An early Wrap-Up Wednesday this month, but next Wednesday is December 1st, so we’ll just have to live with it 😊
This month, I’ve read a lot. I sort of checked out of social media for a bit and just read. I’ve read, not all but a big part of my WIPs – it was fun! Then, as I told Nell and Ally from the morning office, I didn’t have the energy to read anything new, so I’ve reread old stories. When I was younger, I never reread books, I just wanted to move on to the next one. Now I find it restful to reread stories. I know what’s gonna happen, I know it’s gonna be good, and I can skim if there is a scene I don’t like LOL
We have a sauna, and I love to read while I’m there, but you can’t bring your phone into a sauna, so I’m grabbing random books from the bookshelf. And since I’ve become wiser every time I’ve moved, I’ve stopped buying print books – they take up too much room and are too heavy to carry. But many of the books I still have in paperback are the old paranormal romances, mainly M/F. It’s The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Anita Blake, Nighthuntress, and other series. This month, I was in the mood for some Sookie Stackhouse (The Southern Vampire Mysteries). I’ve had great fun revisiting Bon Temps, and several times I’ve stopped just to tell hubby how much better the books are compared to the True Blood series. I skipped the first three books since I never was on team Bill 😆
But, my rereading frenzy didn’t stop with ten Sookie Stackhouse books. I read a few others too.
Freighter Flights (Freighter Flights 1) by Drew Zachary
I was talking to Ally (A.L. Lester) about the Claimings series by Lyn Gala and thought to myself that I’m gonna read them again. I curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea, and opened the book app on my phone – the Calimings books weren’t there. But by then I was set on reading some Sci-Fi and in the library was Freighter Flights. It’s not the same, no aliens, but it’s sci-fi smut with light kink and I didn’t mind. I’ve read it before, so I knew what I was getting into. I don’t think this is available anymore.
Will is the hot shot pilot and second in command on the Arillia, a pretty little cargo ship making runs just this side of legal. When they lose their engineer, Will goes on the hunt in spacedock for a new one. What he finds is Tab, a gruff, scarred man who can get the job done. For Tab, the Arillia is a job, a good one at that, and if the pilot makes him growl and want more than he should, well it sure beats starving. The sparks fly between them and they begin to care, whether they want to or not. If they can survive their pasts, space pirates and nearly being blasted out of space, they just might be able to survive each other.
The Claimings Series by Lyn Gala
I dug up the books, not on my laptop where I thought I’d stored them, but on a portable hard drive – I’ve changed laptop since I last read them. Still awesome! I love Ondry. I read the first three, or the first two and the prelude (which I’m unsure of if it’s still around.)
Before Liam had a new commander who openly distrusted him, before Ondry earned his ka status, there were two traders. Ye Ondry wants to earn status, and he is curious about this new human. Liam has just arrived on the planet and he’s trying to figure out these aliens who supposedly have good metals to trade. Neither of them suspects that a chance trade and a few pots knocked off a table could lead their lives and their fates to intertwine.
Note:This free story is a prequel to the story of Ondry and Liam that details how they met. As such, it’s not a romance.
Liam loves his life as a linguist and trader on the Rownt homeworld, but he has ignored his heart and sexual needs for years. After escaping the horrors of war, he wants a boring life. He won’t risk letting anyone come too close because he won’t risk letting anyone see his deeply submissive nature. For him, submission comes with pain. Life burned that lesson into his soul from a young age.
This fear keeps him from noticing that the Rownt trader Ondry cares for him. Ondry may not understand humans, but he recognizes a wounded soul, and his need to protect Liam is quickly outpacing his common sense. They may have laws, culture, and incompatible genitalia in their way, but Ondry knows that he can find a way to overcome all that if he can just overcome the ghosts of Liam’s past. Only then can he take possession of a man he has grown to respect.
Ondry and Liam have settled into a good life, but their trading is still tied up with humans, and humans are always messy. When political changes at the human base lead Ondry to attempt a difficult trade, the pair find themselves entangled in human affairs. Liam wants to help the people he left and the worlds being torn apart. He also wants to serve Ondry with not only the pleasures of the nest but also by bringing human profits.
Ondry has no hope of understanding human psychology in general, he only knows that he will hold onto his palteia with the last breath in his body, and he’d like to keep his status and his wealth too. Unfortunately, new humans bring new conflicts and he is not sure how to protect Liam. He does know one thing that humans seem to constantly forget—that the peaceful Rownt are predators and when their families are threatened, Rownt become deadly killers. Liam is his family, and Ondry will protect him with his last breath… assuming that he can recognize the dangers in time to do so.
The Whiskey Den (House of Witches 2) by Amy Spector
I read this at the end of October, but after I’d written the wrap-up post for the month. This is the second story in the House of Witches series, and I thought it was great. I liked it more than I liked the first, and now I’m waiting for book three to be written 😊
Bad things happen for a reason.
Adam Neive’s expiration date is closer than he would like, and it’s only a matter of time before he loses his position as a Ganymede counter-boy. When a friend helps him secure a part-time job at a whiskey bar, his only thought is to escape the looming shadow of the brothels. He never expected another run-in with the witch Sebastian.
Fourteen months after being booted from his coven, Sebastian has become convinced his brother’s death is connected to the wolves of the Whiskey Den. He just needs Adam’s help to discover how. But things are not always as they seem, and justice is more elusive than expected.
When an announcement from the House of Witches changes everything, Adam will need to choose between life within the safety of the king’s Monastery and the uncertainty of the city. While Sebastian will have to decide if his family’s honor and the life he thought he had lost forever is worth more than the life he’s only begun to realize he wants.
https://books2read.com/The-Whiskey-Den
The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings (Black and Blue 1) by Lily Morton
I’m almost embarrassed to say, but I haven’t read Lily Morton until now. I have a couple of books in my library, but I haven’t read them. When several people recommended The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings to me, I thought it was time. I’ve looked at it several times but always picked something else in the end. Not now, now I decided to read it, and OMG! Why didn’t I read it before?! Someone, more someones, should’ve told me it’s awesome. It’s AWESOME people! If you haven’t read it, do!
So naturally (naturally, says the woman who seldom reads more than the first book in a series *snort*) I read the second book in the series, The Quiet House, too and it was even creepier *shudder*
I really hope there will be more adventures with Levi and Blue.
Levi Black is at a crossroads. After suffering a loss and breaking up a long-term relationship, he’s looking for a change. When he receives the news he’s inherited a house in York, he seizes the opportunity to begin a new chapter in his life.
However, when he gets there, he finds a house that has never kept its occupants for very long. Either through death or disinclination, no one stays there, and after a few days of living in the place, Levi can understand why. Strange noises can be heard at all hours of the day and night, and disturbing and scary things begin to happen to him. He never believed in ghosts before, but when events take a sinister turn, he knows he must look for help. He finds it in the unlikely form of the blue-haired leader of a ghost tour.
Blue Billings is edgy, beautiful, and lost. Utterly lost. He conceals so many secrets that some days it’s a miracle he remembers his own name. He knows that he should ignore Levi because he threatens the tenuous grip Blue has on survival. But there’s something about the kind-eyed man that draws Blue to him. Something that demands he stay and fight for him when he would normally run in the opposite direction.
As the two men investigate the shocking truth behind Levi’s house, they also discover a deep connection that defies the short length of time they’ve known each other. But when events escalate and his life is on the line, Levi has to wonder if it was wise to trust the Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings.
Levi Black has mostly recovered from the events of a year ago. The only lingering effects are that he’s much more well known in York than he’d like to be, and he’s a lot more cautious about walking around his house naked. However, those events brought him the capricious and fascinating Blue, so he’s not complaining. On the contrary, he’s happy, in love, and looking forward to Blue finally moving in with him. And if sometimes he wonders what Blue sees in a boring cartoonist, he keeps that to himself.
Blue Billings is finally ready to throw off the memories of his past and move in with the person who means the most in the world to him. His psychic abilities have grown in the last year to his mentor Tom’s consternation, but Blue is determined to look on the bright side. He’s also focused on ignoring all the warning signs that he’s received lately.
However, even deeply buried secrets have a way of rising to the surface. And when a surprise from Blue’s past turns up and draws them away to a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors, Levi and Blue must fight for their survival once again.
I have the feeling I’ve forgotten a title or two – as you can see, I took a little break from being an author and reclaimed some reading time. But, I think it’s time to get back to getting things done. December is just around the corner and both Holly and Ofelia have releases, so…
5 Short stories….
Jonathan Goddard is a bear shifter with three problems: 1, he doesn’t like shifting and has ignored his bear for years. 2, his family is pushing him to find a partner and settle down. 3, he’s just lied to his overbearing mother that he’s bringing a boyfriend to his grandparents’ wedding anniversary to stop her from setting him up with random guys. The solution? Bring a fake boyfriend and pretend to be in relationship for one weekend, then go back to his happy, single, bear-free life.
The first time Caerwyn meets his mate, it ends with rejection, growling, and bear shifters…oh, my!
Derek Herman is living a nightmare. Long before he was born, the planet was taken over by a mind-controlling alien race, and everyone is affected except for him. Derek does his best not to draw attention to himself, but it’s not going well.
Ofelia Grand 