BEDDING THE ENEMY

The Book

Bedding The Enemy by LaQuette
Genre: erotic interracial romantic suspense

About Bedding The Enemy:

Masaki Yamaguchi has lived by one rule: Bend the world to your will, and break those that refuse to comply. This motto has served him well as the head of the Yakuza family in Canarsie, Brooklyn. However, when he meets a soulful beauty with locs from Brownsville with her own set of rules, things aren’t as clear, or easy as they used to be.

Oshun Sampson has worked hard to clean up her beloved Brownsville, Brooklyn. She's sacrificed everything, including her own happiness, for the cause. She’ll be damned if she allows anyone the chance to destroy the progress she and her community have made. With the looming threat of the Canarsie Yakuza family closing in, the sexy new patron with the captivating eyes is a dangerous distraction she can’t afford.

Two powerful leaders with one distinct line drawn between them. Will their passion be enough to hold them together? Or, will bedding the enemy result in a bloody war that tears them and their communities apart?

Source: Info in the About Bedding The Enemy was from the press kit from the publicity team.

Buy Link(s):

The Author

About LaQuette:

LaQuette is an erotic, multicultural romance author of M/F and M/M love stories. Her writing style brings intellect to the drama. She often crafts emotionally epic, fantastical tales that are deeply pigmented by reality's paintbrush. Her novels are filled with a unique mixture of savvy, sarcastic, brazen, and unapologetically sexy characters who are confident in their right to appear on the page.

​ This bestselling Erotic Romance Author is the 2016 Author of the Year Golden Apple Award Winner, 2015 Swirl Awards Bronze Winner in Romantic Suspense, and 2015 Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award Finalist in Erotic Romance. LaQuette — a native of Brooklyn, New York — spends her time catering to her three distinct personalities: Wife, Mother, and Educator.

Writing — her escape from everyday madness — has always been a friend and source of comfort. At the age of sixteen she read her first romance novel and realized the genre was missing something: people that looked and lived like her. As a result, her characters and settings are always designed to provide positive representations of people of color and various marginalized communities.

She loves hearing from readers and discussing the crazy characters that are running around in her head causing so much trouble. Contact her on Facebook, Twitter, @LaQuetteLikes, her website, www.NovelsbyLaQuette.com, Amazon, her Facebook group, LaQuette's Lounge, and via email at LaQuette@NovelsbyLaQuette.com.

www.novelsbylaquette.com | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | pinterest | amazon | goodreads

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

The Book

Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet
Book 1 of the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series
Read by Hollie Jackson
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Graveyard Shift:

The Inferno has Evolved…

Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that. She resides in Limbo City, the modern capital of the collective afterlives, where she likes to stick it to the man (the legendary Grim Reaper himself) by harvesting the bare minimum of souls required of her. She’d much rather be hanging out with Gabriel, her favorite archangel, at Purgatory Lounge. But when a shocking promotion falls in her lap, Lana learns something that could unravel the very fabric of Eternity. If the job isn’t completed, there could be some real hell to pay.

Source: Info in the About Graveyard Shift was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16082905-graveyard-shift on 25/12/2017.

Books in the Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series:

               

Review

My Thoughts:

The Graveyard Shift book... This is a world between the living and the dead. An interesting world building. However, it has all the mundane inanities as our own modern living has... so why is this world an intriguing read while real life is not? I would put that down to the fantastic way the author tells the story. We have a master weaver here. And then of course it ended in a cliffhanger....

Another thing good about this book is that the plot is solid. There is actually a plot! Which a lot of the urban fantasy books seem to forget especially on the first book where all the book does is world building and introduce the readers to the series... This one does that too, and managed to have a plot at the same time! Now, fancy that! Yeah, after reading so many flimsy/flighty urban fantasy, I got jaded... those flighty books sucks the life out of a reader. Not this one though!

This is the first Hollie Jackson book that I've listened to and I like the way she narrates. And I also agree with her interpretations. With her input as the narrator she gave this book an added "flavour" that the book would otherwise would not have, had it not been for her particular brand of narration.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 3
World building = 5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (7 hours and 22 minutes listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

The Author

About Angela Roquet:

USA Today bestselling Angela Roquet is a great big weirdo. She collects Danger Girl comic books, owls, skulls, random craft supplies, and all things Joss Whedon. She's a fan of renewable energy, marriage equality, and religious tolerance. As long as whatever you're doing isn't hurting anyone, she's a fan of you, too.

Angela lives in Missouri with her husband and son. She's a member of SFWA and HWA, as well as the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse, her epic book critique group, where she's known as Death. When she's not swearing at the keyboard, she enjoys painting, goofing off with her family and friends, and reading books that raise eyebrows.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT, the first novel in Angela's Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series, is now available for FREE on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, & iBooks. You can find Angela online at www.angelaroquet.com

website | twitter | facebook | google+ | instagram | youtube | goodreads

The Narrator

About Hollie Jackson:

With over 200 audiobooks narrated and produced, Hollie Jackson has worked with both indie and USA Today bestselling authors across a wide range of genres. Hollie's voice brings characters of all types to vibrant, compelling life, allowing the listener to sit back and enjoy the story.

Growing up in a military family, Hollie found herself lost in the world of poetry and prose, and truly enjoys sharing that joy with others through spoken and written word. As an author, she understands the importance of drawing the reader into the world of the story. As a voracious reader, she enjoys an eclectic range of genre and carries that over into the studio: from contemporary romance to paranormal thrillers, historical fiction to epic fantasy, from erotica to tamer New Adult/Young Adult titles.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Hollie loves to bring those stories to life, one word at a time.

The information about Hollie Jackson was taken from https://tantor.com/narrator/hollie-jackson.html on 25/12/2017.

https://tantor.com/narrator/hollie-jackson.html | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP

A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber
Book 1 of the Stephanie Harrington series
Read by Khristine Hvam
Genre: science fiction YA
Format: hardback, ebook, & audiobook

About A Beautiful Friendship:

Stephanie Harrington always expected to be a forest ranger on her homeworld of Meyerdahl . . . until her parents relocated to the frontier planet of Sphinx in the far distant Star Kingdom of Manticore. It should have been the perfect new home --- a virgin wilderness full of new species of every sort, just waiting to be discovered. But Sphinx is a far more dangerous place than ultra-civilized Meyerdahl, and Stephanie’s explorations come to a sudden halt when her parents lay down the law: no trips into the bush without adult supervision!

Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries, and the biggest one of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

The forest-dwelling treecats are small, cute, smart, and have a pronounced taste for celery. And they are also very, very deadly when they or their friends are threatened . . . as Stephanie discovers when she comes face-to-face with Sphinx’s most lethal predator after a hang-gliding accident.

But her discoveries are only beginning, for the treecats are also telepathic and able to bond with certain humans, and Stephanie’s find --- and her first-of-its kind bond with the treecat Climbs Quickly --- land both of them in a fresh torrent of danger. Galactic-sized wealth is at stake, and Stephanie and the treecats are squarely in the path of highly-placed enemies determined to make sure the planet Sphinx remains entirely in human hands, even if that means the extermination of another thinking species.

Unfortunately for those enemies, the treecats have saved Stephanie Harrington’s life. She owes them . . . and Stephanie is a young woman who stands by her friends.

Which means things are about to get very interesting on Sphinx.

Source: Info in the About A Beautiful Friendship was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10894503-a-beautiful-friendship on 21/08/2017.

My Thoughts:

I'm glad I stumbled upon this book because it was a good read! Compelling story telling quality, beautiful world building, and likeable characters. Even though the plot is pretty basic, it was a solid plot. Not one of those flaky plots that require the characters to be "too stupid to live" to create a dilemma. I hate those!! Anyway, several chapters into the book and I was buying the second and third books in this series already. I am only hoping that this "trilogy" would finish and not end up like Robert Jordan's never ending Wheel Of Time. **fingers crossed**

Another plus for this book is the narration. The words are clear. The voice quality is not grating to the ears. And Khristine Hvam's interpretation of the book is just right, in my way of thinking. Kudos!!

So why, 4.5 and not 5?... because this might be a good read, but not up to Ilona Andrews' standards. Or Carol Berg's Lighthouse dou's category. But still, that does not change the fact that this book is a very good read!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 5
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 5
Pace = 4.5
Plot = 4.5
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Stephanie Harrington Series:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

The Author
	David Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952. Many of his stories have military, particularly naval, themes, and fit into the military science fiction genre. He frequently places female leading characters in what have been traditionally male roles. One of his most popular and enduring characters is Honor Harrington whose alliterated name is an homage to C. S. Forester's character Horatio Hornblower and her last name from a fleet doctor in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. Her story, together with the "Honorverse" she inhabits, has been developed through 16 novels and six shared-universe anthologies, as of spring 2013 (other works are in production). In 2008, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University. Many of his books are available online, either in their entirety as part of the Baen Free Library or, in the case of more recent books, in the form of sample chapters (typically the first 25-33% of the work).
www.davidweber.net | twitter | goodreads | amazon

The Narrator
	Khristine Hvam is an award winning audiobook narrator, director, and voice over actress. Having studied acting for the theater and film, she soon discovered a love of voice over. You will hear her in TV/Radio commercials, video games, animated series, and most notably in over 200 audio book titles. Khristine has been honored with several Audio Publishers Association Audie Award nominations and in the summer of 2012 earned her first Audie Award in the fantasy category for her performance of Lani Taylor’s “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” and a second for “Astray” by Emma Donoghue. Khristine has also received five AudioFile Magazine’s Earphone Awards for her performances. Most recently she has begun directing audiobooks, a journey she never imagined taking, but one she is thrilled to be exploring. Khristine is a proud member of SAG/AFTRA.
khristinehvam.com | facebook | twitter | goodreads | linkedin

FTC Disclosure:
This book was purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

BREATH OF FIRE

Breath Of Fire by Amanda Bouchet
Book 2 in The Kingmaker Chronicles
Genre: epic fantasy
Format: paperback & ebook

About Breath Of Fire:

SHE'S DESTINED TO DESTROY THE WORLD...
"Cat" Catalia Fisa has been running from her destiny since she could crawl. But now, her newfound loved ones are caught between the shadow of Cat's tortured past and the threat of her world-shattering future. So what's a girl to do when she knows it's her fate to be the harbinger of doom? Everything in her power.

BUT NOT IF SHE CAN HELP IT
Griffin knows Cat is destined to change the world-for the better. As the realms are descending into all-out war, Cat and Griffin must embrace their fate together. Gods willing, they will emerge side-by-side in the heart of their future kingdom...or not at all.

Source: Info in the About Breath Of Fire was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29895106-breath-of-fire on 08/08/2017.

My Thoughts:

"Heavy on Greek mythology, other pantheon not included."

How does one, "slice my head to the side", indicates a final word? Looks like Sourcebooks needs a more robust editing service.

Who the heck decided that Cat should become Xena?? The cover art on A Promise Of Fire was amazing!! Why couldn't they use the same design team or the same model?? I'm talking about the US versions of this series, here. It's kind of a let-down.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around olive-skinned race from the cold, ice-covered north. Humans living for generations in snowy weather would loose all color. It's a simple fact of evolution. Humans living for generations in hot weather would gain color. They would become dark-skinned. It's an adaptation mechanism. But then again, this is a post-apocalyptic world born from the ashes of the old world. So maybe they were evolutionarily correct at the start and then got all mixed up in the process of breaking the old world and the rebirth of the new, current one. Maybe. But it still takes a bit of a will power on my part to suspend disbelief.

Agon Games, a theme that has been popular lately, i.e., The Hunger Games, etc. That's not what's annoying. What's annoying is our femme fatale goes too stupid to live (TSTL) during the fights. Royally annoying!! So everybody is fighting for their lives and it's not going well for our heroes, and she just stands there, and watch!?! WTF!! Cat has never been this dumb before, why the sudden TSTL now??... Then as if that wasn't enough, the plot depended on the characters who are otherwise level-headed to be TSTL to create drama in the story lines... What was that all about?? That brought the rating of this book down a notch or two.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 2.5
Pace = 4
Plot = 3

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Kingmaker Chronicles:

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

www.kingmakerchronicles.com

About Amanda Bouchet
	Amanda Bouchet grew up in New England where she spent much of her time tromping around in the woods and making up grand adventures in her head. It was inevitable that one day she would start writing them down. Drawing on her Greek heritage for the setting and on her love of all things daring and romantic for the rest, her debut trilogy, The Kingmaker Chronicles, took form. She writes what she loves to read: epic exploits, steamy romance, and characters that make you laugh and cry. Her first novel, A Promise of Fire, won several Romance Writers of America chapter contests, including the Orange Rose Contest and the paranormal category of the prestigious Golden Pen. A French master's graduate and former English teacher, Amanda lives in Paris, France. She met her husband while studying abroad, and the family now includes two bilingual children who will soon be correcting her French.
www.amandabouchet.com | facebook | twitter | google+ | goodreads | amazon