October 2015 Wrap-Up

Finally getting back-up on the horse after a lengthy hiatus. October was a pretty good reading month for me, considering I only read a couple of books since May.

For October, I breezed through an excessive amount of Kindle Unlimited books because I didn’t have the attention span to read full length novels at the beginning of the month. Below are my reviews for most of the books I read in October, but didn’t get around to writing a full review for.

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Lion Eyes by Jennifer Ashley
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Shifters Unbound #7.5
Rating: B

Uncollared lion shifter, Seamus McGuire, thinks he might be going feral. On the run from hunters, he meets Bree. Together they must figure out how to convince the local shifter town that Seamus didn’t kill a couple of hunters in a feral rage.

One of the better novellas for this series. I liked Seamus a lot and it was interesting getting a story about a collarless shifter. I don’t recommend this for people who haven’t read any of the main books though.

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Rock Hard by Nalini Singh
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Rock Kiss #2
Rating: C

Ex-Rugby player, Gabriel Bishop, takes over the large company that shy Charlotte Baird works for. Gabriel takes a shining to Charlotte and decides to pursue her, but she’s got a ton of baggage that needs to be worked through first.

Was bored in large chunks of this one and I got frustrated with the games that Gabriel kept playing, trying to get a rise out of Charlotte. This one kind of has that Pepper Potts and Tony Stark relationship dynamic between the characters going on though. So, if you’re into that, this is probably worth a read.

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Rock Redemption by Nalini Singh
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Rock Kiss #3
Rating: D+

Guitarist Noah St. John has issues coming out the wazoo and lets that effect his friendship with rising actress Kit Devigny. Regretting a decision he made that caused major deconstruction to their relationship, Noah strives to make amends while trying to keep his demons at bay.

I hated Noah. He’s a prick for a large amount of this book. Sure, he has a horrible past, but I hated how he lashed out at Kit and those around him. He constantly did things in the story purely because he knew it would hurt Kit. So, it wasn’t just him doing something he wanted without consideration of her feelings. He went out of his way to do things, just because he knew it would hurt her. It was horrible to watch and his “kind” actions did not make up for him being so malicious.

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Coveted by the Bear by T.S. Joyce
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: N/A
Rating: B-

Mira Fletcher has the reputation of being the town crazy. When she finds the town’s golden boy, Caleb McCreedy, bleeding to death from a bear attack she decides to save him. But no good deed goes unpunished. Especially when the town decides they don’t like that Caleb is being so nice to crazy Mira.

I have a thing for stories where everyone hates the heroine. This one was fun because Mira is a hermit who has let the town circulate crazy stories about her until they’ve got an almost mob mentality about disliking her. So, they really don’t take it well when Caleb decides to try integrating her back into the town and they get downright nasty when he develops a crush on her. While this book has some melodramatic moments that had me rolling my eyes, I enjoyed it. For 3 bucks (or free if you have Kindle Unlimited) it’s worth checking out.

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Deliciously Mated by P. Jameson
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Ouachita Mountain Shifters #1
Rating: B

Clara Destacio lives off the grid by stealing what she needs to survive in the woods from local tourists. When she starts sneaking into popular tourist destination Lake Haven Lodge, the workers decide she needs to be stopped before she finds out what they are. After discovering why she’s stealing, the Lodge’s chef knows that he has to catch her before the others if he wants the chance to save her.

I’ve been enjoying P. Jameson’s books quite a bit lately. While I found the reason for Clara’s self-exile to be a little ridiculous and contrived, I did enjoy the story. I’m looking forward to reading more books about the Ouachita shifters. If you’re a fan of Vivian Arends’ Granite Lake Wolves books, you’ll probably enjoy Jameson’s stuff.

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Bad Wolf by Jennifer Ashley
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Shifters Unbound #7.5
Rating: C +

Wolf shifter Broderick finds himself captured by a human intent on hacking into the guardian network. After escaping, him and his girlfriend, Joanne, work to find out who is behind the kidnapping and what they want with the network.

Not bad, but not one of Ashley’s better novellas either. I liked Broderick and his slow acceptance that Joanne is more to him than just a girlfriend who will probably eventually jump ship. I only wish that Ashley would let some characters stay dead. I groaned when a character who everyone thought dead appeared very much alive in this one.

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The Werewolf Wears Prada by Kristin Miller
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: San Francisco Wolf Pack #1
Rating: C +

Melina Rosenthal is hired to write an article about Hayden Dean that will help transform his public image from careless playboy to responsible executive. While not happy about having to write a positive story about a man who stood her up a year ago, she’s willing to do it for her career.

Some plot points were brought up (like Melina thinking about writing a scathing article about Hayden as revenge) only to be quickly dropped. Who the villain is going to turn out to be is also pretty apparent from the beginning, so I was frustrated when no one else was noticing the obvious. Despite this, the story is fun. I’m looking forward to reading more by Miller soon.

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Scaling the Dragon by Milly Taiden
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Erotica
Series: Paranormal Dating Agency #8
Rating: C+

Dragon shifter, Vikter, is slowly dying. He’s long given up on finding his fated mate, the one person who can save him. When Rebecca enters his life, he decides to have one last fling before he dies.

Some of the books in this series work for me, while others bore me to tears. This was one of the better ones. I liked Vikter’s dilemma and how he slowly begins to emerge from the stupor he’s been living in just waiting to die. This is a good one if you’re looking for a quick and extremely lighthearted read.

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Lick by Kylie Scott
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Stage Dive #1
Rating: C-

After celebrating her 21st birthday in Vegas, Evelyn Thomas wakes up married to rock legend David Ferris. David is devastated to find that she remembers nothing about the night before. Especially when he had felt such a connection to her.

This was pretty meh to me. Evelyn doesn’t have much of a personality and David’s constant jumping to conclusions got on my nerves. It also annoyed me that Evelyn kept referring to David as her husband. That doesn’t scream someone who isn’t completely on-board with the marriage. Despite this, the writing style works for me and the plot was enough to keep me engaged. I’ll probably breeze through the next two books in the series.

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Play by Kylie Scott
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Stage Dive #2
Rating: B-

Drummer Mal Ericson needs to find a respectable fake girlfriend. Who better to fill this role than the down to earth Anne Rollins? Anne has been in love with Mal Ericson for years. So, when he asks if she would be his fake girlfriend for a little while, she decides to take the opportunity to indulge in one of her deepest fantasies.

I enjoyed this one better than Lick, but it felt like the story was missing something. Mal was shown to love his life as the kind of guy who sleeps with a different woman every night. So I had a hard time believing that he would fall into a monogamous lifestyle so easily. There’s one throw away scene where he puts his arm around a past lover and that’s it. I felt like there should’ve been more of a struggle for him in this arena. Despite this, I liked that Mal kept his personality in tact during his own book. If you’re looking for a romance book with some fairly low angst, I would recommend checking this out.

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Moon by Laurann Dohner
Genre: Erotica/Sci-Fi(ish) Romance
Series: New Species #10
Rating: C+

New species Moon has been drugged with something that has made him completely feral. Dr. Joyce Yards is called in a desperate attempt to find someone who can help. Years ago, Joyce had to walk away from her budding relationship with Moon to save them both.

I had been looking forward to Moon’s book because he was such a fun and carefree character in the other stories. Unfortunately, Dohner is one of those authors where their lead characters turn into almost carbon copies of each other when they get their own book. Despite this, I still enjoyed the story. If you’re looking for a lighter and less rape-y version of Lora Leigh’s Breeds series, this is for you.

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