📚#ParanormalRomance. Rosie’s #BookReview of Diners, Damsels and Wolves by Margot Primrose. #BookX

Diners, Damsels & Wolves by Margot Primrose
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Diners, Damsels and Wolves is a paranormal romance and the first book in the series. The story takes place in a fictional town in Kansas and both the main characters are in their 30s.

Clarissa works long hours at the local diner so that she can financially support herself and her aunt Rachel. Rachel has an unusual form of dementia and Clarissa is exhausted from working and caring for her aunt.

After Tom’s father was injured and forced to retire, Tom takes over both the family lumber business and as leader of their shifter pack. As he attempts to make peace with several other packs an old threat returns in town.

A group of rough predator types stop at the diner for food. Clarissa catches the eye of one of them and it makes her feel very uncomfortable. Later when she leaves a work shift the man is waiting by her car. Tom’s valiantly rescue of Clarissa and concern for her welfare is the starting point for this romantic tale.

The damsel in distress storyline was quite simplistic using the insta-love concept. I liked the shifter themes but felt they were a little light on world-building and background information especially about the threat which came to town. There were three to four heated sexual scenes which were awkward to read set against the fairy-tale style romance.

Book Description:

A damsel in distress wolf shifter romance

Clarissa Roberts is just trying to make ends meet. Caring for her sick aunt and working double shifts at the local diner, she’s strung out emotionally, physically, and mentally. She doesn’t have the luxury of dreams or romance.

Thomas Sinclaire never applied for this job, but when his father became injured, the role of pack Alpha was thrust upon him. Fighting against rigid wolf traditions, generational curses, and the threat of an invading pack, he finds something unexpected.

When a late-night shift leaves Clarissa in the clutches of a monster and the graces of a good Samaritan, her world is set ablaze. Grappling with love and loss, she’s unexpectedly thrust into the supernatural underground and a shifter feud for power and blood.

Goodreads

📚A Witty #ShortStory. Frank Reviews Wit Is It By David Barclay for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #BookX

Today’s team review is from Frank. Frank has been reading Wit Is It By David Barclay. Whilst a short story must be complete in and of itself, it is a rare even to see one offered as a stand alone …

📚’An epic #fantasy tale set on a planet far away from Earth.’ Rosie’s #BookReview of The Men Of The Mountain by Drew Harrison #BookTwitter #BookX #NewRelease

The Men of the Mountain by Drew Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Men of the mountain is an epic fantasy tale set on a planet far away from Earth.

Cade is a rabbit hunter. His world is closely overseen by Men of The Mountain, a fearsome green robed people who have magical powers.

While out hunting, Cade witnesses an explosion in the sky, followed by an object falling to the ground. He discovers a badly injured stranger from the stars; his instincts tell him to help but hide this outsider.

Unbeknown to Cade he has rescued an astronaut from a ship sent from Earth. The one survivor is a woman called Robin. She is part of a mission sent to discover what happened to the planet’s colonisation programme which begun several hundred years ago.

This story mixes fantasy and science fiction with human evolution in a believable setting. The world-building was easy to follow with little twists to keep the narrative interesting. There’s a quest with realistic fight scenes and a good balance of heroic episodes. I liked Cade and how he grew as a character, especially in the way he went from lone person to a group leader. There’s several good secondary characters too, with a few surprises towards the end.

This is the first book in a series and I shall look forward to reading more about Cade and his world.

Book Description:

Inscrutable and Ever-Watchful Masters

The Renn of Fort Hope place their faith in simple laws. They must trust the Dicta, those wise rules left by their forebearers; they must fear the savage Krieger, whose raids keep Renn walls perpetually splintered; and they must revere the Men of the Mountain, the magnanimous mystics who are stewards of their world.

For Cade, a clanless trapper, survival is a matter of following the rules. But when the Men of the Mountain took his sister—the only Renn ever chosen to return to their sacred peaks—Cade’s faith withers over five years of agonizing silence.

Now, a star has fallen from the sky, and its arrival threatens to spark an inferno. The Dicta are all things from the sky belong to the Mountain. To hide its discovery is a death sentence… but its crater also houses a secret the Men of the Mountain would kill to protect. Forced to defy his gods alongside unlikely allies, Cade is drawn into a conflict where every secret he uncovers reveals a more terrifying lie at the heart of his world… everything is a cage, and the price of freedom is paid in blood and ash.

Goodreads

📚’A paranormal romance set in a futuristic time’. Rosie’s #BookReview of Broken Demon by Dante St. John. #TuesdayBookBlog #BookX

Broken Demon: A High-Heat Post-Apocalyptic Romance by Dante St. John
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Broken Demon is a paranormal romance set in a futuristic time where humans and non-humans share the world.

Andromeda in an interrogator who gets results from hardened criminals as she wields a shocking electrical current during questioning. The adrenalin crash that she gets after an interrogation is one she tries to drown with food, sleep and sometimes a night on the town.

On one occasion she meets multi-business owner and demon Viktor, they share a high heat night of passion which they both intend to walk away from. However, when Viktor’s siblings go missing he asks Andromeda’s team to help rescue them, insisting that Andromeda is part of the extraction group.

I liked the world-building of this story and it was very easy to picture the people and places. The main characters worked well and there were several good secondary characters too. The sexual encounters are very highly spiced which I didn’t think were necessarily needed in this story, a lower heat would have worked just as well to compliment the dystopian world storyline.

Book Description:

Andromeda Stirling just wanted one reckless night to forget her problems. She didn’t expect her one-night stand to become her newest client.
Twenty years after the end of the world, Andromeda survives by being useful. As an interrogator for a mercenary crew, she asks the questions no one else will—and lives with the consequences. When a job goes too far, she drowns her guilt in the arms of a charming stranger named Viktor Greaves.
She was never supposed to see him again.
Instead, Viktor hires her crew to track down his missing family—and insists Andromeda stay close for the duration of the job.
As the investigation drags them deeper into a violent supernatural underworld, lines blur, bodies pile up, and Andromeda discovers the truth about her own powers—along with why Viktor was drawn to her in the first place.
With her life on the line, her heart tangled in something dangerous, and the world determined to take more than she has left to give, Andromeda will have to stop surviving and start fighting back.
Because she’s done waiting for a hero.

Goodreads

📚’Literary fiction with family saga and theatrical themes.’ Rosie’s #BookReview of Sons of Great Men by Adrian Ross. #BookX

Sons of Great Men by Adrian Ross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sons Of Great Men is a piece of literary fiction with family saga and theatrical themes.

Victor—son, brother, father, boyfriend, friend and actor—works and lives on The Isle of Wight. Early in the story he receives a call explaining that his mother, Jayne, has suffered a heart attack and is in a London hospital. At the hospital Jayne mistakes him for his elder brother William and insists she wants him to continue writing her memoirs. This is a challenge for Victor’s dyslexia, but it also gives him an opportunity to learn more about the women who, for many years, was estranged from him.

The story dips in and out of Jayne’s tale with plenty of other events and characters to entertain the reader. For instance, Victor’s daughter Plum is missing from the early parts of the tale even though he is sleeping on her sofa-bed. Instead he befriends her flatmate, falls into a relationship with a hospital doctor and helps a new friend sell mushrooms.

The book title simmers just below the surface throughout this tale; originally it was the heading of a newspaper article. As Victor brings his parents to the forefront of his thoughts at this traumatic time he gently questions what it means to be the son of a great man.

Taking place over the course of two summer months, this is an engaging piece of writing with a colourful cast of characters. A lovely piece of escapism reading.

Book Description:

Can you bond with someone who’s on borrowed time? Victor’s mum Jayne is stuck between life and death in a London hospital. Visiting from the Isle of Wight, Victor sofa-surfs at his daughter’s flat, accidentally begins an affair with an attractive doctor and battles his dyslexia to record Jayne’s memoirs. She’s been a top political journalist; he’s a sometime actor and pantomime dame, but she’s mistaking him for his favoured elder brother William, a Tory MP. To add to the confusion, Jayne’s convinced she’s being visited at night by former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson.

Victor and Jayne have a brittle relationship. After many false dawns, he hopes they may bond at last over her rambling and disjointed tales. As the days of her illness blur into weeks, Victor pieces together family secrets that throw new light on his own bittersweet story. At the heart of it all is a feature article, Sons of Great Men, that Jayne wrote in the 1960s to gain a foothold in the male-dominated newsroom of a Fleet Street paper.

Victor’s summer reckoning – with family, mortality, work, love and belonging – may strike a chord with those who know how it feels to reach one of life’s crossroads.

Special features: book group discussion prompts and a bonus short story.

Goodreads

📚#UrbanFantasy. Rosie’s #BookReview of A Shifter’s Sin (Wolves of Hawthorne Cove #1) by Debbie Cassidy. #BookX

A Shifter’s Sin by Debbie Cassidy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Shifter’s Sin is an urban fantasy tale and the first book in The Wolves of Hawthorne Cove series.

Quinn is half-wolf, half-human and as such is treated as an outsider by most of her wolf pack. Over the years she has tried hard to prove her worth, but when the pack is threatened by another pack they show their true colours.

Quinn discovers that her mother has left her a house in Hawthorne Cove; a place magically protected from wolves. Her pack give her an ultimatum—steal the magical object that protects the cove and be rewarded with a place on the pack council.

With her best friend and human, Tate, Quinn heads to the cove. Her wolf essence is so weak that she passes through the magic that protects the town. What she discovers here is beyond anything that she imagined.

I enjoyed the world building and the Hawthorne Cove setting. The place is full of magical creatures and there is a mystery which surrounds Quinn, which is hinted at with a few clues and plot possibilities. There is also a touch of romance which looks ready to be explored in book two of the series. Be warned, this story ends on a cliff-hanger.

Book Description:

A Lycan that can’t shift is no use to anyone.

I’ve made it my mission to be useful to my pack. As pack enforcer, I’m fast and strong, but when the time comes to bond with my mate, it isn’t enough.

Rejection means lone wolf status and isolation from the pack. But when a package arrives with an unexpected inheritance, the pack that wants to shun me, suddenly has a new use for me.

Turns out, I’m the proud owner of a house in mysterious territory, rumoured to be home to a pack of beautifully twisted shifters. Hawthorne Cove is Impregnable to Lycans, but not to a half human like me.

Now I have a second chance to be accepted by my pack.

All I have to do is infiltrate the Hawthorne pack, find the source of their power and steal it.

Easier said than done.

Because once I pass the mystical boundaries surrounding the town, I’ll be absolutely, and totally at the mercy of the wolves of Hawthorne Cove.

Goodreads

📚#NonFiction #SelfHelp Rosie’s #BookReview of How To Winter by Kari Leibowitz #BookX

How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive in Difficult Times by Kari Leibowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How To Winter is a non-fiction self-help book which offers advice on how to change your mindset and embrace the winter season.

With a focus on Scandinavian lifestyles and attitudes to winter across Europe and in parts of Canada, the author draws from her studies of the different approaches to winter and how the reader may adopt them in their own lives.

I picked up on celebrating the season of cosiness, with candlelight, warm blankets and slower paced hobbies. Also about enjoying warming soups and other foods while allowing ourselves to slow down. However, the author also supports embracing outdoor activities while bundled in appropriate clothing, like walks where in nature and admiration for winter through snow, frost and the winter colours of the sky and clouds.

It was also good to be reminded that our choice of thoughts and negative words that we listen to that describe winter, from ourselves and outside influences like the media, can be changed if we really do want to alter how we approach the next winter season.

Book Description:

A blend of mindset science, original research, and cultural insights for cultivating a “positive wintertime mindset” to vanquish winter blues and find joy and comfort in dark times year-round

Do you dread the end of daylight saving time and complain about the long, chilly season of gray skies and ice? Do you find yourself in a slump every January and February? What if there were a way to rethink this time of year? Psychologist and winter expert Kari Leibowitz’s galvanizing How to Winter uses mindset science to help readers embrace winter as a season to be enjoyed, not endured—and in turn learn powerful lessons that can affect mental well-being throughout the year.

Kari Leibowitz has lived in the Arctic and traveled to places on Earth with some of the coldest, darkest, and longest winters. There she discovered the power of “wintertime mindset”—viewing the season as full of opportunity and wonder. Helpful strategies for cultivating this wintertime mindset can teach us not just about embracing the frigid, gray months of the year but also the darker and more challenging seasons of life.

Inspired by cutting-edge psychological and behavioral science research as well as cultures worldwide that find warmth and joy in winter’s extremes, How to Winter provides readers with concrete tools for making winter pleasant wherever they live.

Goodreads

📚Haunted House Tale. Sherry Reviews The Ones Who Never Left by Gabrielle Mullarkey for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #BookX

Today’s team review is from Sherry. Sherry blogs here https://sherryfowlerchancellor.com/ Sherry has been reading The Ones Who Never Left by Gabrielle Mullarkey. Creepy house, young couple, small town in Yorkshire, mystery man who roams the woods, housekeeper with an odd …

📚’The Inspector de Silva mysteries go from strength to strength’. @LizanneLloyd Reviews #HistFic A Curse In Nuala by @harrietsteel1 for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #TuesdayBookBlog #BookX

Today’s team review is from Liz. Liz blogs here https://lizannelloyd.wordpress.com/ Liz has been reading A Curse In Nuala by Harriet Steel. The Inspector de Silva mysteries go from strength to strength. In this 16th novel in the series Shanti is …

📚A Found Family #Romance. @SueBavey Reviews Between The Lines by Tracey Magruder @traceyreads For Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #BookX

Today’s team review is from Sue. Sue blogs here https://suelbavey.wordpress.com/ Sue has been reading Between The Lines by Tracey Magruder. Between the Lines by Tracey Magruder is a light-hearted, slow-burning romance between a grumpy English author, Corbyn Pearce, and Sadie Reed, …