lilibetbombshell's Reviews (2.79k)

I, for one, was thrilled when I found out Ella and Brooke had decided to spin off a new series from their Park Avenue Princes series and create the Park Avenue Kings. Park Avenue Kings is more mature, darker, sensual, seductive, secretive, dangerous, and drenched in money. 

At its bones, Savage is a bodyguard/witness trope book. That’s the base trope for the relationship, at least. The base trope for the plot is secret society + slippery drug traffickers dealing a dirty drug that’s killing people + an amateur journalist who’s in over his head, knows too much, and gets in the middle of these two groups. 

Ella and Brooke like to take tropes and plot elements and make them extra, though, and I love them for it. 

Bodyguard/witness becomes CEO of a multinational global security company and head of security for a secret society of billionaires and a tenacious, curious amateur journalist who happens to either be in the wrong place at the wrong time or the right place at the right time…depending on who you ask. The secret society happens to be a room full of billionaires around the world who could lose everything if anyone knew what they got up to in New York City at night. The slippery drug traffickers are doling out a dirty sex drug, and we know sex sells, especially in NYC. 

It’s a great spicy romance on its own, but it’s also a great set-up for the world of the Park Avenue Kings too. It runs a little long because some plot elements take time to put in place, but I can’t tell what could’ve been done to minimize or mitigate that. I loved the characters and always love a book where there’s no third act breakup (AKA the MCs can think and act rationally). 4 ⭐️

🩶 What to Expect 🩶

🍒 Meet-cute at a meet-up of two rivals gangs

💣 Who’s the hero behind the hot trench coat and black metal mask?

🍒 Say you’re an amateur without saying you’re an amateur (like by falling over something in the alley)

💣 Having fuck you money

🍒 An engineered meet-cute in a coffee shop isn’t stalkerish, right?

💣 Throwing caution out the…err…fire escape?

🍒 Hot anonymous sex with a man in a mask in your area

💣 It’s like Cinderella, except he left a glove behind

🍒 Nothing says forced proximity like a safe house

💣 Not everyone has a sex club on-site at work

🍒 Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of your own actions

💣 You’re just too good to be true, can’t keep my hands/fingers/mouth/tongue off of you

🍒 Yeah, sure, punching bags relieve stress just fine but have you ever tried sparring and then screwing?

💣 If you thought you saw someone/something no you didn’t

🍒 What do you mean “detain”?

💣 Glove kink

🍒 Is it nepotism if it was a bribe first?

I was provided a copy of this title by the author via Foreword PR. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Billionaire Romance/Book Series/Contemporary Romance/Gay Romance/LGBTQ Romance/MM Romance/Spice Level 3

Last year, when I read A Feather So Black (which received the same rating as this book), I felt it had a wobbly start but found its footing by the end of the first act and really took off after that. I also felt the ending was quite nice and it left me greatly anticipating the sequel (and here it is!). My largest complaint, other than the first act, was the lack of originality in the characters. We’ve met them before. They may have gone by other names and been in other books by other authors, but they aren’t exactly the deepest wells of originality. 

I’m thrilled to report A Crown So Silver has an absolutely excellent first act. I was riveted from the start, even if I didn’t anticipate the quality of the steamy scenes so early in the book (though they were quite welcome, as I do love steam when it’s well written and it fits). Telling you anything more than that is definitely spoilerific. 

The second act, though? Yeah, this book kind of goes…I won’t say haywire, but it does get messy. There are new characters, a new place, new magic, new friends, old enemies, new questions, new answers, new puzzles, and more and more and more. This results in the kind of fast pacing I don’t like to see, which is chaotic, hapdash pacing. It causes the book to feel like the author simply had so much story to tell it was simply shoved in where it seemed like it might fit. It becomes a series of this happens and then this happens but oh then this happens but then…

The book doesn’t come back around until the last 15% (plus or minus 5%), but when it does it comes back in a big way, and it brought back that same feeling I had at the end of A Feather So Black, where all of a sudden I was loving how the story was being wrapped up, how the main plotline of this installment was being winded down, and looking forward to the next installment. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Adult Fantasy/Book Series/Fantasy/Romantasy/Fantasy Series/Spice Level 1

It might shock you to know that people really do sometimes meet someone and think, “That one. Yup. That one is mine. I’m going to marry this person one day.” (I did, for the record. It lasted eighteen years). 

However, it probably doesn’t come as a shocker to know that some people can talk themselves into believing all sorts of delusions, including that of course they haven’t been dating their best friend since they first met! They sleep in the same bed because cuddles are nice and it’s easier to stay warm. Yeah. Take that.

As always, when it feels like things might be slowing down just a tad around town, something nasty hits the fan. This time it’s the Chinese Triad making moves around the neighborhoods and doing business in ways the boys (and the Mulvaneys) just can’t condone, like kidnapping children to extort women for goods or services. Since the child the Triad attempted to kidnap is one of Mal’s dance students, the case becomes Nico and Mal’s responsibility. Neither one of them feels ready for the responsibility, but they know what it feels like to have no one care about you, and they won’t let this girl or her mother slip through the cracks. 

Onley James never disappoints. Her books hit every time. I have a conviction inside of me that the Jericho’s Boys books are pointedly different from the Necessary Evils books not only because we were introduced to these characters as Jericho’s “wards” and as minors but because this story is far more focused on the angst, trauma, and emotional development of the main couples than the many major and interconnected plot lines that lasted throughout the NE series. We’re far more invested in these boys finding their HEA than their vigilantism, even though we have fun watching them deal out punishment to the bad guys while falling in love as much as we did with couples like Jericho and Atticus. For all of this and more, Barbarian deserves 5 stars.

🩶 What to Expect 🩶

🍒 Adorable pet names

💣 Gender-fluid dance instructor MC

🍒 Is he an adorable alien or an evil sex demon?

💣 It’s possible to share a bed without having sex, right?

🍒 Looks like an angel but is really a devil

💣 Ass-obsessed

🍒 “He’s going to be my husband someday”

💣 Is it co-dependency or curated dependence?

🍒 Rough sex (like that’s unexpected, lol)

💣 Insightful art criticism

🍒 Unfiltered group chats

💣 Search: What’s the difference between a sadist and a psychopath?

🍒 ADHD rep

💣 Autism rep

🍒 That would be the pain meds talking

💣 Honestly, who doesn’t Thomas know?

🍒 Adoration of breakfast foods

💣 Degradation & praise kink

I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Dark Romance/Found Family/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Spice Level 3/Vigilante Justice

I thought the "something rotten" in the title was in regards to the parent-child relationship in the book, but no. It refers to the idiom, "There's something rotten in Denmark", since the book takes place in Denmark and it's just another book about self-centered adults. Not the vibe. 

In the world Remy Bishop has built with the Fated in the Stars omegaverse series, things that are meant to be will be. It may take a while, and some major stuff may go down in order to get there, but you can rest assured that the Mother Goddess has a plan. 

I have been reading Fated in the Stars since it first started in its serial format over on Ream and have been cheering Remy on with each chapter. I’m lucky that she’s been so receptive when I’ve caught an error here or had a question there and have managed to strike up a nice friendship with her over the intervening months. If you think that will make me take it easier on her in this review I’m pretty sure she’d be the first to tell you no, considering I was turning in suggestions on proofreading and edits even as I was reading this early copy. 

Threads of Fate only covers a small portion of what’s available in the first season of the story over on Ream, but it covers a good amount of groundwork for who the main characters are, how they got to where they are, what the first main conflict (and villain) of the series is, and serves as an overall introduction to the type of omegaverse world Bishop decided to put together in order for an all-male polyamorous pack of eight to work without the interpersonal dynamics and spice scenes getting repetitive. (Oh, and if you thought this book was spicy you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!)

One of the major reasons I love Threads of Fate (and the Fated in the Stars serial, by extension) is because of how well Bishop writes her characters and how she lets her diversity flag fly when it comes to gender expression, kinks, gender identity, and sexuality. The decision to write a story with an all-male, fully polyamorous pack with men who are all so different also allowed her a lot of room to work within the spectrum of masculinity while making an example of those toxic men who eschewed pack and community. 

Plus, it’s just all so hot. It really, really is. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. 

File Under: Book Series/Contemporary Romance/Gay Romance/Kindle Unlimited/Kink Friendly/LGBTQ Romance/Omegaverse/Polyamorous Romance/Rock Star Romance/Spice Level 3

You ever read a book that had one large feature that ruined the book for you?

That’s what happened to me with Everything is Poison. 

Every chapter of this book had a poem before it (chapter one would end and there would be a poem before chapter two, etc). I’ve seen this storytelling tactic work before, to great effect. Not here, however, because the poems were bad. This is solely my opinion and I know poetry is one of the most subjective written mediums out there but I just thought every single one was a waste of page count and storytelling space. If they were even marginally better I could’ve rolled my eyes a little and just dismissed them as amateur attempts, but these poems were truly bad. I completely question why McCullough thought they were a good idea. 

This book is marketed as a YA book but I don’t really feel like teenage girls will appreciate it as the target demographic due to the emphasis on listening to your elders, not being able to match people’s energy, and having to hide your rage against men because of the consequences it might bring to your doorstep. At the same time, the target demographic might appreciate the attention to historical details when it comes to herbal remedies and reading anything related to Guilia Tofana (which is why I wanted to read this book). 

It just wasn’t a good book for me. I suspect it’ll be a great book for some, though. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Reviews rated three stars or under will not appear on my social media. Thank you.

Is it a curse or a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Either way, Clara Wieland’s favorite song is probably (likely) Taylor Swift’s “The Prophecy”, because boy does she wish there wasn’t such a thing as the Wieland Curse, whether it does or doesn’t exist (she believes it does…her brother and best friend don’t). 

The delightful in-book Wikipedia entries tell us readers about the many deaths of members of the Wieland family, some from the most unusual and astonishing circumstances. While the public consciousness within the world of this book seems utterly captivated with the Wieland Family Curse, once has to wonder: Is it a curse or is it just the unchecked negligence of a family that has so much money it seems there’s no problem they can’t simply solve without throwing cash or their name at it?

This modern gothic technothriller has complex family dynamics that will cause you to emotionally invest yourself more than you’d expect from such a story, the plot is not only engaging and compelling but also manages to throw plenty of twists and turns in without ever feeling like it’s making things complex for complexity’s sake, and the political/social undertones give the whole story dynamic a murky, seedy feeling that lingers after the last page has been turned. 

 

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and the author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Gothic Fiction/Literary Fiction/Suspense Thriller

I need to accept I don't like anything close to cozy. 

Sometimes books just don’t turn out to be what you expected, and that’s okay. 

Is The Favorites a bad book? Not really. Is it a good book? Not really. 

The storytelling format of first-person POV alternating with pieces of another media format (in this case it’s a documentary but most often in the past few years it’s been podcasts) has never been a favorite of mine. I find it annoying and feel it takes away from the narrative flow of the story. In the case of this book I felt like it boiled down the supporting characters in the story to cookie cutter stereotypes, making it easy to guess certain plot twists ahead of time. 

While I enjoyed the plot I didn’t enjoy how it was carried out. I guess you could say the plot was intriguing but the story that was told with the plot was less so. I expected something a little darker and more thrilling, and this read more like a scintillating soap opera. At times it kind of felt like I was closer to reading Danielle Steele than what I thought I was going to read when I requested this book. It’s juicy, with complicated relationships and a lot of drama. 

I wouldn’t re-read this and I won’t recommend it because it simply doesn’t vibe with what I look to keep on my bookshelves, but if you like your reads dramatic, romantic, intense, and soapy, then I think you might like it a whole lot. 

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher and author via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Reviews rated three stars or lower will not appear on my social media Thank you.