We’re 250 days into this year, and I’ve read 115 books so far. It’s less than I normally read, but it is what it is. These last fifty days, I’ve read a few MF stories, a few non-romance stories, and I’ve reread a few of my own stories to see if a sequel is in order.
Of the MM books I’ve read, these were my favorites:
The Reanimator’s Heart by Kara Jorgensen
I have a sweet spot for necromancers.
Oliver has two secrets. One, he has been in love with the charming Felipe Galvan for years. Two, he is a necromancer, but to keep the sensible life he’s built as a medical examiner, he must hide his powers. That is until Oliver finds Felipe murdered and accidentally brings him back from the dead.
But Felipe refuses to die again until he and Oliver catch his killer. Together, Felipe and Oliver embark on an investigation to uncover a plot centuries in the making. As they close in on his killer, one thing is certain: if they don’t stop them, Felipe won’t be the last to die.
Beautiful Beasts by Eliot Grayson
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Eliot Grayson’s Mismatched Mates series, so I decided to give this a try. Do you like dragons? Give it a go!
Most people run away from ferocious beasts, not headlong into their beds…
Threatened with an arranged marriage to a cruel lord who despises him, Aster claims the protection of the one man no one will dare to challenge: Sir Corin, disgraced dragon knight…and the man Aster’s sister betrayed so publicly that he fled the court for a gloomy, isolated mountain hideaway.
But Aster didn’t plan to be stranded there with one bed between them—or to give in to years of longing and beg for the monster’s forbidden touch.
Corin’s no one’s hero, not anymore—especially Aster’s. But when a royal decree makes Aster the prize for any predatory knight who can defeat him in single combat, Corin can’t seem to let him go, even though he knows the price for keeping Aster forever is more than he’s willing to pay…
The beast doesn’t ever really get a fairytale ending…does he?
Deven’s mission is clear. All he has to do is convince the dragon to give up one of his magical scales. Lies, deception, seduction—nothing is off-limits. It should be easy. But it isn’t. Especially not when said dragon is so alluring in human form. It’s not long before Deven starts to want something way more valuable than a scale from his beautiful beast. But how do you convince a dragon to give you his heart when your entire relationship was built on deceit?
Fiora is cursed. Love can kill him. Literally kill him. So keeping his mind (and hands) off the devilishly handsome Deven shouldn’t be a challenge. But it is. Deven’s entirely too warm, too attractive, too…everything to resist. And spending time with the lovable human makes Fiora question what’s more frightening—the curse, or the possibility of a life without Deven by his side.
The Last Omega in the Galaxy by Lilo Quie
I normally don’t read omega stories, or it happens, but I don’t normally read Mpreg unless it happens by mistake. I was in the mood for aliens, and I saw this recommended. I enjoyed it and might continue the series.
N01-5-2, Vil, has lived four-hundred years as a second class citizen, a reptilian hybreed created from creatures from the stars who left as mysteriously as they came. Worshiped like gods, the ancient progenitors advanced humanity with gene therapy, which became their downfall, as the very DNA they relied on poisoned them. Relegated to traveling the galaxy with his ragtag reptilian crew, they set course to an abandoned military base on an old asteroid and find something the progenitors shouldn’t have left behind frozen in wait.
N03-1, Noel, sits in wait for his rescuer. Every day he puts out a single SOS call, his cryogenic stasis limited on how much his brain can process. Dimly aware of the passage of time, he sits in contemplation of his family that left him behind, the government that controlled him, and the legacy of pain and death that remains. Every day, he says the same thing. “Today will be different.” When a hybreed soldier peers at him through the frosted glass of his stasis chamber, he knows it’ll be different this time.
Zero Pucks by E.M. Lindsey
I don’t read a lot of sports romances either, but this was another book I saw recommended, so I gave it a go. I do not regret it!
Sometimes what happens in Vegas shows up at your door two weeks later to tell you that he’s the guy you married while you were blackout drunk.
Tucker:
Waking up alone in a strange hotel room, missing my prosthetic legs, and no memory of what happened the night before is not how I wanted to spend my estranged twin’s bachelor party trip.
Yet there I was, legless and zero idea how I got there. Or who I spent the night with. Which is…not great.
Though I suppose that trauma lies somewhere between losing my legs in a car accident which killed my career in the NHL, and my brother running off with my fiancée.
So, in the grand scheme of things, not the worst weekend I’ve had.
But while I’m no longer a bitter, angry man, I’m also maybe—kind of, sort of—not the most well-adjusted person on the planet. And that shows when an adorable, dimpled, wild-haired man shows up at my door to tell me that the hazy night in Vegas had a very specific ending:
At some point, after several chocolate cake shots and trauma dumping, Amedeo and I found Elvis and got married.
The easy thing to do would be to make sure the marriage isn’t valid. But when have I ever made anything in my life easy? Especially since the incentive is getting to keep this man in my orbit.
We might have had the weirdest beginning of any married couple, but now I’m feeling strangely determined to give us both the happily ever after we deserve.
Folk by Lily Mayne
This has been a fifty-day period of tropes I don’t normally read. You won’t see me read a lot of fae stories. There are some I really like, but while I’ll pick up a shifter or vampire book without blinking, fae makes me hesitate. I read the first two back-to-back, and I really enjoyed them.
I first saw the Folk when I was a little boy. When they started appearing in my garden, with their unnatural, cruel beauty and honeyed words and veiled taunts. I grew up with big green eyes watching me from the forest. Whispers from the trees. Shimmering skin darting between the bushes. Black creatures always lurking in the shadows.
While they were here, I thought nothing of them. It wasn’t until they were gone that I realise it wasn’t… normal.
But it isn’t until I’m twenty-one, when my life is in ruins, that they come back to take me away.
They say I’m not fully mortal. They say I should be among them. The Unseelie Ruler wants me on her land for reasons no one will explain to me, but it’s her aloof, painfully beautiful son who captures my attention and refuses to let go.
My mortal skin is gone.
I’m one of them. One of the Folk. And all I feel is anger.
I’m going to kill the Carlin and her sons for everything they did to me. It’s all I care about.
But first, I have to navigate this new world. My new skin. My new brother. And, when I fall into her clutches, my fae mother—the Brid. The Seelie Queen.
I don’t like what I’m becoming, but I can’t stop it. Something’s wrong with me. Something’s missing. There’s a hollow ache in my chest and I can’t fill it, no matter what I do. It’s like I’ve forgotten something vital from my time on unseelie land.
Why do I feel so incomplete? Why do I have an oath etched onto my skin, one I don’t remember making? Why is there a tiny black feather nestled in my throat that I can’t bring myself to take off?
Why do I feel so much longing every time I see a beautiful black-haired, black-eyed unseelie fae, even though I don’t remember him at all?
My life has become yet another game of cat and mouse, but this time it’s not just the Carlin and her sons trying to get me. New threats lurk, and I have to force myself into this new fae skin to be able to fight them.
Hold Me Under by Riley Nash
This has been on my TBR for a long time, but I’ve always scrolled past it, thinking I’ll get to it later. I was in the mood for some hurt-comfort, so I read it. It was… a lot. Good though.
Love is cheap. Love is cruel. Love can’t save us.
Victor Lang had everything—looks, money, fame. A chance to become the greatest swimmer in history. Until a failed dope test brought him crashing down.
According to the rumors, he turned into a recluse, a drug addict, a whore. Broken beyond repair. Incapable of love.
And for some reason, he’s set his sights on me.
A freak accident in his pool throws me into a world of wealth and status and people who are willing to do anything to get what they want. Before I know it, I’m being paid to fly to Italy and pose as his boyfriend. Trapped at his side, I learn what it means to truly hate someone.
Turns out, that’s exactly what he wants.
I can’t save him, and I can’t love him. But as things fall apart and I discover the truths he’s hiding, I learn that hate can be greater than love—an obsession, a prayer, dark days and darker nights, a need to be the only one who hurts him. Hate can heal the worst wounds love leaves behind.
But I have problems of my own, a broken spirit and loved ones to protect. And I’m scared to face the things he’s waking up inside of me.
Accidental Love by Saxon James
I read The Husband Hoax because I saw someone posting about it and thought it sounded fun. Then a few weeks later, I saw someone ask for recommendations where someone got caught cheating and the ‘victim’ got together with the affair partner. Someone recced The Revenge Agenda, and it wasn’t until I was a few chapters in and the naked roommate showed up, I realized it was in the same series LOL.
Christian
Being invited to my cousin’s wedding really shouldn’t be a big deal except, oh yeah, I haven’t seen my family for a decade.
My parents turned their backs on me and I’ve done everything since to become successful and show them what they lost. Only, it’s kinda hard to be a success when you’re a walking trainwreck.
So I’m going to fake it. Hire a guy with an online presence so impressive they’ll be desperate to welcome me back into the elitist fold, and roll into the wedding with the kind of confidence I’ve never felt a day in my life.
The plan’s a knockout.
Until my fake date cancels minutes before the ceremony.
Émile
One letter from my dearly departed grandfather, and suddenly I’m on a husband hunt.
He’s reworked his entire will so I’m set to inherit far more than I’m entitled to, and all because he’s asked me to use that money for “good.”
In order to get that inheritance, though, there’s one stipulation: marriage.
Even with his request, I’m tempted to stick to my original plan of getting as far from my wretched family as possible, and letting them fight it out.
But then I run into a tall drink of scattered mess outside of a wedding who’s in desperate need of a date, and the pieces click into place.
I help him, he helps me.
Marriage, money, then go our separate ways.
Easy.
Now all I have to do is stop myself from actually falling for the guy.
Rush
When I show up to surprise my boyfriend in a barely-there festive outfit, I’m expecting him to be alone.
Not hosting family.
His fiancé’s family.
Down one boyfriend and up a lot of embarrassment, I flee with my tail between my legs. The broken heart will fade. My humiliation, not so much, but my saving grace is the fact that I never have to see either of them ever, ever again.
Until I walk into work and come face to face with my new boss.
Hunter
I never, in a million years, would have guessed the man hiding under his desk at work would be the one person I hoped to never see again.
My ex-fiancé’s side piece.
Apparently I can’t fire the guy because of personal issues, so I try to play nice, which is a whole lot harder to do when I find out my ex is still texting Rush. The same ex I haven’t heard from since I walked out on his begging.
Rush tells me he didn’t know about me. He tells me there were others. He also tells me our ex still wants him and so, we come up with a plan. To show him what it feels like when you want someone who doesn’t want you back.
All we need is a camera. His number. And one shared kiss.
Revenge has never been sweeter.
On the Land, We Shoot Straight by Sasha Avice
So… I liked this, but there is cheating, and also, bisexuality is real. The whole ‘I have sex with both men and women, but the men don’t count, I just use them to get off since I’m not gay’ pissed me off. I did enjoy the rest of it, though.
“I ain’t no expert on what gets a man spooked.
But I reckon if you ever wanna talk on it, well then…
I reckon I’m all right at listenin’.”
Grady’s been running his ranch and farm just fine on his own since his daddy died. But when young Jesse Cole blows up on his porch, Grady hesitates before sending him on. There’s something in the way Cole turns to leave that makes Grady want to pull him back in.
There are murmurs in town about the kind of boy Cole is. The kinds of things he’s done. But as they work together and then start helping each other out because that’s just what buddies do on the land, Grady begins to feel something he’s never felt before. Something not ‘just buddies’ at all.
As the year rolls on, Grady feels himself drawn deeper into the trauma Cole won’t speak about. He ignores the warnings from his wife in the city and the gossip in town. Cole seems to think this unspeakable thing will define him forever, but the further Grady’s pulled into his orbit, the more willing he is to forfeit everyone else in his life to show him that isn’t true.
Leave by L.A. Witt
This is another one that’s been on my TBR for a long time, and since I was still in the mood for some hurt/comfort, I picked it up. I don’t regret it!
Call it a situationship, call it roommates with benefits—whatever it is, Riley Sweet is mostly fine with the arrangement. After all, he’s got an awesome off-base apartment on Okinawa, and he’s got someone to hook up with on the regular with no pressure and no strings.
The problem is that he’s starting to catch feelings for the hot, aloof Marine who’s apparently interested in very specific types of fun, but nothing else. He won’t even sleep in the same bed as Riley.
Nolan Tyler is carrying a dark secret that’s kept him closed off from everyone for years. Out of shame, fear, and self-preservation, he keeps everyone at arm’s length, including Riley.
When Nolan is asked to be his brother’s best man, there’s no bowing out. Not even when going home means facing everything he enlisted to escape.
Rent: Paid in Full by Jesse H Reign
I’ve seen this recommended all over the place but was hesitant to read it. Then I figured maybe it’s one of those I should read for the sake of having read it. I do like it when the asshole character falls in love LOL.
“You have something I want. Something I’ll happily buy…or rent.”
As if my life doesn’t suck enough already, my insufferable new roommate, Miller MacAvoy, seems determined to make things weird. He watches me all the time, grinning at me like a beautiful idiot, eyes boring holes into me every time I turn my back on him.
It’s the last thing I need. Things haven’t been going well. College isn’t working out at all like I’d hoped. I’m drowning in debt, waiting tables every shift I can get, and falling behind on my studies.
Something’s got to give.
I can’t go on like this much longer.
Miller, being the out-of-touch rich boy he is, keeps offering to throw cash my way. Obviously, I’d rather die than accept charity from him.
Still, he watches and waits. Insisting again and again that I have something he wants to buy. It’s insane. I have nothing of value to sell. Absolutely nothing. My phone screen is cracked and my truck could easily be mistaken for scrap.
Wait.
No!
Surely not.
He can’t possibly be thinking that.
Can he?
Proof of Life by Raquel Riley
I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at this cover. Many. So time to read it, right? It was a rough one, but so worth it.
Love heals even the deepest wounds.
–West
After giving twelve years of my life to the service, I didn’t just lose my leg. I lost everything, including my career. When the dust settled, the only person still standing by my side in the rubble was Brandt —the single lifeline I had left to a world I didn’t want to live in anymore.
With painstaking care, he healed my body and my mind. When he eventually started healing my heart, I realized I didn’t just need him in my life, I needed him in ways I’d never wanted him before.
–Brandt
Watching West struggle every day was tearing me apart. If he could only see what I do, he wouldn’t see flaws and hopelessness. He’d see a courageous, selfless, brilliant leader. A guy with no filter, who always makes me laugh. Someone who never asks questions before offering to bail my ass out of trouble.
He’d see the man I’ve come to love as more than just my best friend.
Ofelia Grand 