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Book Review: Endless by Crystal Ash

B

The Gist: A satisfying conclusion to the STEEL DEMONS MC series that explores parenting, the leftover trauma of war and rebuilding for a hope-filled future.

Series: Steel Demons MC, #9.5

Release Date: December 3, 2021

Synopsis
Our love is endless.

The war is over. Finally, we can breathe and be a family.

With the worst moments of our lives behind us, we have only the future to look forward to. Our twins arrived nearly four years after the Sha was defeated, and now we face a new challenge–parenthood.

Whether it’s our daughter taunting the chickens or our son’s fear of water, we’ll take the highs and lows of raising them in stride. Most importantly, they’ll never know the horror and loss their parents endured. Our children will be protected and loved endlessly.

The gods haven’t spoken to us in years, but we’ve never stopped listening. When they have a message, we’ll be ready.

Endless is an epilogue novella to the Steel Demons MC series. It is not “required” reading, as the story ends in Merciless. This book shares a slice of life for the Steel Demons characters after the series ends.

Ending
HEA
Representation
• Latina Heroine
• Latino Hero
• Deaf Side Character
Possible Triggers: None
• No abuse
• No overly sad parts
Safety Rating: Safe
No cheating
No OW/OM drama
No pushing away
No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 4.5-stars

Note: I received Endless from Elite Author Service in exchange for an honest review.

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Fervent Yet Vexing: The Boss by Melanie Moreland

F

The Gist: A dark romantic suspense novel that boasts a sweet romance yet proves vexing with its double standards.

Series: Men of Hidden Justice, #1*

Release Date: October 14, 2021

Synopsis
Men of Hidden Justice
Because love can bleed into the darkest heart

Terrified and on the run, I was lost.
He found me.

I witnessed his crime and he gave me a choice.
Marriage or death.

I never expected to love him.
But the choices were never really mine.

Could this avenging angel of death ever love me back?
His touch consumed me.

Did my heart stand a chance?

Previously published on Book+Main and in Take Me To Bed Collection. New added content for a complete romantic suspense experience.

Ending
HEA with Epilogue
Representation
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Suicide attempt (on-page)
• Gun violence
• Murder
• Reference to child pornography and sex trafficking
• Attempted murder
• reference to/discussion of abusive romantic relationship
— Heroine’s stalker is an ex-boyfriend of 6-months
*** there’s no physical abuse in the MCs relationship. However, there are some scenes that can be off-putting for some:
—— the couple have a discussion after a heated argument where the Hero mentions he stayed away because he was angry, feeling out of control and scared he would’ve physically lashed out:
—— Heroine is unable to leave the house without Hero’s permission because he has enemies.
• Reference to kidnapping
Safety Rating: Safe with Exceptions
No cheating
No OW/OM drama
Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 3-stars

*Each book in the series is Standalone

Note: I received The Boss from Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Suspenseful Yet Inconsistent: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

S

The Gist: A suspenseful novel told in two timelines, 1791 and 2020, explores the motives behind unsolved apothecary murders yet, unfortunately, suffers from inconsistent pacing.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: March 2, 2021

Synopsis
A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them—setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course. Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose—selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

Ending
HEA for Eliza and Caroline. Nella makes peace with her life and choices before passing for her illness (I imagine because her death wasn’t explicitly on-page).
Representation
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Murder
• Allusion to pedophilia
• Description of past miscarriage
• Infidelity
• Self-harm — Caroline’s husband purposefully poisons himself to manipulate Caroline in the hopes of winning her back
• Discussion of suicide
Mature Themes: Yes
• the business of murder
• (im)morality of revenge and vengeance
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 3.5-stars

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Poignant and Impassioned: My Saving Grace by Melanie Moreland

P
Cover of "My Saving Grace" by Melanie Moreland

The Gist: A poignant forbidden romance packed with some classic romance tropes: married in Vegas, grumpy Hero, employee-boss relationship and a second chance romance. The novel is riddled with angst and sweet moments and explores what it means to find The One at the exact wrong time and a Hero who will do all he can to win his girl back. Unfortunately, the plot suffers from a dumb misunderstanding, which detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.

Series: ABC Corp, #1*

Release Date: February 25, 2021

Synopsis
It’s time for the next generation of Vested Interest to find their Happily Ever Afters.

Grace VanRyan has her life mapped out. Law school, a career with ABC, and a bright future ahead of her.

Until Jaxson Richards steps into the picture. He’s everything she hasn’t planned for. Older, sexy, off-limits.

And her new boss.

When the passion between them explodes, will her life blow up along with it?

Ending
HEA
Representation
• Gay supporting character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Sexual harassment
• Blackmail
• Child abuse and abandonment
• Reference to drug abuse and a child being a drug courier
• Near death experience in a gas like explosion
Safety Rating: Safe
No cheating
No OM drama
Does kinda have OW drama
– The Hero is never with the OW but she sexually harasses him at work once on-page and becomes an issue later on in the MCs relationship.
• the Hero and Heroine pushing away
Does have the Hero pushing the Heroine away
No separation
– They work together but they do break up romantically for a few weeks
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: eARC

Rating: 4-stars

*Each novel in the series is Standalone

Note: I received My Saving Grace through Melanie Moreland’s team in exchange for an honest review.

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Gut-wrenching and Healing: The Cabin by Jasinda Wilder

G

The Gist: A gut-wrenching, tear-jerker of a romance novel that transforms itself into a book of healing and convincing second-chance love–although its enjoyability is severely limited by the frustrating characterization of its Heroine.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: October 22, 2020

Synopsis
One year ago, I buried my husband.

One year ago, I held his hand and said goodbye.

Now I spend most of my days lost somewhere between trying to remember every smallest detail of our lives, and trying to forget it all. I fill my hours with work until I’m too exhausted to remember him, to feel anything at all.

One year, 365 days—and then one knock at my door changes everything. A letter from him, a last request, a secret will:

My dearest Nadia,

Trust me, my love. One last time, trust me. Sometimes the epilogue to one story is the beginning of another.

Ending
HEA (married and expecting a baby)
Representation
• Black Biracial supporting character
Possible Triggers: Yes
• Cancer
• Death of loved ones
• Grief
• Depression
• Suicidal ideation
• References of miscarriage
Safety Rating: Not Safe
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
— But the Heroine’s husband dies from cancer at ~30% into the novel. So, the reader gets his POV. He’s really the first Hero.
— The Hero (who the Heroine eventually gets with) is also grieving *his* dead wife
• Does have the Heroine pushing the Hero away
• No separation
Note: the Safety Rating is Not Safe because the reader reads the Heroine’s husband — who she’s very much in love with — die on page in both their POVs.
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 3.5-stars

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Riveting Yet Demoralizing: If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

R

Series: Standalone

Release Date: April 21, 2020

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
A riveting debut novel set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, about four young women making their way in a world defined by impossibly high standards of beauty, secret room salons catering to wealthy men, strict social hierarchies, and K-pop fan mania.

“Even as a girl, I knew the only chance I had was to change my face… even before a fortune-teller told me so.”

Kyuri is a heartbreakingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a “room salon,” an exclusive bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink. Though she prides herself on her cold, clear-eyed approach to life, an impulsive mistake with a client may come to threaten her livelihood.

Her roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who grew up in an orphanage but won a scholarship to study art in New York. Returning to Korea after college, she finds herself in a precarious relationship with the super-wealthy heir to one of Korea’s biggest companies.

Down the hall in their apartment building lives Ara, a hairstylist for whom two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star and a best friend who is saving up for the extreme plastic surgery that is commonplace.

And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to get pregnant with a child that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise and educate in the cutthroat economy.

Together, their stories tell a gripping tale that’s seemingly unfamiliar, yet unmistakably universal in the way that their tentative friendships may have to be their saving grace.

<strong>Ending:</strong>
Surprisingly hopeful
<strong>Representation</strong>
• South Korean main and supporting characters
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Parental abandonment
• Physical assault (on-page and off-page, one instance resulting in one main character, Ara becoming mute)
• Emotional abuse
• Discussion of abortion
• Discussion of miscarriage
• Cheating
• Discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation
• Discussion of murder and suicide of sex workers
Title
Miho’s relationship with her boyfriend: Not Safe
• Does have cheating
• No OM
• Does have OW
— He cheats on her with a sex worker (a friend of Miho’s roommate) and is engaged to a woman from a family of similar economic wealth to him
• Does have Miho pushing Hanbin away
• No separation

Wonna’s relationship with her husband: Safe with Exception
• No cheating
• No OW/OM drama
• Does have Wonna pushing her husband away
• Does have a separation between Wonna and her husband (a permanent one, I think)
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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Calming and Genuine: The Secret Women by Sheila Williams

C

Series: Standalone

Release Date: June 9, 2020

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
Elise Armstrong, Carmen Bradshaw, and DeeDee Davis meet in a yoga class. Though vastly different, these women discover they all have one thing in common: their mothers have recently passed away. Becoming fast friends, the trio make a pact to help each other sort through the belongings their mothers’ left behind. But when they find old letters and diaries, Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee are astonished to learn that each of their mothers hid secrets—secrets that will transform their own lives.

Meeting each month over margaritas, the trio share laughter, advice, and support. As they help each other overcome challenges and celebrate successes, Elise, Carmen, and DeeDee gain not only a better understanding of the women their mothers were, but of themselves. They also come to realize they have what their mothers needed most but did not have during difficult times—other women they could trust.

Filled with poignant life lessons, The Secret Women pays tribute to the power of friendship and family and the bonds that tie us together. Beautiful, full of spirit and heart, it is a thoughtful and ultimately uplifting story of unconditional love.

<strong>Ending:</strong>
HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Black biracial main character
• Black main and supporting characters
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Mental Illness — Bipolar disorder
• Attempted suicide and murder of children
• Death of parent
<strong>Mature Themes</strong>
• Death of parent
• Allusions to teenagers drinking
• (Amicable) divorce
• Children (who are late 40s to early 60s) lashing out at parents who start dating after their spouse dies
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 stars

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Clever and Bold: The Body Politic by Brian Platzer

C

Series: Standalone

Release Date: March 3, 2020

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
New York City is still regaining its balance in the years following 9/11, when four twenty-somethings—Tess, Tazio, David, and Angelica—meet in a bar, each yearning for something: connection, recognition, a place in the world, a cause to believe in. Nearly fifteen years later, as their city recalibrates in the wake of the 2016 election, their bond has endured—but almost everything else has changed.

As freshmen at Cooper Union, Tess and Tazio were the ambitious, talented future of the art world—but by thirty-six, Tess is married to David, the mother of two young boys, and working as an understudy on Broadway. Kind and steady, David is everything Tess lacked in her own childhood—but a recent freak accident has left him with befuddling symptoms, and she’s still adjusting to her new role as caretaker.

Meanwhile, Tazio—who once had a knack for earning the kind of attention that Cooper Union students long for—has left the art world for a career in creative branding and politics. But in December 2016, fresh off the astonishing loss of his candidate, Tazio is adrift, and not even his gorgeous and accomplished fiancée, Angelica, seems able to get through to him. With tensions rising on the national stage, the four friends are forced to face the reality of their shared histories, especially a long-ago betrayal that has shaped every aspect of their friendship.

Elegant and perceptive, The Body Politic explores the meaning of commitment, the nature of forgiveness, the way that buried secrets will always find their way to the surface, and how all of it can shift—and eventually erupt—over the course of a life.

<strong>Ending:</strong>
HFN… I guess.
<strong>Representation</strong>
• Black-Thai biracial supporting/main character
• Latino biracial supporting character
• Latina side character
• Trans woman side character
• Challenges ableism: the MC is working through living with chronic dizziness
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> Yes
• Witnessing the murder of a parent by another parent
• Depression
• Parental abandonment
• Physical abuse
• Rape
• Alcoholism
• Death of parent
<strong>Safety Rating (of the married couple, Tess and David):</strong> Not Safe
• Does have cheating (Tess has cheated on David multiple times and with little regret)
• Does have OM drama
— OM is David and Tess’s best friend, Tazio, who is a main supporting character
— Tess also recently cheated on David with a co-star
• Does have OW drama
— Tess brings up feel like David’s business partner wants to get with him… but decides to trust David (it’s left unresolved)
• Does have the Hero and Herojne pushing each other away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Format: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5 stars

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Sidebarred (The Legal Briefs, #3.5) by Emma Chase

S

Series: The Legal Briefs*

Release Date: April 24th, 2016

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
There was a time when Jake Becker had it all together. He was controlled, driven, ruthless—in and out of the courtroom.

Then, six irresistible orphans and their heartbreakingly beautiful aunt crashed into his perfectly ordered life. They changed everything. They changed him. Now he’s a husband, an upstanding member of society, a father figure—a family man. And he’s pretty damn good at it.

Sure, he has to referee sibling smackdowns, re-learn algebra, ensure his clients stay of jail, and keep his wife happy—but it finally feels like he’s got it together again….
So, of course something has to screw it all up. It’s huge. Life-changing. Kind of terrifying.

And it will be the most amazing, perfect thing he’ll ever do.

<strong>Ending</strong>

 HEA
– Sidebarred is 4 years after Sustained
– There’s an extended epilogue 17 years later at the end of this novel (We get to see where all the kids end up)
<strong>Representation</strong>
No strong representations of the following:
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
<strong>Possible Triggers:</strong> None
• No abuse
• No OTT sad parts
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
No cheating
No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
No pushing away
No separation
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Note: This is a review of the epilogue to the second book in the series; therefore, there will be spoilers from the second book below. Click Here to read my review of the second book in the series.

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A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3) by Sarah J. Maas

A

Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Release Date: May 2nd, 2017

<strong>Synopsis:</strong>
A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

<strong>Ending</strong>

HFN
<strong>Representation</strong>
• BIPOC side characters characters
• Lesbian and bisexual supporting characters
<strong>Possible Triggers</strong>
• Violence (Blood and gore)
• Death
• PTSD
• Emotional abuse
• Allusions to rape (off-page, descriptions)
<strong>Safety Rating:</strong> Safe
No cheating
Does have OM drama
– Heroine pretends to be in love with her ex-fiancé for strategic purposes in the war.
– There is no physical intimacy between them-the Heroine is disgusted by him.
No pushing away
Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.

Rating: 3.75/5 stars

Note: This is a review of the third book in the series; therefore, there will be spoilers from the first and second book below.

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