So I read 19 books in May and started another 2 which is about average for me. I am going to try and read a lot more over the summer months since I don’t have college to finish and university applications to worry about. You will also notice that the books in my wrap up and review post won’t match the publication dates of the review as I pre-scheduling a lot of my work in advance.
1. Scandalous Liaisons by Sylvia Day **** - So I don’t normally read romance books but there are some exception namely anything written by Sylvia Day and the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I remember reading the first three books in the Crossfire series years ago and I am planning to re-read those and finish the series, as well as reading most of Day’s published works. What I didn’t know about Scandalous Liaisons before picking it up was that it is a bind-up of three interconnected novellas, so I will be reviewing and rating each story individually and the bind-up as a whole.
2. The Internet Ideology: From A as in Advertising to Z as in Zipcar by Massimo Moruzzi *** - I have reviewed a few other titles by this author before and found them to be informative so I was delighted to get the chance to read more from this author. The introduction as the first two chapters; Advertising and Apps, introduces us to the idea that the internet is one of the great inventions and challenges to see whether or not this is two. Advertising gives a quick run over how almost everything on the internet is backed by advertising and therefore we are being targeted to act and think in a certain way, Apps continues this as it explains there is an app for almost everything today which ties us to our devices and force feeds us information rather than letting us figure it out for ourselves.
3. A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea #1) by Ursula K. Le Guin ***** - Unlike many people I didn’t read the Earthsea series as a child so I am excited to see what I think of it as an adult, considering fantasy is one of my favourite genres to read. I didn’t know anything about Earthsea going into it but the book are fairly short which was an added bonus since I am trying to read the whole series while we are in lockdown. In the opening chapter we are introduced to Duny who lives in a rural community, his mother died when he was just one and grew up quite rogue but after overhearing his aunt one day he accidently performs quite a strong spell. His aunt begins to teach him all that she knows although she keeps to pure magic as she herself dabbles in darker things and she realises her nephew is quite powerful and can be great. His rural village is invaded just before he turns 13 and he uses his magic to drive them off which draws the attention of the Mage of Re Albi, Ogion the Silent who tells Duny’s father as his naming ceremony on his 13th birthday when he will be considered a man, he will return and take Duny as his apprentice, which he does and he gives Duny the name Ged.
4. Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber *** - The opening to Are You Sleeping was interesting, we are introduced to Josie living a domestic life in New York with her partner Caleb, who is away working in Africa. One night at 3 a.m. Josie gets a phone call and she believes it to be a Caleb, when she says she misses him a female voice answers saying that she misses Josie too. She puts this down to a bad connection and puts it out of her mind until Caleb responds to her email saying he never called her. Josie on the train hears about a podcast that is investigating the murder of her father 13 years before and Josie is rattled as she has lied to everyone in New York about her past, even her last name in order to distance herself from the event. She realises that the phone call might have been from her twin sister Lanie, but she is warned by her cousin, Ellen, not to listen to the podcast and they are trying to get it shut down but curiosity gets the better of her and she ends up listening to the first 2 episodes. In them we meet the supposed killer, Warren Cave who has been in prison from 13 years because one of the twins said they saw him committing the murder but it also came to light that Josie’s father was having an affair with Warren’s mother but the case was circumstantial at best.
5. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis **** - American Psycho is one of my favourite movie and one of Christian Bale’s best performances so I had to read the book. This book is described as being a black comedy which is something that appeals to me and the movie did it perfectly so I am excited to see the book version of Patrick Bateman. The opening to American Psycho was strange we are introduced to Patrick Bateman, a 26-year-old man who works on Wall Street as he heads to a dinner party at his fiancé, Evelyn’s house with his friend Timothy Price. While Patrick is intelligent, charming, and handsome he seems to be the odd one out at the dinner despite the interesting characters present. He suspects that his fiancé is having an affair with his friend and seems sexually disinterested in him, so much so he doesn’t even spend the night at her place and they also don’t live together. If anyone has seen American Psycho you know the type of man Patrick is, and he even admits in the first chapter that he is an evil psychopath but we haven’t seen it yet.
6. Gemina (Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman ***** - I have read this series before but I always come back to Illuminae and Gemina because I love them. In fact, Gemina is my favourite in the series because the banter between our main characters, Hanna Donnelly and Niklas Malikov is absolutely amazing and made me laugh until my sides hurt. Hanna is the daughter of Jump Station Heimdall’s Commander, Charles Donnelly and Nik is a member of the HOK (House of Knives), a gang abroad the station. Kady’s father, Isaac Grant is also an engineer abroad the station which explains why she was worried about him in the first book. This picks up immediately after the ending of Illuminae, although it is all told in the past tense, with the Hypatia on its way to the Jump Station and will arrive in about two weeks. We learn that there is a BeiTech spy about the station that has been blocking the transmissions about the attack on Kerenza 4 but since the Lincoln failed to destroy the Hypatia BeiTech are now in trouble. I love Ella Malikova, Nik’s cousin so much despite her disability she is an amazing character. I do hate Jackson Merrick, Hanna’s boyfriend though, even before we learn his true allegiance he just isn’t someone I like.
7. Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman ***** - So Obsidio is the only book in the series I haven’t re-read and although I gave it 5 stars the first time I was reading it after loving Illuminae and Gemina so I have a feeling my rating might change. We re-join Hanna is the courtroom although speaking remotely as she begins the conclusion of their tale which takes place back on Kerenza 4 where we are introduced to Rhys Lindstrom. Rhys is a tech specialist working for BeiTech specifically on Mobile Jump Gate Magellan which is set to operational in less than two weeks so he has been sent down to the planet surface to help out since a resistance movement has been slowly killing off BeiTech soldiers in what seems like accidents. Things get very real when he hits the surface as a bomb is set off killing some soldiers and injuring more. We are also introduced to Asha Grant, Kady’s cousin who actually survived the initial attack and is working as a medic, however, she is taking care of a young girl named Katya. She meets Rhys at the hospital and it turns out that this pair has some serious history, they were dating before but after an incident results in Asha getting stabbed, Rhys is shipped off to military school and Asha was sent to her aunt Helena. It also seems like Asha may have been pregnant and lost the child as she has a name tattooed on her wrist in addition to her name and Rhys’ on her ribs. We then cut to the Hypatia immediately after the destruction of Jump Station Heimdall where everyone has met up but the security chief Ben Garver isn’t happy about the situation at all.
8. I, Kill by Giorgio Faletti ***** - This book was initially on my radar but the synopsis really caught my eye as I love anything about serial killers, the Hannibal Lecter series being one of my favourites so I decided to give I Kill a go. The opening of I Kill introduces us to Jean-Loup Verdier who is a DJ on Radio Monte Carlo and runs his own hit show called Voices. I wasn’t expecting the main character we are following to be a DJ so I am even more intrigued now, Jean-Loup is a mentor to Pierrot who has some mental issues but he is the most adorable character I’ve ever met and if anything happens to him I swear I will burn the book. Upon arriving at work one evening Jean-Loup receives a call on his show, the nameless caller tells Jean-Loup that soon he will be a wanted man and that Jean-Loup will be the bloodhound sniffing him out. The creepy man on the other end of the line tells Jean-Loup they are the same except at night when Jean-Loup sleeps he kills and the line goes dead. Jean-Loup decides to think nothing of the call and dismisses it as a prank but I have a feeling it’s going to come back and haunt him. We are introduced to Jochen Welder, a two time world champion in Formula 1 and his girlfriend, Arianna, a world chess champion and while their romance was interesting to read they are soon killed by a mysterious man and I suspect it is the same one who called the radio station as he laments there isn’t any music playing at the time of the murders. After the murders we are introduced to the two law enforcement officers that will be leading the case, the first is Frank Ottobre, an FBI special agent dealing with almost being killed a year ago and the death of his wife.
9. Beauty Touched the Beast (Beauty #1) by Skye Warren ***** - The reviews for this series are going to be short as the books are short, the first book is only 30 pages long and I have read it before. I went through a phase in my late teens were I rapidly consumed all the erotic fiction I could get my hands on, including Fifty Shades of Grey and Beauty Touched the Beast. Despite this book being so short I do love it because it breaks some conventions in the erotic fiction genre, namely the female pursues the male in this book which is different to many others in the genre and this book also looks at male body image rather than female body image which is another huge bonus for me. When I first read Beauty Touched the Beast, I wasn’t aware it was part of a series and I am now reading through it for the first time.
10. Beneath the Beauty (Beauty #2) by Skye Warren ***** - This is my first time reading the second book in this series and I am excited, although I did make a mistake in my review of Beauty Touched the Beast by saying there was 3 more books in the series when actually there is 4. Beneath the Beauty opens two weeks after the end of Beauty Touched the Beast as Blake is being headhunted for an Associate Professor position at his old university but he has consistently turned it down until Erin convinces him it is a good idea even if it means temporarily leaving her behind. While their relationship is still new and is suffering from those strange thoughts people have in a new relationships, their personalities complement each other. However, Blake has PTSD and is haunted nightmares from his time as a soldier which is something that Erin doesn’t fully understand but she doesn’t push him for information that he isn’t willing to provide but she does make sure he is taking care of himself, like telling him off for not sleeping as he should.
11. Broken Beauty (Beauty #3) by Skye Warren ***** - The synopsis for Broken Beauty mentions that a troubling revelation puts Blake’s newfound career in jeopardy and Erin’s impending graduation at risk so I was really excited to jump into the third book in this series. We get some more backstory on Blake early on where we learn he wasn’t just scarred in the explosion but that he and another officer Joe Davis were captured. Due to Blake’s injuries they decide to torture Joe and he has never recovered from the mental wounds inflicted but Blake stands by his friend, paying off the family’s mortgage and even making sure Joe’s partner and child were ok. Erin is glad to be finishing college soon as she only needs one class to graduate but it turns out that Blake is her professor for that class, which may throw up a lot of problems as he is dating he and grading her work won’t be allowed if they are found out but Erin is determined to get through it as she can’t wait another semester to graduate and she can’t choose a different class as it is too late.
12. Beauty Becomes You (Beauty #4) by Skye Warren ***** - It seems that Beauty Becomes You is following the themes and troubles that were laid out in Broken Beauty and I am ready for it, although I am not ready for this series to end as there is only one book left. The opening to Beauty Becomes You was definitely my favourite of the series so far as it opens with an amazing sex scene where Blake and Erin begin testing the boundaries of their relationship and not in a BDSM way. They also decide not to see each other until the semester is over but Erin has asked Blake to come to her hometown and meet her mother and Blake has asked her to move in with him, each proving to the other that their feelings are real and this relationship is really going somewhere, which was delight to see. Labelling as erotic fiction many would believe this series is all about sex but it isn’t it focuses purely on the relationship between two broken and damaged people and how they enhance each other in every single way.
13. Loving the Beast (Beauty #5) by Skye Warren ***** - Loving the Beast is the last book in the Beauty series and I am sad to see it end, however, the synopsis did intrigue me as this book involves a visit to Blake’s family who we haven’t seen or heard much of throughout the entire series and it is making me wonder why. The opening scenes of this book are heartbreaking as we witness one of Blake’s nightmares and what truly haunts him and how these will never go away and Erin understands that. They are heading to Blake’s parents home the following morning, however, I did notice an inconsistency here, in previous books it has been stated that Erin’s mother worked for Erin’s ex Doug’s parents, not Blake’s and yet this had suddenly changed in the last book possibly to add more drama and tension to the visit than there needs to be.
14. So Sweet (Sugar Baby, #1) by Rebekah Weatherspoon ***** - The Sugar Baby series caught my eye on NetGalley a while ago but then I fell out of reading erotic fiction but the Beauty series by Skye Warren has got me back into it. We are introduced to the roommates Kayla and Adler who are both down on their luck right now, with rent due Adler decides to sign up to a site called Arrangements which allows young girls to meet rich, older, sugar daddies and she has used it in the past to pay off her student loans. She manages to convince Kayla to sign up and attend a mixer that weekend, but she is anxious about the sexual side of the relationship. At the mixer, Adler is in her element but this isn’t Kayla’s scene but they drove together so she has to stick around, and there she meets Michael Bradbury, the owner of Arrangements, the pair talk and Michael gives Kayla his phone number and asks her to text if she is interested and I know she definitely will since Michael is charming, handsome and loaded to boot. I really like the fact Kayla is a POC, since the girls in these novels tend to be your standard white, blonde, big busted barbie doll. Kayla is the opposite as she is plus sized and a person of colour so I am really interested to follow this relationship.
15. So Right (Sugar Baby, #2) by Rebekah Weatherspoon ***** - After the ending of So Sweet and the synopsis of this book, I have a good idea of what’s coming but I am still excited to take the journey with Kayla and Michael. So Right takes place quite a few months after So Sweet since Michael and Kayla have now been together for 10 months, they have successfully navigated moving in together and got two puppies named, Penny (who is Michael’s) and Patch (who is Kayla’s). Kayla and her friend Daniella have also set up a business called K&D Cards and are absolutely killing it with Kayla’s design skills. Not long after Michael has to fly to Miami for the chance to buy a basketball team which is something he has always dreamed of and Kayla missed him greatly, however, she learns on a video call with her twin sisters that Michael came to visit her parents and them to ask for permission to marry Kayla yet even after returning he doesn’t pop the question, not even on their romantic weekend or during their trip to Miami.
16. So For Real (Sugar Baby #3) by Rebekah Weatherspoon ***** - So For Real is the final book in the Sugar Baby series and I am sad to see it end, Michael and Kayla are one of the most realistic couples I have ever read in the erotic fiction genre. So For Real takes place almost a year after the proposal in So Right and we get to witness the magical wedding between Michael and Kayla as well as all the madness leading up to it. They spend their honeymoon in Scotland, and we see some of the most adventurous sex scene from this couple yet, but I know from the synopsis there is a baby reveal in this novel and I can’t wait for it to arrive. After returning from their honeymoon they don’t want the magic to end so they invent something called honey Dates, the first of which is getting tattoos, but Kayla discovers shortly before the event that she is pregnant so the already inked Michael gets the tattoo alone.
17. Haven (Beards & Bondage #1) by Rebekah Weatherspoon ***** - The opening to Haven was definitely explosive as we are introduced to nature photographer Shepard “Shep” Olsen and his dog, Titus after returning from his once yearly trip home, where he also has a play partner. However, his peace is interrupted when he hears a woman screaming for help and she practically falls threw his door. He kills the man trying to kill her and on their way to the hospital he learns that there might be more of them and that they killed the woman’s brother. He learns her name is Claudia and despite his rugged appearance, he is kind and gentle with her. The police are quick to act and find Claudia’s brother Miles dead, and the two men that did it. It turns out they are wanted in connection with a string of murders which is why the FBI are involved and despite the cut and dry nature of this attack, they grill Shep pretty hard. By the time he can see Claudia again she has left to go home and leaves no way of contacting her but Shep from the brief time he has known Claudia, knows she is a fighter and that she will be okay.
18. All Rounder Meguru (Volume 1) by Hiroki Endo ***** - I didn’t know a lot about this manage when I requested it from NetGalley but I have been getting into sports anime with Haikyuu, so I was excited to read it. I realised earlier on that All Rounder Meguru doesn’t follow boxing or baseball as I first thought by Mixed Martial Arts or MMA fighting. We are introduced to our two protagonists, Takashi Segawa (Meguru) and Takayanagi who both trained in Takayanagi’s karate dojo. Both boys have lost their mothers, but have very different fathers, Meguru lives with his grandparents because his father travel a lot for work while Takayanagi’s father is mixed up the yakuzu and had to skip town.
19. The Passengers by John Marrs ***** - The Passengers has been on my radar for a while as it seemed intriguing and the synopsis really pulled me in. In the opening chapter we are introduced to Claire who is seven months pregnant with Ben’s baby, and by the look of things either Ben has left her or she is his mistress. Claire has always has a mistrust of the driverless cars because she is a bit of a control freak but this morning she has reason to be concerned as her car has been hijacked and all the information she has is a voice telling her in less than two and half hours there is a high chance she will be dead. We then jump to Jude’s perspective, and he is in the same situation as Claire only his car is an older model, he also seems a lot older as his partner in a video mentions retirement and he is greeted with the same creepy voice, if you read this book then I’d definitely recommend the audiobook. The next person we are introduced to is Sofia, who is a nearly 80 year old actress, on her way to a meet and greet at a hospital for cancer patients when her route is hijacked although she believes that she is appearing on a hidden camera show called Celebs Against the Odds. We are then introduced to Sam and Heidi Cole, a married couple due to celebrate their 10th anniversary heading out in separate cars without their children and it seems so far that every single passengers has something to hide. The next person we are introduced to is Shabana, an abused mother of five who is finally fleeing her husband after he is arrested for people trafficking. Shabana is the only person we know of that doesn’t speak English and is also very ignorant of the world outside due to the isolation her arrange marriage caused. Now we have met all the key players and they have now met each other as in each car they can see everyone else who has had their car hijacked.
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