits that the authors put out there as perfect and pure. Another character buys Gib time with a prostitute. Gib rejects the prostitute, partly because he feels like having sex with her would demean her, and he says something to this effect to her, in front of all of his friends. Of course it deeply moves her that someone cares enough not to have sex with her. So apparently, she goes about her daily life absolutely miserable, just waiting for a kind farm boy to tell her how much he pities her. He could have rejected her in a way that was respectful to her profession. It was hard not to contrast this scene with those in the Whyborne & Griffin series, when Whyborne, who is hopelessly prudish, interacts with sex workers and never judges them at all; no matter how uncomfortable he feels talking to them, he treats them as human beings.


This was an incredibly slow read for me, because I was constantly bored; I never felt engaged with the characters. Gib is a sort of standard YA blank-slate type of hero. I could not tell you many of his individual personality traits, other than the Mary-Sue stuff. His love interest, Joel, is painfully sweet. He's also a mage trainee, but we only see him do magic once in the entire book. Gib has a few friends, too, but they are all underdeveloped characters. The only one who gets a small amount of attention is the lone female in the group, Kezra, who is of course sharp-tongued and physically strong; it's implied that she's learning to be a fighter because her father disapproves. I rolled my eyes a lot reading this book.

Good and evil are really simplistic here. It was easy from the moment characters were introduced to know if they were evil or not, because the villains were almost all classist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, etc. It's okay if a villain is one or more of those things, sure, but it's somewhat lazy to use bigotry as a villain's sole character trait, for every villain.

The plot did not really start taking shape until about 30% into the book, and the mystery does not get solved in book one. I can't really complain about that, as I picked it up knowing it was the start of a series. But I don't want to keep reading the series.

The romance was okay, pretty much what I expected from a book with young protagonists, but it is not worth reading the book for. There are also epithets: “the mage trainee,” “the older boy,” “the sentinel trainee.” Pronouns would've made sense in all the sentences in which the authors used epithets.

Overall, if this book had been maybe a third of its length, and everything had gotten moving much more quickly, I would've enjoyed it much more and overlooked a lot of its flaws.

What a charming fairy tale. I loved it.

It's a little fuzzy around the edges in the way that fairy tales sometimes are. I guess it's meant to be a fantasy world (since several characters just accept that the Fae exist), but it doesn't really matter. Unlike a lot of fairy tales, even fairy tale retellings, Ella does take charge of her own destiny, which I appreciated a lot.

The first kiss (and the second kiss) between Ella and the princess were so sweet! Ella was a really lovable character, and I wanted great things to happen for her (and I couldn't stop smiling when they did).

Definitely a book I'll reread when I need a little cheering up. I'm happy to live in a world where books like this one exist.

This is a slice-of-life novel, really, and I haven't read another lesbian romance that I would classify that way. A lot of lesbian romances (romances in general) seem to focus on suffering, and while it can be fulfilling to read about characters facing hardships and overcoming them, I sometimes find those kinds of plots emotionally draining. This is not that kind of book at all, and it was really refreshing to read.

These women do have problems - for example, they've both been unlucky in love - but they're ordinary, surmountable problems, not horrible tragedies or anything like that. When a conflict develops between them, it's understandable, and they resolve it in an adult way.

I really like the way that all of the people who know and love Olivia and Maureen are cheering for their relationship throughout the book, up to and including the final scenes. I am old enough to still get excited when same-sex relationships are portrayed as normal, to the extent that all of the characters' friends and relatives are delighted for them. So I don't have much objectivity, because I just sigh happily at stories like this. Their relationship builds slowly and develops at a pace that feels organic. There is a decent amount of domestic fluff: cuddling and cooking for each other and things like that, as well as a few sex scenes. If you're primarily drawn to the romance aspect of this book, it's very much front-and-center.

But this book actually has a fairly large cast, and they're all interesting characters. It's written in third-person omniscient PoV, which serves the crime-drama plot well. There's excellent character development of the criminals, as well as of some police personnel (Olivia's co-workers). I admire how incisive the author's characterizations feel. I sympathize with the criminals, and the police chief, because the author shows you their motivations and personalities, and just their everyday lives. There are no one-dimensional villains, just regular people who sometimes make bad decisions.

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading sweet and realistic romance. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for future releases from A.M. McKnight!

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. This is an erotic short story in which a mage and a cyborg meet and have sex. I really liked the crisp writing style, as well as the original concept of tattoos that channel and/or enhance magic.

The mage is the PoV character; he's a cis gay man. The cyborg is a trans man, and the mage has a minor freakout when he discovers this.

I know this is just my own perspective, but I find it hard to relate to a character who reacts like the mage does here. His reaction is not terrible; he's really just hesitant, at first. But since there is not a lot of development of either character, nor a real plot, there isn't much else to focus on.The sex scene is hot. I especially liked the telepathy moment.

Overall: not bad.

I know I'm always going to find something strange when I pick up one of Ginn Hale's books, and I really enjoyed this original sci-fi noir story. It's set on a space station that orbits a black hole, and there's a lot of detail about the different levels of the station and the huge cultural differences that exist between the different groups of people who live there.

Lake Harmaa, the main character, is a tough private detective who grew up in the lowest part of the station, among a cult that ritually blinds its members. He can use a device that simulates vision, but he's most comfortable relying on his other senses. The writing really takes advantage of his perspective, with many sensory details that make the whole setting feel real.

As in other works I've read from this author, the world-building is absolutely top-notch, and the characters are very much products of their environments. The different groups of people in this world actually have different types of bodies, due to gravity changes, as in The Expanse series. There's some prejudice against Lake's people for a variety of reasons, and his own people don't like him much either. So he's had to work hard to make his own way in life.

He has carried a torch for his former police partner for many years. Their romance is not the focus of the story, but I feel it had a lot of emotional weight, especially since Lake is so hard-boiled otherwise. He doesn't always remember the good in himself, and he doesn't think he deserves a relationship with his love interest, whom he sees as a real paragon. But I definitely wanted them both to find a happy ending.

The main plot is a murder mystery, and both the mystery and the romance have satisfying conclusions. It's a fairly short book but didn't feel rushed or unfinished.

Content warnings for anyone with an insect phobia and anyone who prefers not to read about rape at all (it's not detailed and not meant to be erotic).

I've really liked all of this author's work so far, and I love pirates, so I was very excited to read this book. I enjoyed it a lot.

Gavin's father, the king, sends him on a diplomatic mission to a neighboring kingdom. The king insists that Gavin travel in disguise, which makes his trip much more dangerous. He very quickly becomes the prisoner of a notorious pirate, Marcas Drake, and they have a series of adventures together.

It's set in a fantasy world, with light (but adequate) world-building. There's a good amount of action, and it's all very exciting. But the book mostly focuses on how Gavin and Marcas change over the course of their adventures: on their feelings about each other, about their families, and about their hopes for the future. They're both somewhat introspective, and the romance is slow and sweet, and not really lust-driven, although they are attracted to each other from the start. I couldn't predict how they would find their happy ending, and it was great to see them reach it together.

This book delivers completely on the promise of its lovely cover art. It's a cozy and sweet Hanukkah romance. I don't read a lot of contemporary novels, but I enjoyed this book very much, at least partly because the main character was easy for me to identify with.

Dave is young, late twenties, but his attitude towards his family's Hanukkah celebrations has always been a little bit curmudgeonly. He's not sure Hanukkah should be celebrated in a similar way to Christmas, and he's also afraid that the gifts he can afford to buy won't measure up.

Dave is hesitant to pursue a relationship with his crush, Amit, who is the uncle of his best friend and brother-in-law. Dave's somewhat awkward around other people, in ways that reflect my own experiences with social anxiety. There is no real conflict between anyone in this story, only between Dave and his own difficulties with people. So it's great to see him become close to Amit, more comfortable with both his and Amit's families, and excited for the future.

The supernatural elements blend right into the rest of the story, in a magical-realism sort of way. I also really like the detailed Dungeons & Dragons scene, not just because I enjoy RPGs, but because it serves to show Amit's playfulness. That was the point in the story when I first felt that these two characters definitely belong together.

If you like sweet holiday reads, I highly recommend this warm and cuddly book. It has definitely put me in the holiday spirit. It also made me very hungry for latkes - I may need to make some myself. :-)

A cute and joyful holiday read. Both of the MCs are easy to like. There isn't a lot of character development, but the story does thoroughly explore the humorous premise. It's a fun and sexy short work. I definitely look forward to reading more by this author.

I'm really grateful to have discovered Nine Star Press this year. I've enjoyed all of their releases I have read, and the proofreading/editing is always excellent.

This is a short read with the same sweet and realistic feel of Goslyn County.

I can't stop smiling when I read about Olivia and Maureen. They're both very relatable characters, with ordinary concerns, adorable personality quirks, and a deep love for each other. This story could work as a reader's introduction to Goslyn County, in which they get together, although it is set afterward. It's sort of an interlude, just a little slice of life.

One of my favorite things about this couple is that they both have other people who are very important to their lives, such as Olivia's best friend and Maureen's sister, who both appear in this story; not only are these two very happy with each other, they are also part of a loving and supportive community, which is just really nice to read about. There's also some introspection in this story, with both Olivia and Maureen reflecting on their past relationships and how much more fulfilled they feel with each other. The ending is a super-sweet moment between them.

I'm glad this was the first book I read in 2017. I hope that I'll enjoy all the books I read this year as much as I enjoyed this one, and I'm excited that the author has announced she'll be releasing another book about Olivia and Maureen soon.

This is the first book I've encountered by Ava March which has something supernatural going on. It's set in the Regency era in London, but the setting is much less important here than in her other works. There also is not a lot of plot or character development - Raphael is achingly lonely, and Aleric is a little bit haughty, but he is mostly consumed with lust. The bulk of the story is introspection and sex scenes.

I really like Raphael and it's surprising that I didn't think of him badly at any point, even though he is a stalker. I think the story works so well because he is a sweet and likeable character.

There is a feeling of destiny to this pairing from the beginning, so if you like that kind of thing, I recommend this book highly.

Content warning: I dislike violence between partners in books and that is something that happens here, at the end. It's meant to be acceptable because they're vampires, but it makes me uncomfortable.

I listened to the audiobook, and I really enjoyed Alex Moorecock's narration.

I liked this story and would read something by this author again. I am writing a review not because I have anything profound to say, but because I noticed there weren't many reviews here.

It needs a little more character development, I think, although it works pretty well as a holiday short story. Both characters are easy to sympathize with: Charlie is brave and secretly longs to be needed, while Harry badly needs someone to save him. Charlie is also desperately lonely, and Harry has some doubts about his self-worth, a combination which makes the sex scenes very emotional.

The story has a good amount of atmosphere, which I always enjoy in historical romances. I could easily imagine the settings - Charlie's house, the carriage ride, and the town they travel to. I loved all the detailed descriptions.

I am a major fan of family-of-choice themes, so I really liked the solid and believable HEA.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. It's hard to rate a short story collection, but this one is somewhat uneven.

Some of these are really funny. I especially enjoyed all the stories about everyday alien contact - so insane and always slightly gross. The story about Thumbbringer was my favorite, and I also liked the Redshirts story a lot. I haven't read Redshirts yet, and that story definitely moved it up my TBR list.

But the first few stories had some humor that I didn't like. I do know this collection goes back to the early 90s, so it's not a big deal; everybody's social conscience evolves over time. Actually, there is a clever and (imo) respectful joke about trans people in one of the alien stories (the most recently written one) - it had to do with human interaction with gender-changing aliens, and that this alien species would appreciate a human's announcement of their own gender transition on the alien's official gender-changing day, although the human would need to be careful of overenthusiastic alien camaraderie. I liked that because it was portrayed as just another ordinary experience humans might have with these aliens. I mostly hide away reading only very socially conscious fiction, so it's nice to see something like that in mainstream sci-fi.

For other reasons, I didn't like the lemonade story at all - this is not nice of me, but it felt like Dave Barry, and a real-world setting felt out of place in this collection. On the other hand, I thought the one non-comedic piece at the end, a poem about Odysseus' wife Penelope, was very good, even though it was completely different from everything else.

If you like John Scalzi's humor, or silly sci-fi humor in general, you will probably enjoy this. I listened to the audio version, and I really enjoyed the author's brief introductions. It's always great to hear authors talking about their own work. All of the narrators were very good also.

I'm definitely not the ideal reader of this book, so I won't give it a star rating.

The romance involves BDSM, while the plot is sci-fi strangeness with soul-bonding. It's all done very well, but I didn't enjoy it. The BDSM aspect of it made me uncomfortable, I think because it was linked with actual slavery. Atash is a slave-owner who is half-human and half-alien. The aliens highly value public erotic performances, but he's not attracted to members of the slave race (another issue for me, a species that thrives on being slaves) that the aliens prefer. His status has suffered because of that, so when he feels attracted to Khoram, he buys him. There isn't really a consent issue, exactly - maybe dubious consent - but I didn't like it. There's quite a lot more going on with the plot, also.

I do recommend this book if none of that bothers you. It's a good erotic story, with an unusual setting.

A very sweet story. There is no conflict between Stan and Ben, and their relationship is really intimate and lovely. I definitely recommend reading this book.

I am cis but to me the genderfluid aspect of this book seems very good. I've seen complaints from trans readers that it's tiresome to always read cis partners' versions of trans people's stories, and I don't think this book makes that mistake. We don't really see Ben's thoughts on Stan's gender presentation, beyond the fact that Ben thinks Stan is beautiful. There's more focus on Stan's feelings about gender, as well as an informational moment when he explains how he feels to another character (Tone), which seems natural.

I really like the friendship that develops between Tone and Stan, and there's a nice family-of-choice feel throughout the book, with a great payoff near the end. This isn't really a book about being genderfluid or about having anorexia, either. I would classify it mainly as a coming-of-age romance, in a quiet way.

My only complaint: there are a few important things that happen which aren't actually shown, especially Stan's relapse, which seemed like a strange choice to me. Oh, and a minor thing: the blurb is pretty silly (sorry). Romance is all about characters who are supposed to be unusual in the genre, but rock stars are pretty standard. I bought this because I read the excerpt and really liked Stan. The writing quality is great.

I like Charlie Cochrane's books because I know she'll always deliver a sweet and hopeful romance, often with a lot of humor. This book made me laugh a few times. I also appreciate the way she throws my American self right into the deep end of British culture. I always end up having a great time wandering around Wikipedia and slang dictionaries when I read her books.

The main character, Dan, is a gay vicar who is still getting to know some of his parishioners. Dan is very serious about his relationship with God, yet it's just an everyday part of who he is. He seems to think of God as his friend, and his belief definitely inspires him to do good in the world. I'm an atheist, but this type of religious belief is easy for me to understand and admire, and it's also interesting to learn about. It's a much more intimate and positive type of Christianity than I'm used to encountering.

On the negative side, the character development was a little bit lacking. I'm really not sure I could describe either main character's personality too well. Also, at certain points, Dan and Steve's actions made it hard for me to like either of them. I'm not sure what was going on with the point of view; although there were a few sections from Steve's PoV early on, I think it would've made sense to continue giving his perspective as the story progressed. The plot was pretty good and was wrapped up nicely.

The ending is happy-for-now, but I can imagine these two eventually achieving a happy-ever-after together. I liked the side characters, especially Harry, and I have such a clear mental image of Margaret.

If you like this author's books, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well!

I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the first book in the series. The plot dragged at times, and there wasn't as much humor (or the humor didn't appeal to me).

But mostly, I really disliked Moira. I was thinking for most of the book that the author needs to avoid writing female characters, because her portrayal lacks depth and conveys a lot of sexist stereotypes, especially during the trip to Paris, etc. - for example, an expensive gift makes her stop being mad at Llewellyn for rejecting her advances. So, I was rolling my eyes at this badly written female character and planning not to continue with the series. Well, then it turns out that she isn't shallow at all; she was deliberately playing on those stereotypes, and Llewellyn is truly naive. But still, she really is not written with enough depth for the plot twist to feel completely believable. I also deeply dislike the idea of women as Llewellyn's weakness - as though women are always setting out to ruin good young men's plans, or something. It's impossible to dispute that assertion using just the text, though, because there are no female characters in either book other than women who have wronged Llewellyn in some way (and Barker's barely-mentioned girlfriend).

But I didn't hate this book, and I may read the next one at some point.

I don't like to write negative reviews, but I didn't enjoy this very much. I'm shocked the average rating is so high here.

It was pretty dull throughout with no real plot other than Jack and Eli's relationship and a lot of sex scenes. So many sex scenes. Then at like 75%, there was (what felt like) a sudden crisis, and Eli was in danger. Then, although I understand why it served the plot, we got two extra points of view, when up to that point it had been alternating between Jack and Eli. I don't mind extra points of view outside of the main pairing, but here it feels like clumsy structure. It would've been great to see Constance's point of view from the beginning - she has her own story in this book and is an interesting character - instead of only when the plot required it.

I really didn't feel Eli and Jack's love for each other for most of the book. They just seemed like they enjoyed having sex with each other, not that they admired or even liked each other all that much. We don't even learn about Eli's real motivations until very far into the story.

There's a happy ending, but the actual last scene really does not sit well with me. Warning for NSFW language behind spoiler tags (and spoilers).

Eli is still recovering from injuries which almost killed him. Jack gets into bed with him for frottage/hand jobs. Jack initially resists because Eli is still in bad shape, but Eli is insistent, and Jack just can't hold himself back or whatever (because of their deep and abiding love for each other, I guess). The placement of this sex scene feels disrespectful to me. The ending is all about them committing to each other, and kissing would have gotten that emotion across. Eli literally cannot stand up on his own at this point.

There was a dubious-consent moment which made me uncomfortable in one of the other sex scenes - Jack is not enjoying Eli penetrating him, and Eli doesn't stop; he just keeps telling Jack to relax, it will feel better in a moment, etc.

I was originally happy about an openly and happily bisexual character (Eli), but on reflection, he fits some awful bisexual stereotypes - he's promiscuous in a way that seems unhealthy, using sex to hide from himself and to manipulate others. He is not using Jack; his feelings for Jack are genuine, or so he says. But it almost seems like he mostly wants to keep Jack because Jack won't really commit to him, since Jack is afraid of the possible consequences of having sex with men. I don't know how a relationship survives if it's mainly based on the thrill of conquest - what happens when you get what you want? I don't have faith that these two will be happy together.

I really enjoy fairy tale adaptations so I decided to give this a try, but I didn't like it very much. The whole book is very irreverent in ways that I didn't like. But if you don't really seek out fairy tale adaptations to read, you will probably enjoy this more than I did. I think I would've preferred it as a game or cartoon, instead of a book.

I was expecting something along the lines of the Fables comics. The creator of those is apparently a horrible person, but I enjoyed reading them a lot. They had some emotional depth and interesting plots, in addition to all the references (both fun and serious) to familiar tales. In contrast, this book is aiming primarily for comedy, but unfortunately, the humor is not my kind of thing. But I laughed at the fairyland lube and protection in every sex scene, as well as the author pointing out that every main character was 18 or over. It's also amusing that Mother Goose is the deity of this world.

I kind of hate myself for the pedantry of what I'm about to say, but one of the jokes especially annoyed me. The Grimm brothers were real people, folklorists and linguists, not fairy-tale characters. Writing something that fictionalizes a historical person's life is fine, if you're upfront about it or making an effort at accuracy. The way Jacob Grimm was mentioned here, though, was along the lines of the author revealing in the end that the main character was secretly Abraham Lincoln all along, while neither his past that the author has invented nor the content of the story convey any of the details of Lincoln's real life.

I liked the last story the best - it was playful in the way it dealt with fairy-tale tropes, but didn't have any outright jokes. It's about a young man's strange erotic journey from Milan to Minsk - I mean, through fairyland. It's a well-crafted story and it was easy for me to interpret it as a kind of coming-of-age allegory: meeting people who treat you badly, falling into cynicism, and needing rescue. But there was something big I didn't like about it. At one point, the main character is about to be raped and he manages to talk his rapist out of it by invoking the power of friendship or something. It made me uncomfortable. Kindness has never protected anyone from violence.

This book is totally different from what I usually read, or have ever read, and I loved it. I think the last contemporary crime thriller I read was The Brethren by John Grisham, like 15 years ago, which was horrible and casually homophobic. But I asked the internet for recommendations of books featuring dogs; this one sounded great, so I decided to take a chance.

The main characters are Maggie, a dog, and Scott, a policeman, and the book's structure reminds me a lot of a romance novel. They both come from very dark pasts, having recently lost the person most important to them in the world - Maggie's handler and Scott's police partner, whom he was romantically interested in. They both have PTSD, they are both very lonely, and they specifically need each other, although neither knows it at first. Their bond deepens over the course of the story, until they're willing to do anything to protect each other. It's a really satisfying plot.

There are several chapters from Maggie's point-of-view, including the opening section, which shows her handler's death. The author goes into interesting detail about how a dog's sense of smell works; although I don't know enough about the topic to know if the explanations are accurate, it all made sense to me as a layperson, especially comparing it to a human's vision. Maggie is also completely devoted to her “alpha,” first Pete and later Scott, which makes for some very emotional moments. I know there is some debate on the “alpha” concept as it relates to dogs, but the concept works well for this story.

Scott is a sensitive guy, and he's very brave and determined, but he definitely has some flaws. Since his partner's death, he has lied to everyone in his life. I think part of the reason he becomes so close to Maggie is that he doesn't lie to her, although the book never explicitly states that. He does maintain her training, and sometimes has to modify his behavior to suit it, but Maggie knows that life in general is difficult for him, because she can see it - when his injuries ache, or he's nervous or afraid.

The side characters are great - Scott's love interest (they don't get together in this book) is an interesting character who is also flawed, or maybe that's just my own take on it (she gets prissy about dog hair, which I consider a flaw!). I get annoyed way too easily at the way female characters are written in fiction, and I'm happy she has a personality and substance, as well as an important role in the story. But my favorite side character is the gruff old sergeant who loves dogs. He's definitely a guy I want to pluck out of the book and spend time with, even though I am sure I could never measure up to his standards of pet ownership. Dogs need someone like him as an advocate.

The nature of the mystery was not surprising, although I did not guess the identity of the main villain before it was revealed. I recommend this book to anyone who is okay with some violence in a book - the violence isn't excessive, but we do see both of the deaths that have devastated the main characters, and Scott has many flashbacks to the night his partner died.

This was the first audiobook I've listened to narrated by MacLeod Andrews, and I really enjoyed his style. I'll definitely be seeking out more of his narrations.

This is a lovely story about a happy family. It's the third holiday short I've read from NineStar Press, and I enjoyed all of them a lot. This author was new to me, and I'll definitely seek out more of his work.

The story is sweet and fluffy and completely in the little boy's perspective, with no conflict. Howie's dad, his aunt Shanna, and Mike, the boyfriend Howie finds for his dad, all love Howie, and it feels like they value him as a person. My favorite moment shows how much Howie's dad values his son's perspective, which is just so nice:

His dad looked caught between a laugh and a frown. “Yes, Howie, we kissed.”

“Doesn't that make it a date, then?”

It seemed a long time before Dad answered carefully. “Yeah, it probably does.”

I did expect this to be hot, but I didn't expect it to be adorable. So glad I read it! Adina is a loveable dork, Rose is beautiful and funny, and their story charmed me completely. Nice ending, too.

I've been having so much fun reading Shira Glassman's shorts in the past few days, and this one is great. I've never been especially attracted to large older men with goatees before, but after encountering a character like this in several of this author's books, I am starting to understand the appeal.

I like that Noah is about my age, and his love interest is even older, as well as bisexual. I want to see so much more of all of that, in m/m. Also, even though it's very short, I think the story makes an interesting comment on the difference between expectation and reality, in attraction; I have to admit that it's easy for me to relate to Noah's flight of fancy.

Anyway, this story is cute and funny. I would have preferred it to be slightly longer, but I recommend it highly. I laughed out loud when it was revealed that Noah was even wrong about the diamonds.