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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Blood to Dust



Blood to Dust by L.J. Shen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★★
Characters: ★★★
Narration: ★★★★★

Overall rating: 3.5


This book, while the blurb sounded good just didn't hit the mark for me with the insta-lust predictability. I struggled with this one from the beginning, but finally finished the audiobook.

The one thing I do have to say about the narrator for the audiobook was, while in the beginning i thought he was going to put me to sleep, it was his ability to bring each character *and* their accent, to life that kept me hanging on to this book.

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Bound by Melody Anne



Bound by Melody Anne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★
Story: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★

Overall rating: 3.6


This was an odd book for me, I neither hated it or loved it, just middle of the road.

The blurb did catch my interest, and the book was picked for me in a "Pick-It-For-Me" Challenge on my group. But I'm not sure it would have been one that I would have chosen for myself. I guess that's part of the challenge, to expand our reading. :)

Jewell Weston is homeless at 24, with her mother dead she is trying to regain custody of her little brother, but the courts say she can't since she has no job, no money, and no stable home.

So in search of a job she is led to "Relinquish Control", an exclusive escort service that caters to the very rich.

Blake Knight is a cold hearted asshat (in my no so humble opinion), who is gifted an exclusive membership to Relinquish Control by his younger brother.

Blake has no interest in going and/or getting an escort from the establishment. But he ends up doing so anyway, mainly out of curiosity. While on the tour of the place he sees Jewell (of course), and she's the one he wants. However, McKenzie, who owns and runs the business refuses since Jewell is so new and hasn't been properly trained.

But, money can buy whatever a man like Blake wants, and Blake wants Jewell and he has the money to back up that particular want. He feels that he can train her to meet his specific.... "need".

The rest becomes pretty standard cookie cutter BDSM with a few twists and turns thrown in.

I felt like the end of this book ended in a bit of a cliffy, even though Blake and Jewell's story seemed to be complete, it opened the door to other characters.

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Empire by Lili St. Germain





Empire by Lili St. Germain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★

Overall rating: 5.0


OMG! What a ride! Lili hits another one out of the park!

5 star series start to finish!

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Kingpin by LIli St. Germain



Kingpin by Lili St. Germain

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★

Overall rating: 5.0



The second book in the Cartel Series was even better than the first! I could not put this book down, I'm not sure why I haven't read this book before now, but damn sure happy that I have!

Kingpin picks up 9 years later and we find Mariana is now the "Accountant" for the Gypsy Brothers/El Sangue Cartel. For 9 years she's lived on the knife's edge of life, never knowing when or if Emilio is going to snap and kill her or worse... because with Emilio, there is always worse.

Emilio's son Dornon is still able to keep his relationship with Mariana a secret.

But Dornon is starting to get suspicious of Mariana. Is she telling him the truth? Is she hiding something from him? Is there someone else? It's easier for Dornan to not think too much on these things.

Dornan's character, in my opinion, has firmly planted both of his feet on the dark path of his life.

I'm loving this series!

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The Ties That Bind (Slave World #2) by Johnny Stone





The Ties That Bind by Johnny Stone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-Read

Original Review



Reread February 6, 2017

Did a reread of this book for a group challenge, and three years later it still took my breath away. I remember working with Mr. Stone on this book, the everyday rereads and re-writes. Going over the plot, changing this and changing that until it was the best we could possibly want. And after letting it sit for all these years than doing a reread I still enjoyed this book like it was the first time.

This book is still a solid 5 star read for me, and will more than likely be a reread again in my future!

--------------------------

Okay. Catching my breath! That. Was. Excellent!! Johnny Stone took the story of his first book in the Slave World trilogy so much further in this sequel, Slave World: The Ties That Bind, than I thought was possible.

This is a Science Fiction based story with elements of BDSM incorporated throughout.

Margo, as we know from book 1 of this story, is an anthropomorphic female. She was a woman that was enslaved and taken to Slave World where her DNA was altered along with her appearance. She now has the perfect body, the perfect face, perfect everything. She is given perfection, but at the same time has had everything taken from her.

Nathan, the love of Margo's life. The man she wants most in the world to be her Master. To use her as the submissive slave that she is. Nathan doesn't want to be that in her life. But he does try, for her. Because he loves her.

As Nathan and Margo are leaving the Slave World Ranch in search of Margo's ship that was stolen from her when she was kidnapped, even more treachery is afoot, and they are forcibly separated. I felt so much sadness for them. For Margo who lived and breathed for Nathan and for Nathan who wanted this woman in any and all ways. Again, the cruel hand of fate is not kind to Margo, which seems to be the story of her existence. She is again kidnapped and held against her will by someone that is even more evil and vile than Master Michael was in the first book.

But Margo has a very deep and dark secret, and it's this secret that she calls on in the worst of times. The secret within her that takes over and helps her survive. And I mean this in the literal sense of the word!

We get to meet new characters like, Sergeant Major James Wroth and Private Sandra "Snake" Fullerton, a.k.a. "Sandy". My two favorite fun characters! Wroth is a sexy and funny man, mostly sexy because he's funny! Sandy is a tough but broken woman who has demons of her own, but still finds time to throw some snarkiness right back at the man she loves to hate. When these two get together they are like dynamite with a very short, lit fuse. Anyone standing close is sure to feel the burn of sexual heat coming from these two. But they also work well together on this very important mission. I promise you'll fall in love with Wroth and his many "Wrothisms"! You'll also fall in love with how he and Sandy fall in love with each other.

And Cherise... sweet Cherise. She is Margo's caretaker for a while and then her friend. She is a sweet and kind self-aware AI, which can be a dangerous combination, but you come to believe that she's so much more than that.

There are other very interesting characters some you'll remember from the first Slave World, like Donna, Cirus, Ashley, and Donovan. There are some new and intriguing characters, and some will come as a surprise. There are other worlds, one, Eden, is full self-aware AI.

I absolutely, love, love, LOVED this book! It's a non-stop, can't put it down even if I wanted to, book. The characters are well written, the world building is so in-depth that you'll actually be able to visualize it as you read the words.

I can't go to much further in-depth in my review without giving away plot spoilers. This is one that you have to read for yourself to appreciate. And ohhh the best thing about the end of this story? It leaves you wanting MORE! And there is more to come in Slave World 3 which will conclude this trilogy.

Reading Slave World, the first book is a must before reading this sequel to get the background history on main characters in this carefully crafted world of extraordinary characters.

This book is another solid 5 star read for me!

Solid 5 stars!

*I have the continuous privilege to interact with the author here on Goodreads and in my personal life. With that said and even though I was involved on a daily basis as this story developed, and was written by the author, I believe this to be a true, fair, objective and honest representation of my opinion of this book*

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Murder in the Yoga Store



Murder In The Yoga Store by Peter Ross Range

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★★★
Story: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★

Overall rating: 4.6


I'm a fan of true crime, but I don't get a lot of time or opportunity to read it. I needed a book for a reading challenge that called for non-fiction and I stumbled on to this little gem.

It's short and quick and it lead me to look further into this true story even after I'd finished to find out what happened further down the road.

This book was troubling and very sad and I really felt for the victim and her family. The author does a great job of sticking to the facts and writing in such a way as to not sensationalize this tragedy.

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