This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨✨


First Impressions
To Love A Beast is the first book in a newest series but still has the fairy tale theme to her other series. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it definitely was so satisfying and worth the wait on it. I really adore how this author writes fairy tale retelling, she really stays true to the original while at the same time putting her own twist on it and its utterly delightful. I am curious what the next fairy tale will be (kinda hoping for little mermaid next but we will see). To Love A Beast had all the heart, inspiration and heartwarming character that melt deep inside of you.

First Line
Everett Griffin strutted through the halls of the Union Club like a thoroughbred stallion on the auction block-for that's what he was.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Everett Griffin (The Beast)
The Heroine: Callista Rosenfeld (Our Belle)

Summary
To Love a Beast started our with Everett Griffin, who was one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City, he had everything at his fingertips until one of the woman he was courting showed her true color and attacked him when he turned her down. He became disfigured and a beast to all who saw him. He settled in Texas, in a small community and built a massive manor that was full of gloom and doom. Then enters our heroine, Callista, who is the daughter of a book binder and when he becomes injured, she takes over. When Everett request his services, Callista goes in his stead. Callista never expected a man to be so rude but she was determined to let it not get to her, to remain steady through it all. Soon her steady patient nature, will bring out the real man that is hidden beneath the beastly exterior, but will he be able to win her heart and affection?

What I Loved
This story really showcases what real love is ALL about. I loved the fierce way in which we see their love blossom. The patience of it, the way they give so much to each other and are willing to sacrifice for one another's happiness. Its shows the true nature of love and what we should all strive towards. What I love about Inspirational romance is how it truly inspires you to be a better person and Karen Witemeyer truly takes it to another level.

To Love A Beast had so many fun connections to the original. The father being an quirky character. The heroine knowing his trade just as much as he does. The hero living in a glooming manor like castle (even has gargoyles on it lol ), then we have Mrs Potts (The cook and housekeeper) who is like a mother hen. The valet and the butler who have this fun banter going at it. One likes to play around with clocks and the other is all about fashion. We have a beautiful library room. And the epic dance. And seeing the change and growth in our characters and seeing them fight for one another. I think the heroine could have been willing to do a bit more sacrificing for the hero, but it makes sense as to why she doesn't. So I didn't hold it against her. I did love seeing the change in Everett especially. He literally was traumatized by a she devil (literally she was insane and had to be put in a mental institution type of insane) We do have a jealous villain. And how it all plays out was just perfection. I didn't want to put their story down. But what made this book even better was the love that blossoms between them so deeply. Seeing how selfless they are for each other in the effort to make one another better and to not think about the self in the process was beyond beautiful. I just wanted to stay in this book and their moments forever!!!

What I Struggled With
Nothing much, I think in the end I kinda wish the heroine had fought for the hero a bit more but she is also a devoted daughter so you can feel how torn she is on it.

Narration
I really have adored the narration that this author has for her books, and this one was wonderful. Not the best narration, some of the tones of some of the characters were kinda strange, but loved the ones for the main characters.

Overall View
To Love A Beast was a fascinating retelling that swept me up in the magic and selfless love of the tale while reinforcing a bold connection to God at the same time. It was timeless and truly magical!

Favorite Quote(s)
She longed to know this man, deeply and personally, not simply to feed the attraction she felt towards him. But because she sense if he opened the door to her he could open the door to others. It would give him the freedom to face the world as himself, and not as a man cloaked in mystery and scandal. She took her courage in hand and opened the gate and praying he wouldn't throw it in her face.


Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Historical Romance, Inspirational Romance
Character Types: Softer FMC, Tortured Hero, Protector
Themes: Small Town, Danger/Suspense, Beauty and the Beast
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Fairy Tale Retelling

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Both

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Mary Connealy
Anita Stansfield
Jody Hedlund

Song This Book Inspires
If I Can't Love Her-Kane Alexander

Recommendation For Reading Order
Standalone

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Narrators:
Cara Firestone 

 

My Review:

So this was a interesting insight into Bran, Samuel and Ariana. We get to see a lot of history to these characters and how they are woven so deeply into this world. We get the beginnings of Samual and Ariana. I loved seeing the connection between Bran and Samuel and the heartbreaking moments with the witch that enslaved them for so many years. You see the heartbreak, the conflict that rises in these interesting moments and I think readers that are a fan of the series, will really have a fun time with this one here. But also if you are new to the series, you can start here if you would like as well.

 

 

This is one of the novella stories from the Dark Protector series by this author. This is where we have a bodyguard/protector type of situation. This was a very fast read, took me about 30 minutes to actually read it. It was fun returning to this series and I have been wanting to get to the novella's here. I really loved the way in which this story was implemented. I loved seeing our hero starting out in the prologue connecting with this young girl. And then to see the way he connects to the heroine was fabulous. I loved his alpha protective attitude and was willing to stand up to the heroine (man I LOVED that….one of my favorite microtropes actually) This is something so powerful about this author, she doesn't shy away from a good alpha male. The heroine was solid, I felt like she was a bit naïve and could act TSTL sometimes. Just would easily rush head first into a situation without thinking about it, but she does learn a bit. Overall though this was a fun quick vampire read that was the palette cleanser that I was looking for.

 

 

My Review:

Changing Tides is a book from a series I have been curious about as I have been seeing it around Instagram quite a bit. And so I decided to grab up the first book. I am honestly confused by this book lol I am not sure if others felt the same way after reading it, but it honestly was the strangest secret baby romance I have ever read. I am not sure what the author was aiming to do or how she wanted to write this one, but it felt so disjointed at times. We hardly see mention of it being a secret baby until 85% lol Very rarely does the reveal of it actually take this long. And even though as a reader you know its a secret baby but there is no inner monologue of it or any build up of why the heroine kept it a secret. In fact I am still baffled why she didn't tell him. And another issue of this is she blamed him even though he had no clue. She just wasn't willing to take accountability for her actions or even be patient with the hero when he was upset about it. Apparently he was just supposed to get over it and be fine with her deceiving him. And while some aspects I enjoyed like seeing them reconnect with these cute little dates or seeing him bond with his daughter, I just struggled with this one because it didn't make sense the important things. And I wanted to see more emotional intimacy being built between them. There was a bit too much spice in this book and not enough relationship building being implemented within the story.

I am not sure if this is a fluke from the author, I will give another book of hers a try because I don't like to give up too quickly with an author, but I wasn't too impressed with this one here as it needed some editing and polish on it overall.

 

 

My Review:

So Unfortuantely I am DNF this book and its not because I wasn't enjoying it because there was aspects to this story I was really loving. I was soaking up the history elements like a sponge, I loved the perspective that is shares on WWII and what it was like as a citizen in the Soviet Union and being slowly invaded by Germany. I actually had never read a story with this aspect in it so it was fascinating. I absolutely adored our hero Alexander, I honestly had zero issues with him.

The issues I did have: How the love triangle was implemented, not seeing more perspective from Alexander and how the heroine just didn't seem invested in Alexander like he was for her. I understand she had more devotion to her family (even though they treated her horribly and never appreciated her) but somehow they were higher priority for her than a man who would do anything for her.

The reasoning of me DNF this book halfway through is that I was participating in a read along and how they treated my perspective just has made me lose interest in reading this book any further. They were very patronizing some of them and implied I was a bad reader because I am the type of reader that wants to resonate on some level with the characters. Its a different perspective but it was implied that I should love every character in books I read and that its wrong of me to be critical of actions they take. (do we live in the twilight zone lol ) So I am setting this book and series aside for now. This groups' words really hurt me and I just need some time before I can come back to these.

 

My Review:

This book was a pure delight and so refreshing. Something I have loved about this series is the refreshing feel of a take it has on the mafia world that this author has created. I love the humor, the banter between the family members but also the deep heart that is hidden in the layers of the story. This features our hero, who has been working undercover for the FBI but is becoming entrenching and bonded with this mafia family. Then we have our heroine, who is damaged and hiding the abuse she suffered with bravado and a prickly outer core. But Tank knows that something is wrong, something that hurt his girl to turn her from bright and bubbly and sweet into being bitter and outrageous in ways that don't fit her heart.

I loved seeing Tank work on our heroine, to dig deep and peel one layer at a time to really understand the woman he loves, and to shed his own ego and pride and share their own vulnerabilities together. The sense of family is powerful in these books and they get so outrageous and fun, so its definitely not your normal mafia romance you normally read. I had a fun time with Mafia King and this was a good one to be part of the 1001 Dark Nights series as well. Definitely eager to explore the rest of the series.

 My Review:

Dark Dream is the story of Falcon and Sara and the kids that they protect. Sara has been on the run from a vampire for 15 years, he murdered her family and she has been on the run ever since but she is protective over the children she has bonded with. She then runs into Falcon, who is a Carpathian who for hundreds of years was sent by the father of their prince to be warriors and face eternity alone. He never imagined he would find his lifemate.....but Sara is his. Only Sara has a vampire who is hunting her and it will take working with the prince and his brother to bring him down.

I really had a fun time with Dark Dream and I was so happy to find the audiobook for this one since I love this narrator for this series. They had a great connection, and the banter that we see among Mikhail and Jacque was super neat. I loved that this was a bit earlier in the series. And the third act kept me on edge from beginning to end. So I had a blast with this one here. 

 

My Review:

The Surprise is part of a connecting series to the Seattle world. This series has characters that are 2nd generation children from many of the earlier main couples of the "With Me In Seattle" books.

The Surprise is a story that features a second chance with some groveling and where groveling was needed. I did enjoy this book for the most part, but I did feel like this book just didn't feel right to me in how their issues get resolved. I think some of the reason why they seperated was more confusion and miscommunication from both of them. But it felt like the heroine twisted the hero's reasons and the heroine was to blame for part of it too and didn't seem to think she needed to apologize for it. That it was all the "man's" fault and she was the only party that got hurt. It just felt so misconstrued in their issues being resolved. I really did love the hero though and the premise was interesting, the plot and relationship aspects just I had some issues with in how it evolved in the end.

So while not my favorite Kristen Proby, it definitely is her signature type of story especially for a novella.

 

 

Valentine's Novella is a novella that takes place after the first two books and I don't know how I didn't know that this novella existed. I really adored this story. This is basically where River and Ky are manipulated lol into celebrating V Day cause they think its a pansy holiday. Well they celebrate it anyway and it was so endearing. I love seeing River do his marriage proposal, and had me swooning all over the place. Just delightful. So happy I was able to find it.

 

 This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨


First Impressions
Master No was the long awaited novel of a plot line that has been building for quite a few books when Ten was first introduced to us. I really loved this hero and I just have such a soft spot for being on the run from corrupt officials in the government and this author handled this element so perfectly. The premise of this story was fascinating. We have such a protective hero who is holding secrets from Faith, but its secrets that you can understand why he is keeping them. Faith is a bit naive at parts but we see some character growth from her. The plot is what really worked for me for this one, and the quiet intimate moments between Ten and Faith was packed with so much heart and intimacy it could make a romance reader weep for joy in the beauty of it.

First Line
Tennessee Smith took a deep breath, his body aching.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Tennessee Smith
The Heroine: Faith MacDonald

Summary
Master No is the long awaited novel that features Tennessee Smith, who is having to work undercover to hide from the government who want him dead because he discovered them being traitors to the country. But he has a chance to get freedom, and his freedom lies in the heart of Dr. Faith "Mac" McDonald. Faith is the daughter of the Senator who is behind the corruption and wanting the death of Ten. Faith is a doctor and scientist who works with diseases and she has no comprehension how evil her father is until she comes to the states and falls in love with this sexy Dom. But Faith will have to work through feelings of pain and betrayal and learn the value in trust in the one that holds her heart and connects to her in a way no one ever has...

What I Loved
There were many aspects of this story I truly enjoyed. The first being the plot of the story. I loved the premise of the hero needing to get information and freedom from being forced on the run to survive and Faith being the daughter of his enemy. You see the struggle that he has in keeping the truth of her but not knowing how to reveal it to her so that she won't betray him as she believes her father and sister to be good and do nothing wrong. Faith has her own strength but I liked that she wasn't curvy lol It was so refreshing just to have a normal heroine. I loved that she was intelligent, strong but not a super kick ass heroine. I loved the intimacy between Ten and Faith. The BDSM moments were so endearing and I loved the bond that they formed within those moments together.

What I Struggled With
The heroine was so naive at times. She has issues with her father and sister, but won't click the pieces into place that they are evil. Even when she has evidence, she won't believe Ten when he tells the truth. And it took her too long to come to the truth and it costs Ten so dearly. The way she reacted to this is the reason why this isn't a five star read, because everything else about this I truly loved.

Narration
I did a mix of this in audio and ebook and I really enjoyed having both format. I am disappointed this series got switched to Audible only though, because my library subscriptions didn't have them anymore so I will be settling for ebooks moving forward on these books.

Overall View
Master No was a story that kept me on edge, it was fiery, a sexy page turner that dug deeper into the heart and keep you hooked till the end.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Erotic Romance
Character Types: Alpha Male, Doctor/Nurse, Softer FMC
Themes: Heart/Emotional, BDSM Elements, Page Turner
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Mistaken Identity

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Both

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Beth Kery
Shayla Black
Maya Banks

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes you do need to read this series in order

Steam/Spice Explanations

Simmering cup of tea---soft warm touches and light intimacy
Warmin' by the fire- a medium level of sexual tension, a balance of sexual and emotional intimacy, lighter on the details in the sexual moments.
Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.
Blazing fire to the building-The prime focus is the sex scenes, scorching hot, and could burn one. Less focus on the emotional intimacy to the relationship.

Narrators:
Ryan West