Monthly Round-Up: February 2021

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Read the thing (13):

Maybe read the thing (2):

Added to TBR List:

The Alpha’s Winter Surprise – Minerva Howe

Omegaverse – Ebook Only – Novella – Self-published – Mpreg – 18+- Contemporary – Second Chances – Knotting – Fluff – Explicit

Read the thing. This was short and sweet and surprisingly angst-free for a scenario that could lend itself to a lot of angst and drama. Alyx is surprised to see Mason back in town after he (unintentionally) left him alone and pregnant months ago. He knew their fling was just that, and was fully prepared to raise his baby alone (even if this society makes things difficult for single omega parents). Mason is shocked at this development, to say the least, but to his credit he jumps into the situation with both feet. In fact, the reason he is back in town at all is because he’s decided to change careers so that he can stay with Alyx. The baby is a very pleasant surprise. This could’ve had so much potential for angst and drama, but there really was none. It was just mostly fluff (plus a sex scene) as Mason does his best to convince Alyx that he’s serious about sticking around (not that it takes much convincing). This actually kinda reads more like the ending of a story. Everything between Mason and Alyx has already happened, and Alyx is about to pop, so this is sort of like the third act. It was nice, though, I liked it. Completely drama free, just a short about an alpha returning to town to get his man and ending up with an extra surprise. And Alyx is glad to have Mason back, because he was perfectly willing and able to go it alone, but he’d rather have Mason with him. It’s lucky that Mason was so genuine in his reasons for wanting Alyx back, and that he was already planning to return to stay with him even without the baby, it made the low-angst easier to deal with. Would recommend this.

Their Blue-Eyed Boy (Special Delivery: Christmas) – Aria Grace

Novella – Ebook Only – Self-published – 18+ – Anthology – First Person POV – Established Relationship – Omegaverse – Fluff – Threesome – Contemporary – Raising Children – Holidays – Christmas – Explicit – Knotting – Paranormal – Mpreg

Maybe read the thing. Okay, I mostly thought this one was sort of boring, and then it just got really weird. So Mika and Jamie are an alpha/omega married couple living with their three-year-old daughter. It’s Christmastime and they’re all doing cute Christmas things. It’s all very fluffy, but also kind of meh. Then we start to get hints that weirdness is afoot, mostly centering around this old wooden tree ornament that Mika found in their attic. Then it’s kind of implied that Mika and Jamie are having issues with conceiving because apparently their daughter isn’t biologically Mika’s, she was sired by an alpha named Ford, who’s this mysterious guy that showed up once. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense considering Mika and Jamie’s relationship, but then Ford shows back up later and it turns out that both Mika and Jamie are into him, so that makes sense. And then things go off the rails a bit with the characters barely reacting to the weirdness and it all just didn’t really gel well for me. There’s also a threesome sex scene near the end with Mika, Jamie, and Ford, which didn’t detract from any of the weirdness. Because what. Still not entirely sure about this one. Honestly, if it weren’t for the weirdness about Ford, it wouldn’t really stand out much.

Christmas at Animals (Special Delivery: Christmas) – Lorelei M. Hart

Ebook Only – Self-published – Anthology – Novella – Holidays – Christmas – First Person POV – Omegaverse – Shifters – Contemporary – Paranormal – Mates – 18+ – Explicit – Knotting – Mpreg

Read the thing. This one was a bit confusing and somewhat meh at times, but it wasn’t bad. Hermey is a polar bear shifter living in Arizona and trying to get a party planning business off the ground. Ben is an elf with a cookie business. They’re fated mates, though they don’t meet until about halfway through the novella, at the Christmas party they’ve helped set up. They were both pretty cute, and their wants and desires complimented each other perfectly, and that helped towards me not minding them getting together immediately. A cute, sexy little story, though the setup was kind of dry.

A Winter’s Dance (Finding Forever #0.5) – Marie Sinclair

Ebook Only – Self-published – Novella – College/University – Contemporary – Established Relationship – 18+ – Explicit – POC Lead – Angst – HFN Ending

Read the thing. Despite how lovely and romantic this was, this absolutely hurt me so much. But oh my god it’s so good. Cart and Ry are college roommates and also boyfriends. They are also both deeply in love with each other, but are both scared to say those three little words to each other because of the uncertainty of their future. They’re both sure that they want to be together forever, but Ry still isn’t out to his conservative Chinese parents, and he’s not sure when he’ll safely be able to be. This story has a lot of fluff, but there’s also a heavy layer of angst over the whole thing as we see both men struggle to navigate this semi-closeted relationship they have. It’s a bit hard to get fully invested in their relationship with this cloud hanging over it. This is actually a short prequel to a much longer story, and what we know of how the main story starts just makes reading this short all the more painful. The writing in this is beautiful, and Ry and Cart are so in love and deserve every happiness, but we know there is darkness looming on the horizon. The ending here is happy, but we don’t know how long that’ll last. And neither do they, which makes it somewhat tragic. But so worth the read and I can’t wait to get into the main story.

A Kind of Forever (Finding Forever #1) – Marie Sinclair

Contemporary – Self-published – Second Chances – Trigger Warnings Apply – POC Lead – Dysfunctional Family – Angst – Mental Illness – 18+ – Explicit – Hurt/Comfort

Read the thing. MY. HEART. Especially after reading the short prequel (A Winter’s Dance) this direct continuation, though it takes place 12 years later, was a real kick in the teeth. Ry and Cart are 12 years out of college now, and both successful lawyers. In college they were hopelessly in love, until Ry suddenly disappeared. Cart has managed to somewhat get over the betrayal, and since then has found new love with his husband, only to then lose that husband to cancer, all the while becoming a junior partner in the law firm he’s worked at since graduating college. This law firm is where he finally runs into Ry again, only to find him a very different man than the one he used to know. This is a second chance romance about these two men finding their way back to each other, but man is it a hard road back. Cart is still heartbroken over losing Ry the first time, and also losing his husband and potentially losing the LGBT youth center his husband had founded. Ry is deeply traumatized and still suffering after everything he went through at the hands of his parents and their conservative bullshit. This isn’t a fluffy romance, or a happy reunion, this is a lot of hurt, hurt/comfort, and breaking through barriers to get two men the happy ending they were denied when they were younger. I had no doubt they’d get there in the end, but man was it rough. This was beautifully written, with a lot of emotions and pain and triumphs. And I fucking loved it. If I have one complaint it’s that it started to drag a bit in parts, and there was a lot of sex and sexual content, some of which seemed out of place to me (do people get aroused that often?), but that’s easy to overlook for the sake of everything else. I just loved this, even though it hurt at times. (Trigger Warning for mentioned attempted suicide, mentioned torture and abuse, discussions of conversion therapy, PTSD symptoms)

Goal Lines & First Times (CU Hockey #3) – Eden Finley & Saxon James

Contemporary – College/University – First Person POV – Sports – Asexual Lead – Self-published – 18+ – Bisexual Lead – Pansexual Lead – Explicit

Read the thing. I have so much love for this one, more than I honestly expected going in. I thought this was going to be a sports romance, instead it’s a story about two men on a journey of self-discovery and romance. And one of them happens to be a hockey player (so there’s some sports in this). Richard Cohen is a college hockey player in his senior year. After being informed that making out several times with his male best friend from high school means he probably isn’t as straight as he thought, he decides to explore this new side of himself in a quest to find love and answers. Seth Grant is a scientist working on his masters and trying to figure out why his relationships keep failing, and why his sex drive doesn’t seem to match other’s expectations. They both decide to turn to online dating, and find each other to be the most promising option. I absolutely loved this. It was sweet and funny and one of the leads is on the asexual spectrum (Seth is demi and pan), couldn’t ask for much more. The beginning of Seth and Cohen’s relationship happens over chat, which was a change and it meant that they basically started falling in love with each other before even meeting (although, it turns out that they know of each other in person). Their banter was adorable and hilarious in turns, and they really formed a real connection before things started getting sexual. And once they met in person it turns out that the sexual attraction was just the icing on the cake because they were already in it pretty deep for each other. There was minimal angst in the story, and any obstacle was overcome with communication and understanding, and I just really believed that these two were really it for each other. The side cast was also pretty amusing, and makes me interested in reading the past books in the series, along with the next book we’re being tempted with. A sweet, funny story that I highly recommend.

Accidental Detour – D. K. Sutton

Novella – Ebook Only – Contemporary – First Person POV – Humour – Holidays – Christmas – 18+ – Explicit – Self-published

Maybe read the thing. So this one was sweet, and pretty funny. It was also basically my nightmare scenario so that made it a bit hard to connect with the light-hearted tone. Four days before Christmas, Jonas accidentally gets kidnapped by his older sister’s boyfriend’s brother Zane, who is trying to repossess Jonas’ sister’s car. That somehow leads to an 11-hour long roadtrip, though it’s not all played out since this is a novella. The whole situation is pretty wacky, and you have to suspend your disbelief a bit to go along with it, but it’s entertaining enough. A lot of the humour mostly comes from Jonas’ thought process; he’s a pretty amusing character. Being in his head is a bit of a trip. And Jonas’ accidental kidnapper Zane is also pretty fun in his own way. But this was a bit too ridiculous for me. Also sometimes the humour could tip a bit into annoying. And then there were the interactions between Jonas and his family that didn’t really sit well with me. All in all, a bit of entertainment as long as you don’t think too hard about it.

The Alpha and His Ace (The Alpha and His Ace #1) – Ana. J. Phoenix

Ebook Only – M/M Romance Group – Paranormal – Werewolves – Shifters – Asexual Lead – Novella – Mates – Contemporary – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit

Read the thing. This was a sweet short novella about the alpha of a small wolf pack finding his destined mate. Brandon is a young alpha who wants to find his mate quickly so that 1) his packmates will respect him more, and 2) he wants his other half. Trolling bars and clubs has gotten him nowhere so far, apparently his fated mate isn’t into that scene, but making sure a drunk woman gets home safely from one of said bars is what does it. Aidan is a human and, as this is a world where werewolves/shifters seem to be a secret, isn’t sure what to make of Brandon’s assertion that they’re mates. Aidan is also asexual, which is something that Brandon isn’t sure what to do with, as he doesn’t have much experience with potential partners other than the sexual kind (no romantic attachments since he always knew he had a fated mate out there). The bulk of the story, which is all from Brandon’s point of view, is just Brandon learning about asexuality and what it means in the context of a relationship with Aidan. It’s all very sweet, though I wish we could’ve gotten some of Aidan’s point of view. Brandon has a bit of dilemma in that he’s a sexual person, where Aidan isn’t, but Brandon wants to be with Aidan. Of course, the fates wouldn’t match up two people who are fundamentally incompatible, so it all works out in the end. And it worked out in a way that I found satisfying. Brandon is an entertaining guy, and I thought his fumbling attempts to romance Aidan were funny. And Aidan is pretty badass, finding out about werewolves and having a mate all at the same time and taking it all in stride. And he’s also good at standing up for himself and advocating for what he wants. He’s very secure in himself and it was great. Also, this does contain sexual content.

Dashboard Lights (Millerstown Moments #1) – Jena Wade

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Mpreg – Second Chances – Novella – Self-published – First Person POV – Virgin Lead – 18+ – Explicit – Dysfunctional Family – Raising Children – Suspense – Crime

Read the thing. Loved this. This is a second-chance, secret baby romance novella between omega Oliver Stone and alpha Philip Miller. The two were determined to get married once upon a time, and then Philip’s shitbag father manipulated them apart and Oliver had to leave town. Six years later, he’s back to try to build a new life for himself and his young son. He doesn’t expect to be let back into Philip’s life, and Philip certainly doesn’t expect anything that happens, but time and misunderstanding still hasn’t managed to dull the feelings they have for each other, so it isn’t long before they’re together again in every way that matters. This was a sweet story with little angst between the main couple. I really appreciated that the misunderstanding was sorted out quickly and painlessly, and that the focus then became about the two men rebuilding their relationship and Philip getting to know the son he never knew he had. And then near the end it starts turning a bit towards the suspenseful side when Philip’s father Ian Miller, who also happens to be the town mayor, starts causing some shit (on that note, I really hope that school secretary ended up getting fired, because what the fuck) and some old secrets about his misdeeds start coming to light. This was all very sweet and I liked Oliver and Philip coming back together and creating a new family for their son (and only because the reason they ended up separated in the first place wasn’t because of any maliciousness on either of their parts), and how naturally it all happened. Their son Christopher was adorable and his interactions with Philip were absolutely heartwarming. There were a few errors in the writing, but that didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the story. I’m excited to see what the rest of the series will bring.

All Revved Up (Millerstown Moments #2) – Jena Wade

Novella – Self-published – Omegaverse – Contemporary – Second Chances – Mpreg – Raising Children – BDSM – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit – Suspense – Crime – Trigger Warnings Apply

Read the thing. Taking place right after the first book in the series, this is Kayden’s story. Kayden is the best friend of the lead from the last book, and has followed his friend to Millerstown as promised to start a new in-home daycare business. He isn’t expecting to run into the alpha he left behind years ago, but Turner Jeffries is now back in his life and interested in a relationship with Kayden and their son. This is another second chance, secret baby romance, with some excitement thrown in near the end. Kayden ran from Turner when he first found out his was pregnant with their son Jackson, because Turner straight up told him that he didn’t want children and would opt for an abortion in the event of an accidental pregnancy. Six years later, they’re both still dealing with that. There is very minimal angst between Kayden and Turner. It doesn’t take them long to clear things up a bit (neither of them are the villain in this situation, and they both want to make up for the lost time between Turner and Jackson), or fall back in bed with each other. In terms of sex and their D/s dynamic, they pretty much pick up right where they left off. That was a bit off-putting to me, but it fit well enough into the story since there doesn’t really seem to be any hard feelings between the two of them. Honestly, they were both able to see where the other was coming from and made the decision to not hold anything against each other. It still takes them until the end of the story to actually get their shit together and admit that they want to actually be together, but they get there in the end. As with in the previous book, there is a bit of suspense near the end as some background events concerning one of the daycare kids comes to a head in an unexpected way. I enjoyed the drama though. Also a plus was that we get to see plenty of Ollie and Philip from the last book. Ollie and Kayden are great friends and I love them. And Ollie and Philip’s son Christopher is still around as Jackson’s best friend. The boys are both adorable, but I have to admit that I did enjoy Christopher as a child character more than Jackson, who comes off as a bit too precocious for me. It’s starting to look like all the books in this series are interconnected in some ways, so I’m excited to see how this universe and these characters will continue to develop. (TW for mentions of human trafficking, suspected child abuse/neglect, and drug use)

Crying Out Loud (Millerstown Moments #3) – Jena Wade & Lorelei M. Hart

Novella – Contemporary – Self-published – Omegaverse – Mpreg – Age Gap – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit – Injury – Suspense – Crime

Read the thing. I’m reading the Millerstown Moments books one right after the other, and by this point in the series it’s clear that the books all follow the same pattern: alpha/omega couple, surprise baby despite birth control, low-drama getting together, high-drama crime-related shenanigans for the climax (in this specific case it’s a vengeful druggie alpha), then an epilogue where a baby is born. It’s fairly predictable with a lot of the same beats every time, but it’s still a lot of fun and pretty entertaining. I’ve enjoyed reading them. Having said that, I didn’t like Crying Out Loud as much as I did the first two. It was still enjoyable and I liked it, but I liked the first two better. I think a lot of it was that I didn’t feel like the romance between the two leads Derek and Cam was set up well enough. Derek is the chief of police and quite a bit older than Cam (fifteen years or so, I think), and that was one of his major hang-ups about starting anything with him. Though he seems to just straight up forget it later as it stops coming up again after a certain point. I get that these relationships are meant to be all no angst and no drama, but even a conversation about it would’ve been nice. Anyway, Derek and Cam, through a set of slightly unlikely circumstances, end up having to live together and while they are sweet with each other, I didn’t really get a sense of their relationship building up. It was all fun, just not very deep. Although I did like that Cam, an omega, still got to be a badass even though he was pregnant. He’s a firefighter, the only omega on the force, and he could easily pass himself off as an alpha. Even while pregnant and with a broken leg, even though he does have to be more careful, he doesn’t really change much. He obviously doesn’t go running into fires anymore, but he does still maintain his independence and his job. The characters from the previous book are very much present in this one, and the stories are all still intertwined a bit. The plots can all be read standalone, but there’s so much more to be gained character-wise if you read the books in order (though part of that is because there is very little establishing information about anyone or anything). Still looking forward to the next book in the series.

Anything For Love (Millerstown Moments #4) – Jena Wade

Novella – Self-published – Omegaverse – Contemporary – Mpreg – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit

Read the thing. Another quick and entertaining Millerstown Moments read. This time around we’re following the new mayor Harrison Bowman as he tries to juggle cleaning up the mess the former mayor made of the town, with his newly-discovered pregnant one-night-stand Alex. Alex works off and on at the local grocery store and has been low-key in love with Harrison for years (since they were in high school together, apparently). It’s almost to the point of being slightly stalkerish, but Alex is so matter-of-fact about it that it comes off more as silly. Doesn’t bother Harrison, though, who seems to enjoy this side of Alex now that he’s getting to know him. Harrison is a pretty upstanding guy all things considered, and, though I thought that the development of his feelings for Alex could’ve used more work, I was fairly happy with the way things turned out between them. Now, as with the other books in this series, the drama doesn’t come from the relationship between the leads, but rather from outside forces. In this case we see the return of the former mayor, Ian Miller, who is back and causing some shit. Honestly, I don’t think the characters were worried enough about him, especially with his escalating shenanigans to get back at Harrison for ‘taking’ his job. Ian’s an asshole, though I was surprised to see him again since I thought they were done with him back in book one. Not too much excitement in this book, but a bit of drama what with Ian and also Alex’s health issues about the pregnancy. Another thing I want to mention is that the writing seemed to decrease in quality as the book went on. I thought it started out fairly strong, but then seemed to peter out a bit near the end. Plenty of typos, but also a glaring lack of establishing details. The birth scene seemed especially dry to me, considering all the drama surrounding that. All in all, I did enjoy this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for something quick and light.

Life Is a Lemon (Millerstown Moments #5) – Jena Wade & Lorelei M. Hart

Novella – Self-published – Contemporary – Omegaverse – Mpreg – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit – Rich Lead – Friends With Benefits – Suspense – Trigger Warnings Apply – Poor Lead

Read the thing. One good thing I can say about the Millerstown Moments books is that they all manage to be entertaining even though they’re basically all telling the same story. This was another enjoyable read, even though typo-wise it was probably the worse written in the bunch. (Seriously, did no one give this a re-read to catch any errors?) This book features Jamison (half-brother of Harrison from the last book), and Carter (cousin of Harrison’s omega Alex). They start out this novella as sort of friends-with-benefits, determined to keep things casual even though they’re both secretly falling in love with each other. Carter works as a bartender in a hotel bar, which is where Jamison knows to make contact with him. That’s fine for casual, but not when Carter has to leave town to escape his abusive ex without leaving a forwarding address. Luckily, they both end up in Millerstown so they’re easily reunited. This story follows the same pattern as the others, Carter (the omega) is pregnant with a surprise baby and Jamison is more than willing to step up for his new family. I feel like this one had maybe more miscommunication than the others, which was kind of annoying, but at least it all sorted itself out in the end.  The main issue they had was that both Carter and Jamison had feelings for each other but just didn’t tell the other about them. It wasn’t anything too dramatic. There was also some danger in this book in the form of Carter’s abusive ex, who showed up a few times to cause some shit. It got pretty intense at one point, there. I actually quite liked the first half of the epilogue, which featured all the lead couples from every book in the series coming together to hang out at a town event. We’ve spent this whole series with all these characters and I was happy to see them all in one place as they seem to have become good friends. Of course, following that scene was another rushed bare-bones birth scene, but that’s sort of to be expected in this series. This would’ve been a great ending to the series, but there’s one short story left, so one last tale from Millerstown to look forward to. (Trigger Warning for violence and attempted sexual assault)

Heaven Can Wait (Millerstown Moments #6) – Jena Wade

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Short Story – Ebook Only – Mpreg – Self-published – First Person POV – Friends To Lovers – 18+ – Explicit

Read the thing. This was a short, sweet wrap-up to Millerstown Moments. It features Philip Miller’s brother Tyler from all the way back in Book 1 (Dashboard Lights). Tyler is finally back in town after ten years, now that his shitbag father is no longer an issue, and he’s reconnected with his childhood friend and crush Jayson. Tyler didn’t get a chance to talk to Jayson before he left town all those years ago, and now that he’s back it’s to find Jayson a recent widower and about to have a baby. Jayson’s husband has died in a car accident, but he’s not all that put out about it since his husband was a complete cheating asshole that he’s better off without. He is a bit concerned about the prospect of raising his child on his own though. Tyler and Jayson were in love once, though they were never together, so them reuniting isn’t so much a second chance deal, but pretty close to it. They slot into a relationship pretty easily and completely angst-free, and molding their lives around each other is certainly no hardship for either of them. This is just something one would read for the sweetness. It’s fairly soothing, all told. It’s also a lot better written than the last couple of books that came before it, especially when it comes to establishing details. It’s really too bad that this wasn’t longer, though having said that, the story is pretty complete as it is. Tyler and Jayson are sweet and their story was pretty cute. Also glad to see Philip, Ollie, and the kids again.

Better Together (The Boys of Talbert Hall #3) – Quinn Ward

Contemporary – Self-published – Ebook Only – College/University – Poly MMM – BDSM – Menage – First Person POV – Friends to Lovers – 18+ – Explicit – Dysfunctional Family – Hurt/Comfort

Read the thing. After having read the other books in the series, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would feel about having Zach as one of the leads. Zach basically established himself as a complete jerk in the past two books, so I was mostly worried that he’d be extremely unlikeable and mostly cause pain to his roommate/best friend/love interest Daniel. To my pleasant surprise, though, it actually turned out all right. We get more insight into Zach in this book, and how the self-hatred instilled in him by his father caused him to padlock himself into the closet and lash out at the people around him out of fear and jealousy. It certainly doesn’t excuse his behaviour, but it does explain it. He actually spends a good chunk of this book trying to make amends to Daniel and their friends (Jayden, Chase, Brandon and Matt, the leads from the first two books in the series) for his past behaviour. (And a good chunk of the book is spent on this because the book seems to enjoy repeating itself.) But although Zach had decided to start trying to make things right when he returned to college for his senior year, the catalyst to actually start the change comes in the form of Chase’s younger brother Colin, here to start his first year of college. It was obvious that Zach and Daniel were way into each other, but it takes Colin to kick their asses in gear and admit it. Mostly by him offering to be the glue that brings them all together. Unlike the other books in the series, this story isn’t about age play. Colin, Zach, and Daniel embark on a three-way romantic D/s relationship, and the majority of the book is them navigating that and trying to prove to each other that this isn’t all just a passing fling. The book is told through all three of their alternating points of view, so no one gets left out of all the introspection. These three all have big feelings and Zach especially is using this opportunity to explore his after having had to deny them for so long. It’s a good story of falling in love, acceptance, and second chances, and if I have one major complaint it’s that I found the two ‘important’ sex scenes too long (also didn’t help that BDSM isn’t my thing so I wasn’t getting that out of it). Now that all the original main cast are all in happy relationships I’m curious to see if this is the final book in the The Boys of Talbert Hall series. This book introduces a new roommate, Justice, in a way that looks like he has his own journey to go on, so maybe we’ll see more of these guys in the future after all. I look forward to it if that’s the case.

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