Wolf’s Honor, by Ambrielle Kirk

Desperate times and all that; the theme for this month’s TBR Challenge is “furry friends” and look, I’m sorry, I’m going with shapeshifter romance–because it’s literally the day before, and this ARC has been sitting in the digital TBR since early 2015 (gah!) and it’s supposed to be around 150 pages. (Don’t judge me!)

Fun sidebar: I truly expected that most of the challenge participants would go for pets rather than shapeshifters, and honestly, having been around romancelandia for this long, I really should have known better.

Beware: explicit sex; attempted rape as backstory; fated mates; violence and some gore.

Master of Dragons, by Angela Knight

This is my entry for July’s TBR Challenge, and I’m making it fit in a very idiosyncratic way: I was aiming for any unread print book in my house, published at least 20 years ago (VINTAGE, get it?). Of course, I couldn’t find even one (watch me find a dozen as soon as the review is up). So I moved my goal to “oldest paper ARC in my possession”, and…look, I’ve had it for over fifteen years, I’m going with it (not taking bets on how many I’ve actually have had for longer, or how soon after posting I’ll find at least three).

It’s been a minute since I’ve read any of Ms Knight’s work, and this is the fifth novel (and eighth overall installment) in the Mageverse series, so please do take that into account when reading this review.

Reader, beware: there’s quite a bit of sex on the page, as well as more than a bit of violence; USA/Britsh/Western-centric, with a touch of Islamophobia (see footnote 1).

Opening Up, by Lauren Dane

I am generally a fan of Ms Dane’s work, with the Federation Chronicles, and their spinoff, the Phantom Corps novels, being my favorites by her.

However, what with my TBR taking over my house (yes, I have a problem, but admitting it hasn’t helped me any–and no, thanks, I don’t want help with this particular problem), I had not read anything new by her in a while. Then I realized that Falling Under was coming out this month, and since–thanks to Sela Carsen–I seem to be finally getting over the reading slump from hell, I decided to start the series at the beginning, so I treated myself to this book.

Usual warning: this is an erotic romance, with graphic language and graphic sex. If you object to either, do us both a favor, and skip this one.

Opening Up, by Lauren Dane

This is the first in the Ink and Chrome series, about a group (three?) friends who co-own a “hot rod and motorcycle shop”–whatever that actually means.¹

At any rate, Asa is an ex-Marine, with a love for cars and motorcycles, a need for adrenaline, and little compunction to engage in the occasional bout of recreational violence (he and his partner belong to a bare-knuckle Fight Club, among other things). PJ is the youngest daughter of the CEO of Colman Tires, a family business started by her paternal grandfather, a former race driver.

Shared interests and a common language set the stage for their relationship, even though there’s some early (and rather inconsequential) angst about their age difference.

Here’s the blurb from the author’s website:

One Night of Scandal, by Elle Kennedy

I am finally getting around to posting my review to the middle book in Ms Kennedy’s After Hours trilogy.

This is, by my reckoning, only the second time I post reviews of series or trilogies out of order, even though I read the books in order.¹ Since I know I was planning on reviewing all three, because I like them all, I can’t for the life of me figure out how I skipped the middle one.

At any rate, here it is.

Usual warning: this is an erotic romance, so there’s plenty of sex written graphically. The adult people depicted speak the way most adult people do–expect curses and other crude language.

One Night of Scandal, by Elle Kennedy

Even though this is the second in a trilogy, I think it can be easily read as a stand alone, as there is enough background information to bring readers up to speed, without a lot of info dumping.

The story centers around one of the three owners of Sin, a fairly popular Boston nightclub, and his crush on one the (now ex) girlfriend of one of his two closest friends. These three guys have been friends for a good long time, and all three fought successfully in the Boston MMA circuit. Long enough and successfully enough to be able to open a high scale nightclub and have it in the black within a few years of opening night.

Here’s the blurb from the author’s website: