Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Isaac Becker Heroine: River Kennedy Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: March 28, 2025 Started On: August 09, 2025 Finished On: August 09, 2025
“You don’t pick up vibes?” Up go his eyebrows again. “I’ve never picked up a vibe in my life.”
My palate cleanser after the rough and deeply moving ride that was Heat by R. Lee Smith turned out to be In Flight by Noelle Adams, a light, funny, and endearingly awkward romance that unfolds almost entirely in the cramped confines of an airplane. What begins as an irritating series of encounters between two frequent fliers turns into a slow-burn love story about vulnerability, self-awareness, and taking risks when it’s easier to stay the course and keep your heart protected.
31-year old River Kennedy is an HR professional who likes structure, security, and her carefully curated quiet life in Savannah. Her neurotic tendencies and soft-hearted nature are balanced by a wry sense of humor and an almost compulsive tendency to giggle, even when exasperated. Isaac Becker, on the other hand, is her polar opposite; an analytical, grounded man with a corporate job in finance and a habit of dissecting people as though they are puzzles to be solved. The two of them end up seated next to each other on the same weekend flights between Savannah and Boston, week after week, and what starts as a battle of wits gradually morphs into something deeper.
Their banter is sharp and occasionally cutting, with moments that are as exhilarating as they are intimate. The emotional pull between River and Isaac grows naturally, driven by small gestures and conversations that reveal more than either intends. River’s guarded nature, born out of past heartbreaks and her fear of choosing wrong again, feels believable, even if her constant giggling sometimes made her come across as immature. Isaac, for all his rationality, is far more perceptive than he lets on, and his slow unraveling into someone more emotionally open gives the story its quiet payoff.
That said, I found the novel a little too contained for my liking. The entire story taking place on airplanes or around them, created a kind of narrative claustrophobia. I wanted more context for River’s world outside of those flights, more about her family, her friendships, her life beyond Isaac. Still, Ms. Noelle’s humor and emotional nuance kept the story buoyant, and ultimately, even though River tended to annoy me with her hypocritical stands on issues and constant need to giggle, she redeemed herself proper enough to give me the “giggles”.
Recommended for: readers who enjoy low-angst, character-driven contemporary romances with witty banter, opposites-attract dynamics, and a feel-good, slow-burn payoff.
Final Verdict: A slow-burn airplane romance that’s equal parts witty and tender and reminds you love sometimes takes off in the most unexpected places — even at 30,000 feet.
Favorite Quotes
“Have you ever known anyone who can sort out their own hearts without at least a little angst and confusion?” “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure I have. Have you?” “Only boring people.”
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Dark Romantasy POV: Third Person, Multiple Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Tagen Pahnee Heroine: Daria Cleavon Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: January 21, 2009 Started On: August 02, 2025 Finished On: August 08, 2025
“…You,” he said, lowering himself into the sofa cushions, “burn in my blood, Daria Cleavon. I will be ashes when I return. I will never be able to feel again.”
As is with every book that I have read by R. Lee Smith, writing a review proves to be a harder task than anything else. Heat is also the book that left me the most conflicted of her novels that I have read to-date, and yet, the story lives rent-free in my head, all 600-plus pages of it. When I finally reached the end, I found myself questioning everything I thought I understood about morality, about darkness and redemption, and about the fine, perilous line that separates them.
Set on Earth, and ravaged by a heat wave that triggers the alien Jotan breeding cycle, Heat weaves together two vastly different tales — one of savagery and one of unexpected humanity. On one side is Kanetus E’Var, the son of a ruthless slaver turned fugitive chemist, now hiding among humans and creating a drug derived from the human brain. On the other is Tagen Pahnee, a Jotan military officer sent to bring him to justice. In the suffocating grip of the heat, both men are consumed by need, one losing himself to depravity, the other battling to retain his soul.
Kane (Kanetus) is perhaps one of the most complex and disturbing characters R. Lee Smith has ever written. He is not a hero, not even an antihero in the traditional sense. He is a predator; methodical, intelligent, and terrifyingly self-aware. His relationship with Raven, the drug-addicted woman he takes as his possession, is abusive, exploitative, and utterly devoid of the boundaries that define love as we know it. Yet Smith forces us to look deeper, to see glimpses of vulnerability in Kane’s obsession, moments when his twisted affection surfaces in the smallest gestures. It does not redeem him, but it does make him unforgettable.
Raven’s arc, meanwhile, is a tragedy in slow motion. A survivor of addiction and neglect, she endures Kane’s brutality with a numb kind of resilience that breaks your heart. Her choices are born from a lifetime of abuse and deprivation, one that she actually chose for herself when she ran away from a loving home, and watching her transformation, from victim to something far more unpredictable was harrowing. By the end, she becomes as unfathomable as Kane himself, a testament to the way cruelty reshapes human nature. I was left reeling by her transformation, the insidious nature of which still stumps me. Tagen was perhaps the only individual who seemed immune to the victim complex that Raven was so adept at projecting, and I continue to question where exactly the transformation happened.
Tagen and Daria’s story, which unfolds parallel to Kane’s, is the light to that darkness. Tagen, honorable even in the face of his own loss of control, becomes the moral compass of the brutal assault that Earth subjects on his senses. His restraint even when it seems next to impossible, his gentleness, and the love that blossoms between him and Daria offer a desperately needed reprieve from the unrelenting darkness of Kane and Raven’s narrative. The juxtaposition of these two men — one capable of compassion, the other irredeemably monstrous, is what gives Heat its devastating impact.
Reading Heat felt like being torn apart and put back together, only to realize that some pieces don’t quite fit the same way anymore. It is graphic, violent, and profoundly unsettling. There were moments when I wanted to scrub my mind clean after what Kane does, particularly the scenes involving Raven and the mistress that Kane enlists along the way, but there were also moments of unexpected beauty, raw emotion, and philosophical depth that made it impossible to turn away.
What makes R. Lee Smith’s writing so exceptional is her refusal to sanitize darkness. She does not write for comfort, she writes to confront. Every moral dilemma, every discomforting act, forces you to examine the shades of grey that exists within all beings, human or otherwise. Kane’s monstrosity, Tagen’s decency, Raven’s survival, and Daria’s compassion all blend into a portrait of a world where right and wrong are luxuries few can afford.
Recommended for: readers who crave dark, brutal, and unapologetically complex sci-fi romance that tests emotional and moral limits.
Final Verdict: R. Lee Smith’s Heat is a brutal, unforgettable exploration of desire, morality, and survival. Devastatingly dark and impossible to forget.
Favorite Quotes
How easy it would be to take, he mused. To ease the stiffness from her small frame with his unrelenting touch. She would fold, he knew. She had resisted him in the kitchen, but she had clung to him in the end. It would be so now. He had only to fight her a little. But he was tired of warfare. “I am male,” he reminded her, and stepped forward so that she could feel the proof for herself. “You are female. The females come to us. The females command. Command me, if you want me.” Color flooded her cheeks and she cast her eyes about despairingly before meeting his gaze again. “I…Kiss me.” It was a start.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Deck Heroine: Lilah Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: July 03, 2025 Started On: August 01, 2025 Finished On: August 02, 2025
Protected by Claire Kent takes readers back into the brutal, stripped-down world of the Kindled universe, where survival is a daily battle, where tenderness is a tough commodity to come by. Two years after the world-ending Impact, the Lilah is alone, starving, and running out of options. Forced to join a roaming group of scavengers led by the calculating and unflinchingly pragmatic Logan, Lilah finds herself having to adjust to the new normal.
Among the group is a giant of a man named Deck, a silent, imposing man who has not deemed to speak a word since the day the world fell apart. What begins as an uneasy alliance between two survivors slowly becomes a deeply emotional journey about finding connection, safety, and love when there is little left worth fighting for.
Lilah at twenty-four has already lost everything; her family, her lover, and her home and lives with a constant undercurrent of fear until she finds a semblance of normalcy with the group. Deck, at twenty-nine, is her opposite in temperament but mirrors her pain. Traumatized by what he has endured, he communicates through gestures, small acts of care, and unspoken understanding.
As their partnership evolves, the story draws its tension not from the chaos of the world around them but from the delicate intimacy that forms between two broken people. The slow, cautious bond they build, one gesture, one shared glance at a time, is where the novel finds its heartbeat.
Claire Kent excels at writing love that grows out of impossible circumstances, and Protected is a just another trophy that attests to her strength as a writer. Deck’s silence never diminishes his presence and rather amplifies it, drawing the reader to him, trying to catch a glimpse into the depths of the emotional gentle giant that he is.
Every protective act, every lesson Deck teaches Lilah in self-defense, carries emotional weight. His strength is not just physical; it’s moral and emotional too, a contrast to the violent and often amoral world they inhabit. Lilah’s evolution from vulnerability to someone of indomitable strength is one that I rooted for wholeheartedly.
While the story delivers on emotional depth and survivalist realism, the external tension involving Logan and his group occasionally feels secondary. The stalker-like dangers and raiding conflicts add grit, but the real draw remains the understated romance and how it redefines what safety and love mean in a world stripped of both.
Readers familiar with the Kindled series will appreciate Logan’s reappearance; he remains the enigmatic force behind the group’s survival, setting up what promises to be an equally compelling story in his own book, which I believe will take some time to be published.
While I have loved this constant stream of heroes who are gentle, emotional, and able to be more open about their trauma, I also want heroes of the kind that Ms. Kent used to write – men who brood a bit more, rarely give away what they are thinking or feeling, adding that delicious tangible angst to the story. I sorely miss that.
Recommended for: readers who love post-apocalyptic romance with quiet emotional intensity, protective and gentle giant heroes, and heroines who discover their strength.
Final Verdict: Protected is a slow-burn romance set in a world of ruin, where silence speaks louder than words and love becomes the last refuge of the human soul.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Worthings, #4 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Edmund Worthing Heroine: Autumn Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: August 16, 2024 Started On: July 31, 2025 Finished On: August 01, 2025
Restoration by Noelle Adams is a beautifully paced, emotional romance about survival, self-discovery, and the gradual blossoming of love between two unlikely people.
Autumn has spent six years being the efficient, ever-capable assistant to Edmund Worthing, a wealthy, charming, and often exasperating man who has drifted through life without any real purpose. When she finally decides to quit and reclaim her life, the last thing she expects is to end up stranded with him on a deserted island after a violent storm at sea. What begins as a nightmare slowly turns into something transformative, both in terms of their survival and their hearts.
Autumn is practical, dependable, and tired of living her life in service to someone else’s whims. Edmund, on the other hand, is the definition of carefree privilege, a man who has never had to lift a finger for anything and masks his intelligence behind an easy, teasing charm. Stripped of the luxuries and distractions of his old world, Edmund is forced to face his own complacency, while Autumn is pushed beyond her comfort zone in ways she never imagined. Together, they learn how to endure hunger, illness, fear, and the stark reality of isolation, and in the process, they also learn how to see each other, truly see each other, for the first time.
The shift in their dynamic from boss and assistant to equals is one of the most satisfying elements of the story. Adams gives their relationship time to breathe, to evolve from mutual dependence to affection, and finally to love. The island becomes a crucible for both their growths: Edmund transforms from a spoiled socialite into a man capable of tenderness and grit, while Autumn, for all her composure, learns to let go of control and embrace vulnerability. The chemistry between them is charged, their connection deepened by moments of laughter, frustration, and the kind of intimacy that can only come from relying on someone with your life.
What I loved most about this story was how well Adams balanced the sensual with the emotional. The romance feels valid and not just a product of forced proximity but of two people who find their missing halves in one another. Edmund’s devotion, his quiet acts of care, and the way he steps up when Autumn falls ill all underscore how far he has come from the man she once worked for. The angst, particularly after their rescue, was perfectly handled. The inevitable readjustment to the real world hurts, but it makes their eventual reconciliation even more satisfying.
If there is one thing I might have wanted more of, it would be a deeper dive into the aftermath of their ordeal once they return home, how two people changed by survival reconcile that with normal life. But the epilogue delivers exactly what the reader hopes for, sealing their journey with warmth and fulfillment.
Recommended for: readers who love slow-burn, boss-assistant romances with emotional depth, strong character development, and a healthy dose of survival-driven angst.
Final Verdict: Tender, emotional, and quietly intense, Restoration is angsty, sensual, and deeply satisfying.
Favorite Quotes
We lie together afterward, holding each other urgently. His face is buried against my neck, and his heart is beating so fast and hard that I can feel it. He doesn’t say anything else, and neither do I. We both know what just happened is goodbye. It’s goodbye.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Worthings, #3 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Caleb Morrison Heroine: Louisa Worthing Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: February 16, 2024 Started On: July 31, 2025 Finished On: July 31, 2025
Redemption by Noelle Adams tells the story of Louisa Worthing, who was once the quintessential rich girl spiraling through parties and bad decisions. Louisa has spent the past three years rebuilding her life in quiet anonymity. Sober and focused on her art, and learning what it means to live without chaos. But when a stalker who was focused on someone else in her family shifts focus to her, Louisa’s peace is shattered, and the man assigned to protect her is none other than Caleb, the ex-military bodyguard who has seen her at her worst.
Their shared history stretches back years. Becoming part of her life when she was merely sixteen years old, he was the one man she could not manipulate, the one who drew boundaries and held firm even when she tried every trick in her arsenal to test them. When trouble comes calling and Caleb is reassigned to protect her, Louisa is determined that this time around, she will redeem herself.
The chemistry between them is undeniable, but Adams writes it with restraint and emotional depth rather than dramatics. Louisa’s attraction to Caleb is not born of rebellion anymore, but rather rooted in understanding and a deep sense of yearning that goes beyond anything she has experience before.
Caleb, for his part, fights a losing battle against his feelings, torn between loyalty, morality, and the haunting awareness that he has always wanted her, regardless. Their romance builds slowly, with Louisa determined to take responsibility for her prior life and actions, and Caleb equally determined not to hold them against her.
What stood out most to me was the sensitivity with which Adams handles Louisa’s recovery. There’s no melodrama here, just the day-to-day honesty of a woman who knows that redemption is never a straight path. Louisa’s guilt over her past isn’t glossed over, and Caleb’s hesitancy feels both justified and also adds that delicious layer of angst to the story. Caleb low-key reminded me of Grant from Princess by Claire Kent, another pseudonym used by Noelle Adams. Their love unfolds with a kind of gentle realism that makes the eventual connection feel that much more worth it when all is said and done.
The only weak thread in an otherwise beautifully told story was the stalker subplot. It serves its purpose in bringing Caleb back into Louisa’s life, but it remains peripheral to the emotional core of the novel. The tension it introduces feels muted compared to the internal struggles both characters face. That said, it does not detract from what truly matters here; their journey toward forgiveness, both of each other and themselves.
Recommended for: readers who enjoy emotional, character-driven romances with age-gap and forbidden elements, and second chances built on quiet strength rather than grand gestures.
Final Verdict: Thoughtful and tender, Redemption is a novel that is quietly powerful and deeply human!
Favorite Quotes
This is different from the other night. This wasn’t fumbling together in the dark. This is real. This is us. All of us. He knows me completely—everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever been—and he still wants me. Right now it feels like he always will.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Worthings, #1 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Arthur Worthing Heroine: Scarlett Elizabeth Kingston Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: August 25, 2023 Started On: July 30, 2025 Finished On: July 30, 2025
Recollection by Noelle Adams is one of those quiet, aching love stories that sneaks up on you and refuses to let go. Told entirely from Scarlett Kingston’s perspective, it opens with her waking up in a hospital after an accident that wiped out six months of her life—six months that changed everything. Her father is dead, her life is unrecognizable, and she finds herself living in the sprawling, centuries-old Worthing estate under the care of Arthur Worthing, a man who was once merely her father’s friend.
Arthur is forty-six, a brilliant, scarred, and reclusive man whose sense of control masks a heart that feels too deeply. Scarlett, at twenty-eight, is raw from grief and confusion, her amnesia leaving her trapped between two realities; the one she barely remembers and the one she is now living.
The dynamic between them is immediately loaded with tension: gratitude, dependence, attraction, and the unspoken history she cannot recall. What unfolds is both tender and devastating, a slow, deliberate exploration of love rediscovered under the strangest of circumstances.
The story moves fluidly between past and present, peeling back layers of their relationship with a kind of aching inevitability. Arthur is a quintessential Noelle Adams hero; quietly protective, honorable to a fault, and burdened by his own insecurities. His restraint is painful to witness at times, especially as he struggles to keep his distance while Scarlett unknowingly falls for him all over again. Scarlett’s journey, meanwhile, is one of piecing herself back together, of rediscovering not only her love for Arthur but also her strength and sense of self after trauma.
What makes this book unforgettable is how Adams captures intimacy beyond the physical. Every touch between them feels earned, charged with emotion and memory. The sex scenes are sensual, yes, but they are also suffused with tenderness and pain, the awareness of what was lost and what might be regained. Arthur’s fear that he is holding her back, his conviction that she deserves a future unshaped by his scars or her dependency, gives the story its most heartbreaking edge.
If I had one complaint, it is that I wanted an epilogue, a glimpse into the happily ever after they fought so hard to earn. After the emotional whirlwind of their separation and reunion, I longed for that final exhale. But perhaps it is fitting that the story ends where it does, leaving readers to imagine the rest, as Scarlett once had to imagine the missing months of her life.
Recommended for: readers who love emotionally charged age-gap romances, scarred heroes who love quietly and fiercely, and heroines who must rediscover both themselves and the man they love.
Final Verdict: Poignant, sensual, and beautifully written, Recollection is a love story that asks what it means to fall in love twice—and makes you believe it’s possible.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Post Apocalyptic Romance POV: First Person, FMC Series: Kindled, #8 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Malachi (Mack) Heroine: Anna Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: October 11, 2024 Started On: July 20, 2025 Finished On: July 22, 2025
I just woke up one day and knew—I knew—that you were my resting place.
Nostalgia is the word that best describes how I felt reaching the end of Claire Kent’s Kindled series with Beacon. Throughout the series, on and off, Mack has been a towering presence in the background, the steady hand, the heart of the community, the man everyone leaned on when the world crumbled after the event known as Impact. His story has been one of the most anticipated of the series (which I am sure is a sentiment shared by many followers of the series), and while this installment may not have become my personal favorite, I can appreciate the way it brought his journey full circle.
Mack is a man who has carried the weight of countless battles, both physical and emotional. For ten years he has been the anchor in the storm, the one who kept order amidst chaos, and the one everyone else turned to for assistance. But even the strongest shoulders eventually give way and that is what happens when a certain chain of events becomes the final straw after years of loss and responsibility. Add to this, the loss of his dreams of a family with the woman who owns his heart, needless to say he withdraws completely, retreating into the wilderness to nurse wounds too deep to share.
When Mack fails to return back to the community even as months pass, it is Anna who finally sets out to bring him back, knowing that it may not be as easy as that. Mack who would rather nurse his wounds in private, is reluctant to let her in, both literally and figuratively, until he is forced into sharing his quarters with Anna, which serves to the start to the journey of shared healing for the two.
Though Anna is pivotal to the story, I often found myself struggling with her choices. At thirty-three, she is a survivor of an abusive marriage, determined never to lose her independence again. Her hesitancy to commit to Mack comes from a place of self-preservation, a belief that she cannot be the partner he deserves because she still has so much healing of her own to do. And yet, beneath all that, it is evident she has always loved him. She just could not let herself give in.
What I did admire was Anna’s decision to risk her life for Mack, both literally and figuratively. When she ventures into the dangerous forest to bring him back, it is as much about saving him physically as it is about proving her feelings at last. Mack’s need for reassurance, for proof that he is not alone and unloved, felt heartbreaking and necessary after all he has endured. It was only fair that she had to be the one to step forward and make that sacrifice, just as he has carried everyone else, including Anna, for so long.
The theme of positive masculinity runs strong here. Mack is written as a man of great strength, but also deep vulnerability. His willingness to shoulder responsibility, his devotion to community, and his steadfast love for Anna makes him a hero worth remembering.
Still, as much as I admired his character, I found myself less enamored with the romance than I expected. Perhaps it was the years of buildup between Anna and Mack throughout the series which Ms. Kent expected us to take notes of, or the way their relationship often simmered just below the surface, but when it finally took center stage, I did not connect with their love as deeply as I hoped.
That said, I do understand why the characters were written the way they were. Breanna, in her story, needed a gentler partner to help her heal, and while Mack’s trauma was different, he needed the space and solitude, time to grieve and recover privately before he could return whole. The conclusion between Anna and Mack perhaps makes sense for who they are, even if the emotional punch did not hit me with the same intensity as some of the earlier books in the series.
Now that the series has come to a close, I cannot help but feel a bittersweet ache. Beacon ties the threads together, but it also leaves me looking forward. Logan, who made only a small appearance here, completely stole my attention, and I am already anticipating his book with high hopes. Now there is a hero of the kind I identify with!
Recommended for: readers who love end-of-the-world survival romances, broken-but-steadfast heroes, and heroines learning to claim their own strength.
Final Verdict: A bittersweet finale; Mack’s story closes the series with quiet strength, even if the romance did not burn as brightly as I had hoped.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Mafia Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Crime Lord Series Publisher: Standalone Hero: Gavin Pyre Heroine: Lyla Dalton Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: December 12, 2017 Started On: January 16, 2025 Finished On: February 16, 2025
“You belong to me,” he stated without emotion, as if she was an inanimate object he was claiming ownership of. “You try to leave me again, I’ll hunt you down and make you watch as I slaughter everyone you love. Then, I’ll make you pay.”
It was Lydia’s review on Goodreads that drew me to Mia Knight’s Crime Lord Series, and as I read along, I began to understand how Gavin Pyre became one of her favorite book boyfriends. This trilogy is raw, gritty, and unapologetically dark, pulling the reader deep into a world where love is as dangerous as the underworld that Gavin rules. The trilogy follows Lyla Dalton, a woman who once fled Las Vegas and the ruthless man who claimed her heart, only to be dragged back into Gavin’s grip when he comes to reclaim what he considers his.
Lyla is a heroine who embodies contradictions. Shaped by a loveless childhood and the toxic choices of her parents, her vulnerability makes sense. What originally draws her into the life of Gavin is because of her need to escape the toxicity that is her home life. Even though she spends years trying to build a normal life away from Gavin, he is not a man to be trifled with, especially when Lyla is his to love, claim, and possess.
Gavin Pyre, on the other hand, is the archetypal antihero; dark, ruthless, unyielding, yet deeply in love with the one woman who both humanizes him and drives him mad. His brand of love is obsessive, jealous, and terrifyingly possessive, but beneath the brutality is a man who would burn the world down for Lyla and later, for their daughter Nora.
The heart of this story lies in the clash between Lyla’s desperate yearning for normalcy and Gavin’s refusal to ever let her go. Their relationship is a battlefield of wills, one moment tender, the next violent, always charged with intensity. Theirs is not a romance painted in soft hues; it is jagged, bloody, and unrelenting, where the line between love and destruction blurs constantly. It is in this tension that Mia Knight thrives, giving readers a story that is addictive, unsettling, and unforgettable.
What I loved most was how unapologetically complex Gavin is. He is not softened or redeemed in the way most romance heroes are. He is who he is, and yet his devotion to Lyla and later to their daughter Nora makes him magnetic. It is no wonder readers call him unforgettable. Still, the constant glorification of violence did sometimes weigh heavy, and there were moments when I felt overwhelmed by the blood-soaked choices that defined their world. But at the same time, that is what makes this series stand out perhaps; it does not flinch from the brutality that comes with loving a man like Gavin.
Recommended for: readers who love dark romance, possessive antiheroes, second chances that come at a high cost, and stories where love is both the ultimate salvation and the deepest damnation.
Final Verdict: A dark, twisted, unforgettable saga of love and obsession in the underworld of Las Vegas. Gavin Pyre isn’t just a hero—he is a monster you cannot help, but fall for.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Fantasy Romance POV: Third Person, Single Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Azrael the Eternal Heroine: Lanachee Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: October 29, 2015 Started On: November 23, 2024 Finished On: December 09, 2024
I am almost afraid to even attempt putting into words what this book made me feel, because Land of the Beautiful Dead is exactly what I mean when I say I want a villainous hero, one who is ruthless, irredeemable, and yet someone you fall for hopelessly and helplessly. The amazing thing about this 500+ paged novel is that you dive in and lose yourself in the story. No two ways about it.
R. Lee Smith is the kind of writer who makes you feel at home from the very first page; there is no easing in, no slow build to trust; her prose simply takes you in, surrounds you, and refuses to let go. She writes with such richness and evocative beauty that you find yourself in this delicious tug-of-war, wishing you could devour the story faster while desperately wanting to linger and savor every line.
This is perhaps one of the longest books I have ever read, and yet not a single page felt wasted. Most romances fit neatly into a certain length, or are broken into installments, but Smith dares to go where few would; into the depths of truly dark romance, giving readers something substantial, immersive, and unapologetically intense to sink their teeth into. Perhaps I am only now dipping my toes into the romantasy genre so many rave about, but no author has ever tempted me into it quite like this one.
Land of the Beautiful Dead is an epic, hauntingly beautiful romance that defies genre boundaries and lingers in the mind long after the last page. Set in a post-apocalyptic world reduced to ruins under the rule of Azrael the Eternal, the story blends dark fantasy, dystopia, and romance into a narrative that is as unsettling as it is breathtaking. The world outside the walled city of Haven is plagued by the Eaters, undead creatures that devour human life, and while humans eke out a brutal existence, Azrael and his favored Children reign supreme behind the city walls.
Lanachee, or Lan, has only known this harsh existence, but she refuses to surrender to despair. Driven by the belief that the Eaters must be destroyed if humanity is to survive, she undertakes a journey straight into the heart of enemy territory, i.e., Azrael’s stronghold. Expecting death, she instead finds herself offered a bargain; convince the most feared being on earth to end the Eaters, and in the meantime submit herself to his chilling embrace. This is no light courtship; Lan is insignificant in the face of his power, a human among an immortal race that despises her kind. Yet her brashness, stubbornness, and refusal to bow to him catches Azrael off guard.
Azrael is embodies the very essence of a villainous hero; ruthless, irredeemable, and yet impossible not to love. Lonely despite being surrounded by his own kind, he has lived for centuries in a cycle of mistrust, violence, and cold survival. His Children are malicious and vindictive, but the deeper the reader ventures into their psyche, the more the reasons behind their cruelty come into focus.
With Azrael himself, Smith crafts a figure as magnetic as he is monstrous, a man who hires a tutor to refine Lan’s manners, who is undone by the simple fact that she kisses him without revulsion, who cannot decide whether to let her go or chain her to his side for eternity. His obsession with her wars constantly with the demons that have shaped him into what he is.
The dynamic between them is fraught with power imbalance. Lan is uncultured, brash, and at times infuriatingly shortsighted, yet she becomes the one person capable of offering Azrael comfort, even when she does not understand why she is compelled to do so. He likes her rebellious nature, her refusal to simply submit.
Their kisses alone tell a story of need and vulnerability, and as the narrative unfolds, they become each other’s solace in a way neither could have foreseen. There are moments when Lan frustrated me deeply, and yet she is exactly what this lonely, scarred man, reviled by all, needs.
This is not a romance of grand gestures alone; it is a slow, grinding evolution of two souls learning to navigate each other’s darkness. Azrael’s centuries of regrets over what he has done to protect his undead, Lan’s unwavering yet flawed mission to destroy the Eaters, and the impossible choice between their loyalties form the core of the tension.
Told entirely from Lan’s perspective, the depth of Azrael’s emotions must be pieced together from her observations, which makes his moments of vulnerability all the more shattering. The sheer scope of the novel allows this relationship to breathe and evolve, and a shorter work could never have done justice to its complexity.
By the time the ending comes, it feels not just fitting, but inevitable. Azrael, the scarred and feared monster no woman would touch, finds in Lan a passionate, protective love that is unconditional. And Lan, in turn, finds her place beside him, not as a pet or pawn, but as his equal in a way no one else could be.
This book deserves all the stars in the world!
Recommended for: readers who crave truly dark, villainous heroes; sprawling, immersive world-building; and romances that challenge the very concept of love and morality.
Final Verdict: A masterwork of dark romantic fantasy; unflinching, immersive, and unforgettable; Land of the Beautiful Dead is easily one of the best romances I have ever read.
Favorite Quotes
“Humans are such a contradiction in their very essence that I find I can neither wholly hate nor envy them, even after all these years and all the cause I have been given. Your capacity for destruction, terrible as it is, is as evenly matched by your ability to create and to imagine. I could never have built such a hall.” – Azrael
“How many have you got?” He looked at her in some surprise. “Swans?” “Dollygirls, I meant.” “Presently?’ Lan braced herself. “Yeah.” “Twelve, apart from you.” She supposed she should feel relieved it wasn’t more. She didn’t. But he was watching and even if she didn’t know what she was feeling, she was somehow sure he did. To hide it, whatever ‘it’ was, she tossed off a shrug and said, “Unlucky number, thirteen.” “Mm. There’s also Chloe, although we’ve not entered a true contract yet.” Yet. Dicky word, that. Yet. “Why not?” His smile twisted inward and became bitter. “Were I you, I would say you’d ruined me.” “Me?” “You. The mark by which I have come to measure the living.” He glanced at her. His eyes lingered, dimming, before they turned away. “And find them wanting.”
“I can’t help but feel you’re trying to get rid of me,” she said, trying to pretend she was joking. “No.” His eyes flickered. “No, Lan. I’m trying to keep you.”
Sometimes, Azrael would be there already when she returned to the just-a-house, but more often, she went to sleep alone in the overlarge bed that was hers for so long as she was here and he woke her as he slipped beneath the covers and took her silently into his chill embrace. He always tensed when she kissed him, but allowed it, even on those nights he did nothing but let it happen. He was more comfortable with sex than kisses. So was she, if the truth be known, but the kissing came naturally when she was with him. The fucking was almost an afterthought for her, the full stop at the end of a long and complicated sentence, but for him, it was everything—reward and punishment both.
He lifted her like it was easy, lay her down like it was natural and right. He hid nothing from her—not the chill of his flesh or the points of his claws, not ten thousand years and more of memories, or even the ghost of the girl she knew was still standing somewhere in his mind with her shirt open and her small body ready to be bought. He gave her all he was and she embraced him gladly and brought him home. It was too naked to be fucking, too desperate to be lovemaking. Sex was supposed to be something someone did to someone else, but whatever this was, they did it together. He hurt and she hurt with him. She was lost and he was with her in the dark. It was terrible and beautiful, shining with pleasure and clouded with pain, and that was how she came, torn open and full of light.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: From Here to Paternity, #1 Publisher: Harlequin Hero: Ryan Kincaid Heroine: Devon Franklin Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: August 01, 1996 Started On: August 17, 2024 Finished On: August 22, 2024
Sandra Marton’s A Proper Wife is a heady mix of passion, pride, and the irresistible pull of two people who, on paper, should never have worked. As the opening novel of the From Here to Paternity series, it sweeps readers into a tale of family meddling, reluctant vows, and a relationship that begins in sparks and keeps burning right through.
Ryan Kincaid, a man Time magazine dubbed “The Lone Raider,” is wealthy, commanding, and absolutely unwilling to be dictated to, especially by his grandfather. Devon Franklin, on the other hand, is fiery, independent, and saddled with a mother whose ambitions extend far beyond her own. Their paths collide in the most unexpected (and explosive) of ways, and what begins as a clash of wills evolves into a marriage neither truly wanted, but both can’t walk away from.
Ryan is very much the quintessential alpha hero: virile, confident, with a streak of arrogance that makes him fascinating. However, there is a vulnerability that he hides beneath that confident façade stemming from his deep-seated issues with abandonment.
Devon, at only twenty-three, is no meek heroine. She has strength, courage, and a sharp tongue, and while she initially appears overwhelmed by the larger-than-life Ryan, she proves more than capable of holding her ground. Together, their chemistry is combustible, with every encounter threatening to set off fireworks.
The heart of the novel lies in the conflict that stems from their forced marriage, a union orchestrated by Ryan’s grandfather and Devon’s mother, each with very different motivations. Both Ryan and Devon enter this marriage unwillingly, determined not to bend to the will of meddling family members.
Yet the irony lies in how deeply they affect each other, even as they try to maintain distance. The push and pull between them and their reluctance to admit what they truly feel fuels the narrative, making their separation and misunderstandings as compelling as their moments of intimacy.
What I particularly enjoyed was the earthy, raw quality of Ryan as a hero. Sandra Marton has always excelled at creating men who are magnetic and unapologetically masculine, and Ryan is no exception. His refusal to fall into the cliché of a lovesick husband was as fascinating as it was believable.
Devon’s strength was equally appealing; she is no doormat, and her fire balances Ryan’s dominance beautifully. That said, I did miss some of the banter I had hoped for as the couple spend a surprising amount of their marriage leading separate lives, and while their union is fiery, more moments of verbal sparring would have elevated the connection even further.
Still, Marton knows how to deliver intensity. The sensuality here is high, with scenes that simmer with desire and crackle with tension. And woven throughout is the poignant reality that both characters, scarred by imperfect childhoods, don’t quite know how to accept love when it is on the table.
Recommended for: Readers who love classic Harlequin Presents-style romances filled with fiery chemistry, reluctant vulnerability, and a marriage-of-convenience trope that turns deliciously real.
Final Verdict: A Proper Wife delivers passion, sizzling tension, and a hero and heroine who do not want to be married, as they fight against the very love that could heal them both.
A Maldivian's Passion for Romance 