Review – Hostile by Nicole Dykes

Hostile 
(A standalone)

Publication Date: April 4, 2022

Genre/Tropes: New Adult/MM Romance

Author: Nicole Dykes

Review Rating: 5 Gold Stars

Review/Synopsis:

Review:

A truly breathtaking journey full of self discovery, passion, and love.

Grayson has always known he’s gay, but he’s also fully in the closet, whereas Rhett is a bit more complicated. He has deep abandonment issues and he feels broken. Rhett doesn’t accept love from his family or friends easily, until Grayson comes along, but that still doesn’t make his mind catch up to what he’s feeling any easier.

Grayson knows he wants Rhett but it isn’t as easy as declaring it or asking for it. Rhett is skittish, but once he’s in, he’s all in. Their lives are complicated by the fact that high school is ending and they both have futures in different directions. How can they really work when real life will soon rip them apart?

These two are so beautiful discovering their path of what it means to be in a relationship together. There are stumbling blocks, momentous occasions, and struggles they each must face given where they are in their lives.

This is one of my favorite coming of age stories for so many reasons, but their communication and friendship was a huge part of it. However, I also shed a lot of tears over these two, but none more than over Rhett. Have those tissues ready, especially towards the end. It’s such a gorgeous story and I couldn’t stop my tears from falling.

The secondary characters were perfect and very well written, and with this being my first Dykes book I’m really looking forward to returning and reading more.

Synopsis:

Grayson

Life has been easy for me. Top of my class. Star quarterback of the football team. Every guy wants to be my friend, and every girl wants to date me.
Yeah, life is pretty sweet.
Except it’s not.
It’s all fake. School comes too easy for me, and I’m bored. Football isn’t fun anymore. The guys I hang out with aren’t really my friends.
And the girls? I don’t want to date them.
The only one I want to date . . . He’s a little bit . . . hostile.

Rhett

Life has never been easy for me. A foster kid, lucky enough to be adopted as a teen but who still can’t find a way to be happy.
I have two best friends who are amazing and supportive, and yet, I can’t bring myself to tell them my biggest secret.
Parents who pay for a private school a kid like me could never have dreamed of . . . that I hate.
It feels all wrong when it should feel right.
And I guess . . . that’s made me nothing but . . . hostile.

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Review – Bright Like Midnight by Julia Wolf

Bright Like Midnight; Savage U #2 
(A standalone within a series)

Publication Date: April 7, 2022

Genre/Tropes: Antihero/New Adult/Dark Romance

Author: Julia Wolf

Review Rating: 5 Gold Stars

Review/Synopsis:

Review:

The Savage U series keeps getting better and better!

Julia Wolf writes beautifully damaged characters and pulls out treasured moments that bring depth and emotions when you least expect it. I’m continually blown away by the vulnerability of the characters who believe they are unredeemable, characters like Amir Vasquez.

Amir believes he has nothing to give to a girl like Zadie Night. A girl filled with goodness and sunshine, but little does he know that Zadie is drawn to him for lots of reasons and he just hasn’t taken a look inside himself for a very long time to see anything but darkness.

Zadie was held captive by Amir one night months prior when her roommate, Helen owed Amir’s brother money. There was a lot of speculation on what exactly happened in that room, but Zadie, nor Amir would say a word. Now Zadie is looking for his help and it all comes back to what happened during that night.

These two begin as oil and water, but it doesn’t take long for Zadie’s sunshine to break through Amir’s cloud cover and once he gives in….ooooooohhhh, his possessiveness is raging hot!!!!

Everything about this story is glorious and perfectly put together. From the secondary characters, which after reading the mentions I loved even more, to the epilogue which gave me everything I needed for this couple.

Synopsis:

Make no mistake, Zadie Night, I am the bad guy here.

The first time I laid eyes on Amir Vasquez, he held me hostage in my dorm.

You made me a promise.

I swore to myself my second year at Savage U would be different from the last. No more hiding from things that go bump in the night. I’m dating now. Making friends. Living my life.

But then someone starts leaving me notes and whispering my name in the dark, scaring me right back into my shell.

Are you my pet?

I’m shy and soft. Amir is dominant and hard. He stole a kiss once, and then he left me.

I should stay far away from him. But you know what they say about the devil you know…

Do I own you?

Amir will protect me, but not without cost.

I’m his, to do with as he pleases.

He thinks it’s a punishment.

But what he doesn’t know is I haven’t stopped thinking about him since he was my captor.

No one’s going to hurt you.

I’m safe from harm if I’m with him because he’s the biggest bad on campus.

Show me your whole universe.

And somewhere along the way, he became my haven, too.

You should be scared of me.

I can’t believe I’ve fallen for the villain.

(Author’s note: Bright Like Midnight is a dark college romance that explores mature themes and dubious situations. If you’re looking for a nice guy hero, this story isn’t for you!)

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Blog Tour – The Difference Between Someday and Forever by Aly Martinez

The world took everything from us.
And we would stop at nothing until we took it all back—forever.

The Difference Between Someday and Forever, the much anticipated and stunning conclusion to The Difference Trilogy from USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez is now live!

The world took everything from us.

As survivors of not only a plane crash, but two other impossible tragedies, we’d more than earned a life of peace. But time and time again, we were shown that fate had no intention of giving that to us.

Remi and I were soulmates. Plain and simple. Our love should have died in the depths of our darkness, but the sun still exists even when it’s not shining.

The secrets of our past threatened to destroy us at every turn, but for Remi, I would never stop fighting for our future.

The world took everything from us.
And we would stop at nothing until we took it all back—forever.

Fall in love today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FMcUte
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Start the trilogy today!
FREE in Kindle Unlimited
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Read Kay’s Review: The Difference Between Someday and Forever

Excerpt from The Difference Between Somebody and Someone

“Sorry, is my mood killing your buzz?” I asked.
Her blue eyes sparkled in the glow of the airplane reading light. “It really is.”
I shook my head and went back to mindlessly flipping the pages of a magazine I’d bought at the terminal back in Colorado. I’d picked it up with hopes it would be a distraction from the cyclone raging within me on our way back to Atlanta. The minute she ordered that drink, I’d known it was a lost cause.
Her hand came across the armrest and landed on my thigh. “Bowen, stop. It’s not a big deal.”
It was the truth. Compared to everything we’d been through, our house could have been swallowed by a sinkhole and it wouldn’t have been considered a big deal.
Honest to God, I was lucky to still have her at all. It had only been nine months since we’d met, but we’d lived a thousand lives in that time. Unfortunately, that also meant we’d died almost as many deaths.
Terrifying, tortuous, agony-filled deaths.
We’d also found love though—immeasurable amounts of it.
I stared down at her engagement ring. I’d cashed out a huge chunk of my savings account and still had to open a line of credit with the jewelry store to buy the three-karat princess-cut ring. The payment was roughly the same as I paid for my truck each month, but the tears in her eyes as she’d sat in her hospital bed, clutching it to her chest the day I proposed, made it all worth it.
She was worth it. Every day, every tear, every worry-filled minute shaved off my life.
I’d do it all again.
If only I weren’t so helpless to save her. I loved that woman. Whole heart. Whole soul. Bend me, break me, crack me open and she would have been there. No matter how bad it got, she was always a part of me.
I wasn’t sure anymore if she could say the same.
“Bowen,” she whispered, just as she’d done so many times before. It was a plea. One she knew I’d answer no matter the situation. No matter how mad I got. No matter how much I feared losing her again.
My gaze instinctively lifted to hers.
She smiled and the sight caused an ache in my chest. It was a lie.
God, I missed her smile.
“Baby, I’m okay.” She tilted her head to her drink. “I hate flying. That’s all this is.”
That was a lie too.
My shoulders fell and a loud breath tore from my burning lungs, but I let myself pretend, my mind going back to a time when it could have been the truth.
I thought of the nights we’d shared multiple bottles of wine and made love, laughing and moaning under the covers until the sun crept across the horizon. She’d rested peacefully in my arms. No nightmares. No crying in her sleep. No insomnia. Just even breaths, her head on my shoulder, and her body wound around mine so tightly it was like a second skin.
But that was the past.
The unreachable, insurmountable past.
The plane jerked, forcing me back to the present.
“Shit.” She moved her hand off my thigh to grasp her drink as it sloshed all over her. “Crap, crap, crap,” she chanted, using a cocktail napkin to dry the dark-red pool of tomato juice on her white pants.
For a moment, I sat there and watched her struggle. It wasn’t the most chivalrous thing to do, but I was all out of grand gestures.
She unbuckled her seat belt and lurched to her feet, her phone along with a handful of ice cubes from her lap falling to the floor. “Damn, this is going to leave a huge stain.”
The plane jerked again and she stumbled forward, crashing into the seat in front of her before I could catch her arm.
“Dammit, sit down before you get hurt.”
Ignoring me, she bent over to fish her phone from under the seat. “Hit the button for the flight attendant. I need some club soda and a lemon. STAT.”
“No, what you need is to sit down.”
I gave her arm a tug and dragged her down to the seat. Using the tip of my boot, I swept her phone toward her. Aforementioned lack of chivalry aside, I was no contortionist; leaning over to pick it up was out of the question.
She folded her upper body over my lap and blindly patted around the floor. I fought the urge to run my fingers through the back of her hair. In the beginning, it would have been a no-brainer. I’d have curled forward and suggestively whispered in her ear, “Since you’re already down there…”
She would have grinned up at me, her whole face filled with mischief as she traced a finger over my zipper, ignoring anyone who dared to watch her as she replied, “You mean down here?”
I’d have grabbed her hand and made her stop even though I was the one who had started it. She had no filter. She always took it one step too far. I’d loved that about her when we’d first met. It was fresh and exciting, a far cry from the stuffy women I’d dated in the past.
But now, she was in the past too.
We were in the past.

About Aly
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, USA Today bestselling author Aly Martinez now lives in South Carolina with her four hilarious children.
Never one to take herself too seriously, she enjoys movies that can surprise her with a twist, charcuterie boards, and her mildly neurotic golden retriever. It should be known, however, that she hates pizza and ice cream, almost as much as writing her bio in the third person.
She passes what little free time she has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a glass of wine by her side.

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Blog Tour – Broken Heir by Alison Aimes

Broken Heir by Alison Aimes is now live!

What is the one thing a sinner can’t allow? 
Temptation.
But Keira Sartin is all that and more.

A walking, talking, wet dream, she calls to every cell in Alexi’s messed-up, rule-breaking soul.

Except she’s forbidden.
Addictive.
A distraction he can’t afford.

Not when his family is depending on him and redemption is finally within reach.
Not when his mission hinges on making no waves and fulfilling his duty.
Not when she’s the sister of his bride-to-be.

What’s the one thing a troublemaker can’t afford? 
More trouble.
But Alexi Skolov is all that and more.
He’s beauty incarnate. Flesh and blood sin. Wild nights and dark pleasure.

He’s also up to no good. Which means he’s not for her.
Keira has her own objective to fulfill and he’ll only get in the way.
He’s also promised to her sister.

It should be easy for them both: just stay away. 
But running from temptation is hard. Avoiding trouble even harder—and sometimes it catches up to you, leaving you…
breathless,
begging,
broken.

Broken Heir: A Dark Fated-Mates Romance is the third book in the Ruthless Warlords series. It is a scorching HOT standalone, though it is recommended to read the series in order for greatest enjoyment.

Broken Heir also has no cheating and a HEA is guaranteed. Get ready for a steamy ride you won’t be able to put down.

Download today!
Amazon: http://mybook.to/brokenheir
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Nook: https://bit.ly/3o13ioz
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Google Play: https://bit.ly/3tzg9QY

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/34cz6zF

Read Kay’s Review: Broken Heir

Meet Alison Aimes

Alison Aimes is the award-winning author of the sizzling, dark mafia omegaverse Ruthless Warlords series as well as the steamy prison planet Condemned series. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two kids, dog and a serious stash of chocolate. 

Connect with Alison
Website | https://alisonaimes.com/ws
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Facebook Group | https://alisonaimes.com/RedHotRomance
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Cover Reveal – Hell Gate by Veronica Eden

Release Date: June 9

From USA Today and International bestselling author, Veronica Eden, comes an all-new standalone reverse harem paranormal romance with a headstrong heroine and twisted demons who left their morals in the last century.

Open the gate…if you dare.

The first thing I’m warned about when I arrive at the girls’ home is to stay away from the abandoned graveyard. Local urban legend claims it’s host to a gate to Hell.

Then I was dared…

The legend is as real as the monsters I’ve summoned by activating the gate. Demons guard it, waiting for skeptical idiots like me to do the ritual. Three sinfully hot, dangerously powerful demons.

Valerian.

Matthias.

Alder.

Ruthless.

Deadly.

Terrifying.

The gate’s three wicked protectors won’t let me get away without paying their price.

I’m at their mercy, fighting to survive them and the supernatural world they drag me into.

But none of us are prepared for what is awakening within me.

A long buried secret and hidden ancient magic will change everything.

The match is lit and together we’re all going up in flames.

Pre-Order Your Copy Here!

Add to your Goodreads TBR List!

Meet Veronica Eden

Veronica Eden is an international bestselling author of dark new adult romances + reverse harem romances with spitfire heroines and irresistible heroes.

She loves exploring complicated feelings, magical worlds, epic adventures, and the bond of characters that embrace us against the world. She has always been drawn to gruff bad boys, clever villains, and the twisty-turns of morally gray decisions. She believes sometimes the villain should get the girl and is a sucker for a deliciously devilish antihero.

Veronica also writes romance as Mara Townsend.

When not writing, she can be found soaking up sunshine at the beach, snuggling in a pile with her untamed pack of animals (her husband, dog and cats), and surrounding herself with as many plants as she can get her hands on.

To learn more about Veronica Eden, visit here!