Monday, April 12, 2021

A Wolf After My Own Heart by MaryJanice Davidson book review


Well, heeeeeeelllllllooooooo Oz Adway, our sexy wolf shifter accountant. Oz has recently decided to dabble in investigating social work cases of cub shifters, which is quite the departure from accounting. As you can expect, his first case is a doozy. Readers will be introduced to Lila Kai, an ordinary “stable” (human). However, she doesn’t even flinch at the idea of there being a shifter community, so there is something obviously unique about her. As the story starts, she is moving into a cursed house and takes in a wearbear cub. Totally normal, right? Oz is tasked with finding the cub and it’s also a bit of a test to see if he has what it takes to be Interspecies Placement Agency investigator. This book is a great follow up to Bears Behaving Badly, where we first meet Oz. 

In this world, weird is the norm. If you like paranormal romance with lots of humor than this book is for you. Davidson has a talent for the strange and the weird being funny. It’s unexpected to crack up during a suspense arc, but it totally happens in these books. It’s what makes them unique. It’s definitely more focused on the mystery and a bit less on the steamy romance, but there is a happily ever after. I would argue that Lila totally deserved getting something good in life and Oz is just the man to be with. One of my favorite details about Lila is that she drives a decommissioned ambulance and people kept mistaking her for a real EMT. So, she did go and get EMT training, but didn’t do it as her job. It was kind of a backup because of what she drove. 

The mystery part of the story is about trying to dismantle the shifter trafficking ring. There are kernels of truth within the story about racism and supremacist groups. They are not in your face, but are the foundation for the shifters going missing. This book is fun, with enough action and suspense to make you keep reading well after bedtime. If you love shifter paranormal romance, this series is for you!

Meant To Be Immortal by Lynsay Sands book review

Are you ready to fantasize about a hot, nerdy immortal (aka Vampire)? Well, Mac Argeneau just might be the book boyfriend for you. Mac is a hematologist doing research on blood for Immortals. Totally makes sense if you have immersed yourself in this world before. If you have kept up with the previous 31 books in this series, you will know that the family trees are huge and intertwined. Mac is one of Basil’s 23 children and he has been on his own for a very long time. Sands does not disappoint on the bedroom scenes, but I would say that this was a bit more of a slow burn because Mac was trying to woo CJ and not just surprise her with the whole Life Mate story. I mean, wooing is super romantic. It gets even better when the rest of the family steps in to “help”. Readers will recognize some of the family members from previous books, but you could jump right in without knowing all the details from their backstories. They are funny and determined so a few of the scenes will make you laugh out loud as they try to help with the wooing. 

I think you will like CJ’s character. She is a former police officer who is now an investigator of the police. She does the detective work when there is a complaint against a police officer. Because of that, she is not very well liked by the officer or the department she is investigating. However, she is called in to investigate a local arson case because that particular small town does not have enough police to take care of it. It just so happens that it’s Mac’s house that caught on fire. He had just moved in and he barely escaped. In fact, it would have been impossible for a human to escape such a devastating fire. So, now she has two investigations to conduct in the same small town. 

I love the Argeneau world and I keep coming back to read all the new releases. I enjoy the author's style of writing and the humor sprinkled throughout the books. I also love the sexy scenes and the great chemistry that all the couples have. Nothing better than a happy ending! I highly recommend this series, especially if you want to escape into a bit of fantasy set in the real world. I just read somewhere else today about a STEM romance and I sort of laughed at that term. However, I think I would consider having a lab and being a hematologist fits right into the Science and Technology part of the acronym, so maybe we label this a paranormal STEM romance???

Then There Was You by Mona Shroff book review


I think you will fall in love with these characters. The featured couple is Annika and Daniel. Annika is a kindergarten teacher and moonlights at a bar. Daniel is an ER nurse practitioner and flight medic. Both work a lot to compensate for other issues going on in their lives. It’s clear that Annika and Daniel have some serious chemistry going on and you can’t help but root for them to get together. Annika’s family is trying to match her with Sajan, who is a doctor. Daniel is still coping with a divorce. There is a lot going on, but it’s all very realistic and maybe not so far removed from what the average person deals with. 

I thought this book was going to be a light hearted romance romp, but it turned out to explore issues of racism, miscarriage, school shootings, grief and there was some violence. It was most definitely a tear jerker, several times over. I wasn’t expecting that, but I couldn’t put the book down. It was engaging and I really wanted these two to get to that happy ending. I love the connections that grew from the secondary characters. They were quite well developed. The dialogue flowed smoothly and the setting was well described. I recommend this book for when you are in that emotional mood and don’t mind shedding a few tears.