Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Contemporary Romance POV: First Person, Dual Series: Dream, #1 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Charlie Barnes Heroine: Autumn Thatcher Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: October 18, 2024 Started On: August 23, 2025 Finished On: August 30, 2025
To her, I was just Autumn, the lost girl who wandered into this small town and stayed. She loved me for who I was, the Autumn who smiles because she has to. The Autumn who laughs and then feels the immense guilt that I’m laughing.
My first Natasha Madison was definitely unforgettable. Shattered Dreams is an emotional romance about grief, guilt, and the long road toward forgiveness. Set in a small town shaken by tragedy, this story begins with a heartbreaking accident that forever alters the lives of six people. One night of recklessness takes away the future Charlie Barnes thought he had and leaves Autumn Thatcher carrying the unbearable weight of guilt. Years later, fate brings Autumn back, forcing both to confront the ghosts of the past they tried so hard to outrun.
Autumn returns home to Montgavin Township after her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, only to realize that time has not dulled the community’s judgment or Charlie’s resentment. Once inseparable through mutual friendships, the accident that killed Charlie’s girlfriend, who was also Autumn’s best friend, drove a wedge too deep to mend.
Autumn, whose intelligence and quiet resilience have always been her strength, is a woman trying to reclaim a sense of belonging in a place that blames her for everything she lost. Her guilt is palpable, but so is her courage as she faces the town’s hostility and Charlie’s unforgiving eyes.
Charlie, once an easygoing man with a future laid out before him, is now hardened by grief and bitterness. He blames Autumn for not stopping what happened that night, and the anger that once protected him from pain has turned into a cage of his own making. Watching these two navigate the fallout of shared loss is gut-wrenching and yet strangely cathartic, the kind of emotional unraveling Natasha Madison does so well. The love that kindles to life between them feels impossible, yet inevitable, as they slowly begin to see each other beyond the tragedy that defined them.
The story moves through the full spectrum of grief, the raw anger, the guilt, and the slow surrender to healing. There is angst, but it’s beautifully written, balanced by sensuality and heartfelt vulnerability. Madison never shies away from the complexity of forgiveness, and it shows in every interaction between Charlie and Autumn. What makes this story work is how human both characters are—flawed, hurt, but still capable of love once they allow themselves to feel it again.
Recommended for: readers who love small-town romances steeped in tragedy, slow-burn forgiveness arcs, and emotional, sensual storytelling.
Final Verdict: Heart-wrenching, sensual, and full of redemption—Shattered Dreams by Natasha Madison delivers angst and healing in equal measure!
Favorite Quotes
“I’m not sure of a lot of things these days.” His voice comes out shaky. My body gets tight waiting for the rest of his statement, except it’s nothing that I thought it would be. The words that come out of his mouth send me jumping off a cliff, but this time, there is water there to catch me falling and not just an empty black hole. “But I do know that this is where you belong.”
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: 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: Historical Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Game of Dukes, #3 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Adam Garrity Heroine: Gabriella Billings Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: May 23, 2019 Started On: February 21, 2025 Finished On: April 11, 2025
“A sensible man guards his heart; a smart man knows when to yield it.”
Regarding the Duke by Grace Callaway was my very first book from this author, and what an introduction it turned out to be. The third installment in the Game of Dukes series that features protagonists who blur the lines when it comes to the “right” side of the law, this is a book (as evidenced by my sheer enjoyment), that can be read as a standalone. This is a sweeping, emotional, and evocative romance that had me laughing out loud one minute and crying the next, the kind of story that lingers long after the final page.
The book begins with Gabriella Billings, who at the age of twenty-two marries Adam Garrity, the infamous Duke of the City. On the surface, he is a wealthy, powerful man whose fortune and shadowy empire makes him both feared and respected. She marries him for love, but Adam, hardened by his past and intent on revenge, marries her for reasons entirely different.
By the time the story continues eight years later, Gabby is thirty, the mother of two children, and still deeply in love with her husband. Adam, now forty-three, is every bit as enigmatic and controlled as he was the day he wed her. Their seemingly perfect marriage unravels in the wake of an accident that leaves Adam with amnesia and Gabby with shattering revelations about the truth of their relationship.
Adam is the sort of hero that I cannot help but swoon over. Scarred inside and out, his childhood was one of abuse, betrayal, and even being sold by his own father into horrors no child should endure. Everything about the man he became is tied to that past, his drive for vengeance and his obsession with control born from trauma. When amnesia forces him to relearn everything, it also gives him the rare chance to see his life without the filter of bitterness. It is here that his relationship with Gabby transforms, as he finds himself falling deeply and passionately in love with the wife he had kept at arm’s length for years.
Gabby is a heroine who resonated deeply with me. She struggles with anxiety, self-image, and the kind of constant overthinking that makes her feel wholly human. Sweet, feminine, and unassuming, she is exactly the kind of woman who makes a man like Adam whole, not by changing him, but by balancing his darkness with her quiet strength. She adores him even when she fears she was never truly loved in return, and it is her unwavering heart that grounds their marriage through the upheaval of secrets, betrayals, and rediscovery.
The steamy scenes of passion were a delightful surprise, written with sheer eroticism that lives rent free in my head. Since my first foray into Ms. Callaway’s stories, I have come to identify Adam Garrity as one of a kind. He is the man who smolders and delivers so spectacularly, every single time.
What I loved most about this book was how brilliantly this is written. Ms. Callaway has a gift for weaving in humor at just the right moments, lightening up scenes that are otherwise weighted with pain and longing. The emotional depth of Adam’s journey, paired with Gabby’s quiet courage, made for a romance that was both heartbreaking and healing. And the cover? Absolutely glorious, perfectly capturing the passion and beauty of this story.
Recommended for: readers who enjoy historical romances with antiheroes, self-made men, long marriages tested by secrets, and heroines whose strength lies in their femininity.
Final Verdict: Evocative, emotional, scorching hot, and utterly unforgettable; Regarding the Duke is everything I want in a historical romance.
Favorite Quotes
With a wave of his hand, Mr. Garrity sent the guards and widow retreating back to a discreet distance. Then he offered Gabby his arm. “You have my word that this will be a short, perfectly respectable interlude. Shall we?” “You think of everything, don’t you?” Gabby asked, bemused. “I want you to know that your reputation is safe with me.” The stars reflected in his eyes, which were darker than the sky and so deep that she had the sensation of losing herself in everlasting midnight. “That you, Miss Billings, will always be safe with me.”
“You need hide nothing from me, Miss Billings,” he said. “If we are to further our acquaintance, it would be best for us to be honest with one another.” Stunned, she came to a halt. “You wish to further your acquaintance with me?” His brows lifted. “Why does that surprise you?” “Because you’re…” Handsome as a prince. And rich and powerful. Why would you want to get to know me? “You’re my father’s business associate,” she finished lamely. He studied her. “Do you find me old, Miss Billings? Too old to be your friend?” The idea was laughable. He radiated virile energy, the essence of a man in his prime. “No,” she blurted. “Definitely not.” His lips gave a faint twitch.
“You’re mine. You belong to me,” he growled. “Say it.” “I…belong to you,” she moaned. “Then take me. All of me.”
“I want all of you.” The words welled up, unstoppable as her tears. “I want a marriage of hearts and minds and bodies, too. I want nothing between us. Nothing.” “Then we are in accord, my sweet wife.” In a lightning-fast move, he was by her side, thumbing away her tears. Then he scooped her up in his arms. Her hands landing on his rock-hard chest, she was captivated by the ferocity of his expression. “Because when it comes to our marriage, I won’t settle for less than everything.”
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Sci-Fi Romance POV: Third Person, FMC Series: Hold, #1 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Cain Heroine: Riana Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: November 02, 2007 Started On: February 16, 2025 Finished On: February 21, 2025
“Tell me you’re mine.”“I’m yours,” she gasped, meaning it—far more than in body. “Just yours.”
Hold is a novel that I reviewed way back in 2010 when it was first published under the pen-name Zannie Adams through Ellora’s Cave. Revisiting it now feels almost like stepping into a time capsule of dark, gritty sci-fi romance with that touch and flair that is unique to Kent in her romances.
The story follows Riana, an archaeologist whose life takes a devastating turn when she is unjustly convicted and sent to Genus V, a brutal prison planet where survival hinges on the law of the strongest. With no hope of release, no possibility of escape, and surrounded by chaos and violence, her only chance lies in Cain, the brooding, solitary prisoner who has carved out his territory through intelligence and sheer force. Their relationship begins as one of necessity, Riana bartering the only thing she can offer for protection, but it evolves into something rawer, darker, and far more emotional than either of them expect.
Cain is the epitome of the dangerous hero; stoic, fierce, and with a predator’s strength that makes him both terrifying and magnetic. He is a man of few words, but every action speaks volumes. He shields Riana, but he also makes her face truths about herself she would rather avoid. Riana, on the other hand, is not the delicate damsel one might expect in such dire circumstances. She is resourceful, determined, and unwilling to let the horrors of the Hold break her spirit, even when the odds are stacked impossibly high.
What struck me the most in this reread is how the book balances its relentless brutality with moments of startling tenderness. Cain is not gentle, not by any stretch, but there are flashes of protectiveness and even affection that feel monumental because of who he is and where they are. The intimacy between him and Riana is primal, often public, and utterly unapologetic, yet layered with a vulnerability that sneaks up on you. This dynamic makes their connection both uncomfortable and deeply compelling.
I loved the way the story explored power dynamics, survival, and the question of what humanity means in a place designed to strip it away. Cain’s possessiveness and Riana’s stubborn grit made them unforgettable, even as some of the violence and voyeuristic elements of the Hold made me squirm. The setting is a world that is bleak and merciless, what makes their relationship stand out as something worth clinging to.
Recommended for: readers who enjoy dark, intense romances with a sci-fi twist, survival themes, and heroes who are anything but conventional.
Final Verdict: Dark, raw & unapologetic; Hold turns survival into a love story that lingers long after the last page.
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Fantasy Romance POV: Third Person, Dual Series: Standalone Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Uyane Meoraq Heroine: Amber Katherine Bierce Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: September 12, 2013 Started On: December 19, 2024 Finished On: January 10, 2025
“If you’re worried that you don’t please me, you can be easy, Soft-Skin. Your body was made to pleasure mine.”
The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith is not just a book. It is an experience, one that swallowed me whole and left me reeling in ways I have yet to recover from. At over 700 pages, it is vast in scope, unapologetically brutal, and achingly beautiful, with a depth that few romances even dare to attempt.
This is the book that ruined me for months, plunging me into a reading slump where nothing else came remotely close. Every book I picked up since seemed to lack luster. And I know that I would never be able to find the same high as I found between the pages of this devastating book. Even now, eight months later, I still catch myself thinking of the story at odd moments, still yearning for another novel that could make me feel the way this one did. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece of dark romantic fantasy.
The story begins with Amber Katherine Bierce who has only ever known hardship. When her mother dies, leaving Amber and her fragile sister Nicci on the verge of eviction, Amber seizes what little hope they have left: two tickets on a colony ship bound for another world. But what promises escape turns into nightmare when the ship crashes on an unknown, hostile planet. From the beginning, Amber is the one who shoulders responsibility, whose stubborn independence and instinct keep others alive, even when those same people repay her only with cruelty and suspicion. She is a heroine who is far from perfect; stubborn to the point of frustration. But that makes her all the more real, all the more human.
Enter Uyane Meoraq, Sword of Sheul, warrior, priest, and reluctant heir to his father’s House. A lizard man. A holy executioner. A creature so disciplined, devout, and steeped in violence that falling in love with him should be unthinkable. And yet, Meoraq is the standard by which I will measure every anti-hero hereafter. Or every monster hero as well.
He is ruthless, a lizard man torn between his faith and his desire, bound by his duty and yet undone by one stubborn, brash, and impossible human woman. His religiosity anchors him, tempers the violence that simmers constantly beneath the surface, but it is Amber who makes him falter, who unsettles him, who becomes the one thing he cannot give up. Watching him resist her, crave her, and ultimately yield to the inevitability of their bond is nothing short of epic.
Their relationship is forged in fire, on a journey through a dying world scarred by the sins of its past. They argue, they circle each other like adversaries, their attraction at once a source of fury and salvation. And when they do finally come together, it is not in the neat, tidy arc of conventional romance but through struggle, suffering, and an intimacy that is both tender and savage. Azrael from Land of the Beautiful Dead may have been unforgettable, but Meoraq is something else entirely. He is a character steeped in darkness and yet when he loves, he loves with a totality that wrecks you.
R. Lee Smith is an author who does not flinch from depraved darkness. This book contains cruelty, rape, fat-shaming, and horror so raw that it twists your gut. The depravity of the humans who survive the crash, the vile selfishness of Nicci and Scott, the unspeakable atrocities Amber endures at the hands of Zhuga and the raiders; these are not easy pages to read by any means. And yet, the ugliness is what makes the beauty shine brighter and the story so wholesome and worth it. When Meoraq refuses to cast Amber aside, even after everything she suffers at the hands of her captors, when he claims her without hesitation, it is one of the most powerful declarations of love I have ever encountered.
The world building is staggering. This is not just the backdrop to a romance; it is a planet with its own theology, history, and sins. The revelation of Gann’s downfall; bioweapons, nano-tech, and an entire civilization undone by its hubris is chilling, and the way faith and ritual evolved to contain violence was both fascinating and tragic.
Meoraq’s pilgrimage to Xi’Matezh elevate the story beyond romance into something almost mythic. And Amber, the atheist who mocks prayer and the existence of God, finds herself crying out to the very same when she has nothing left. The irony, the resonance, it all leaves you hollow and awed.
There were moments I wanted to shake Amber for clinging to her worthless sister, for fighting Meoraq even when he had proven himself a hundred times over. And yet, her flaws are what makes her believable, relatable, and her strength and fortitude, what makes her worthy of the Sword of Sheul. Amber gives as good as she gets, her fierceness and loyalty are traits that stands out. She is not some idealized heroine but a flawed, scarred woman who stands tall in a world determined to break her. Together, she and Meoraq are not easy, but they are inevitable. Theirs is a love fated across galaxies, and in Meoraq’s words, Amber was the woman he was born into this world to find.
Do I wish there had been an epilogue, a glimpse of Amber and Meoraq years later, forging a life together after everything? Absolutely. But even without it, the ending is fitting, devastating, and triumphant in equal measure.
Recommended for: readers who crave true dark romance, with a mix of philosophy, horror, theology, and love all intertwined, who can handle being gutted and remade by a book.
Final Verdict: Brutal, beautiful, and unforgettable, The Last Hour of Gann is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of book, one that ruins you for all others.
Favorite Quotes
There were no atheists in foxholes, it was said, and she guessed when it came to lugging crates uphill in the freezing wind on an alien planet, there were no feminists either. – Amber
“It was a dream,” Meoraq said, getting up. “Dreams don’t mean anything.” He came over to her side of the fire and pulled her blanket back. His body was cool and rough and heavy on top of her, and it felt good in ways that sort of thing never had back on Earth. He caught her chin in a pinch, made her look at him when he entered her. “Dreams are only dreams,” he told her seriously. “This is real.” She came hard, kicking and thrashing, and suddenly found herself alone in the mess of her blanket with rain falling into her stupidly gaping face and Meoraq once more on his side of the fire, watching her.
“But we’re completely boxed in. If anyone bad comes, the only way out—” Meoraq unclipped his kzung and showed her the shine of its blade in the stormlight. “—is through them,” he finished, and flared his mouth to bare all his teeth. “Is that man enough for you?” The flicker of the storm made it difficult to tell, but he thought she smiled. And then she screamed as lightning struck the ground directly outside the window, sending shards of stone into the glass. The thunder that followed shattered what the stones had cracked; the window blew inward and smashed itself across the floor. Meoraq turned his head away from the wall of freezing wind that blasted in at them and was nearly knocked from his feet when Amber slammed up against him. Like a little fork of lightning inside his mind, Meoraq’s thoughts washed out to white. He could not hear the storm, feel the wind. For a moment—the very briefest moment, the very longest—he was aware of nothing but the press of her body to the whole of his, her hands digging at his back, the warmth that was her breath blowing against his heart. He could not feel himself at all, except where he was defined by her touch. Her embrace.
“I am not angry with you,” he announced, hoping to provoke her. “Lies,” she muttered, but she looked at him. Glared at him. And that was better. “A Sheulek is the master of his emotions,” he told her. “I have every right to be angry with you. I choose the higher path. I forgive you and we will say no more about it. Give me my mending kit.” She reached it out from beneath her pack, but only held it for a while. “I should have thanked you for this last night,” she said finally. “I don’t know how it is with your people, lizardman, but when it comes to humans, you don’t interrupt a girl’s crying jag and then expect her to be grateful.” He could not believe this. “Are you criticizing my behavior?” he asked incredulously. Her shoulders fell. “Sure sounds that way, doesn’t it? Damn it. Here.” He did not move to take the kit and, after a few awkward moments, she let her offering arm drop again. They looked at each other. She said, without heat and without warning, “I’ve never needed anyone before. Never in my life. I hate that I need you.”
He opened his mouth to tell her she was acting like a child and heard himself say instead, softly, “Do you think I would not call you by your name if I could?” She looked at him and away, trying to pretend she was not attached to the arm that ended in his grip. “I guess you think it doesn’t matter. I guess you figure as long as I still answer to ‘insufferable human,’ it’s fine.” “It’s honest, at least.” He sighed, opened his hand and rubbed at his brow ridges instead. “There are three words I could call you that come close to the sound of your name. Taambret, a disease we have that causes festering sores of the mouth.” She blinked, her brows puckering. “Mb’z, a vulgar term for one weak of mind,” he continued. “Amyr, the name of a kind of swimming creature that lives and feeds in the mud. And I will not call you by these names.” “You said…You said it didn’t matter what the word meant as long as—” “Not for you.”
“Yes. And stop making that face,” he added. “You need the marrow more than meat in these days.” “I’m not having any.” He snorted. “Yes. You are.” “I don’t want it, Meoraq.” “I don’t want to feed S’kot. Life is full of things we do not want to do and must do anyway.” He turned the strips of tachuqi fat, which were browning up nicely already. “Meat may keep the life in your body a little longer, but no one stays healthy on meat alone. The season for green leaves and grain is done. My cuuvash is spent. Marrow is what I have to give you and you will eat it.” “I don’t see you forcing it on anyone else.” “I don’t care about anyone else.”
“Are you with me, Soft-Skin?” he murmured, stroking at her cold, damp brow. “Open your eyes. See me.” They did open, and Meoraq let out an unmanning shout of relief, but they only rolled back and shut again. She had not seen him, did not know him. But she had opened her eyes. “Uyane Meoraq is with you,” he told her, and put his hand over her heart. “Hear me where you are and follow. Sheul, our Father, has set you in my path. So did you come to me and so you belong to me. Do you hear me, woman? You are mine! I found you, I own you, and I forbid you to die!” His voice, risen to a shout, was a thunder in the tent, a whisper in the world. She did not answer. The heart that beat beneath his hand beat no stronger. “I won’t leave you,” he said softly. “Please don’t leave me.” Nothing. She did nothing. Meoraq curled around her as close as his separate clay could press and closed his eyes. “O my Father, I cry out to You. You gave her to me and if I have not been as grateful as a son should be, I am sorry. But You gave her to me. Now…please…give her back.”
The wind blew over them, stirring the grass and pushing smoke in a hot curtain between them. Meoraq’s eyes on her were unblinking, hot as live coals. She couldn’t look at them, had to look at his dark blood on the sleeve of her last clean shirt instead. “I’m so sorry.” He did not reply. “I should have seen it.” Still no answer. “Please…” don’t leave me. Amber bit down on that until her lips stopped shaking, but as soon as she unlocked her jaws, it found another way out as a trembling, “Please don’t be mad at me.” He broke his gaze at last, turning his terrible eyes and whatever furious emotion was in them on the sky. “I’m not.”
Without speaking, he unbuckled his sword-belt. It and the hooked sword he carried landed on the discarded heap of his tunic. “What are you doing?” Amber asked, and hated the little whisper in which she asked it. “I, nothing,” he said brusquely, sitting down in the grass to unfasten his boots. “You are tending my wounds. And you can bathe me while you’re about it.”
Amber picked the cloth out of the grass and washed her face. It was cold. She dunked it in the stewing pouch, now the bathing pouch, and tried again, but the wind took away the heat before her skin had time to really feel it. She dabbed at Meoraq’s bloody scales some more; he couldn’t feel her or the wind or the cold. She finished cleaning him up, then made one last pass for quills, not so much because she expected to find them, but just so she could keep touching him. The tough old Amber who didn’t need anybody was dead and buried; the weepy, useless Amber who was left needed to be touched tonight, even if all he did was wake up and grab her wrist and tell her to keep her hands to herself.
Amber dabbed unnecessarily at the wound, which had already sealed itself. His blood was hot on her fingers, but cooled fast, darkening to black in the open air. The scent of cloves wafted up. Meoraq slept. She watched him. After a while, she put her hands on him again, stained now with his blood and hers, and ran them gently back and forth as she stared into his face. She wondered if she would be able to tell him from other lizardmen, if she ever met one. She wondered if he were handsome, for a lizard.
He wanted to give her back her people, as much as he hated the thought of having them back. He wanted to prove they were all dead so her grief would finally end, but he couldn’t do it without killing her blood-kin, her damned Nicci. He wanted Amber, the whole Amber, and he wanted her to want him the way she thought she wanted the cowardly, treacherous cattle who had left her in the grass to die. He wanted all these things, all at the same time, and the conflict left him in such a constant state of resentment and self-disgust and sympathy that he could hardly speak to her at all.
“Open to me.” She stiffened, staring intently and in tight-lipped silence into his eyes, but then she obeyed without allowing him even a token show of force, submitting as one already in his possession. He resisted the urge that swept him then, instead touching the soft skin below her brilliant eyes. “You are mine,” he said. It was early for these words. They were meant to come after, when conquest was done, but conquest, it seemed, already was.
“Don’t tell me what I mean.” But his spines lowered and he brushed his knuckles across her brow, then along the shorn half of her head. “How can you say you’re not mine when you gave everything you had to me? Everything you are…” His fingers scraped lightly down her cheek, along her throat and under the neck of her shirt, peeling it back from her skin so that he exposed her bitten shoulder. And did she roll her eyes? Shrug off his hand? Take even one step back out of his reach? No. She just stood there with her mouth slightly open and her girly heart fluttering and a hot glow way down deep in her belly and let him do it. “God gave you to me,” he murmured, nuzzling under her jaw. “Even when I did not know how to ask. He found you anyway and put you in my path. You are the woman I was born into this world to find.”
He smiled. “It pleases me that you want to be my well-mannered woman,” he said, peeling back the neck of her shirt. Ignoring her playful slaps, he licked at the mark he’d left in her soft skin. “But I would rather have the insufferable she-warrior I was given. So if you want me, put your hands on me and tell me so.” “What if I don’t want you?” “Ah, my wife, is that what’s bothering you?” He licked her again, slowly this time, tasting the strange, rich bitters of her blood, and felt it when she shivered. “We have only been married two days. Surely that is too early for you to start worrying that I might set you aside, especially since you have burned for me so readily thus far.”
“They are people.” “They may well be, but with no face, no scales, fur in thatches all over and Gann alone knows what else, they are monstrous people.” Uyane looked at him, head canted but spines all the way forward. “And you married one. Why?” “I had to,” Meoraq said. Lord Uyane snorted. “There had to be other ways to prove these things were children of Sheul. You’re a young man. You have the fame of your bloodline, the favor of God and the face of your father. Why bind yourself to a…a creature?” “I had to,” Meoraq said again. “We were married before I even met her. We were married before I was ever born.”
He fetched what tea was left in his stewing pouch after the humans had been at it and poured it into his new metal flask, then brought it back for her to drink. She managed only a few sips, grimacing at the taste, which was a perfectly good winterleaf blend. “For now, know that you are in His sight.” “Like I was when He let me get on the ship?” “The ship that brought you to me, yes.” He grazed the backs of his knuckles gently across her brow. “He set you on this path, Soft-Skin. Have faith that He will see you reach this journey’s end.”
“Say something,” she said at last. “God is in His heaven,” said Meoraq in a distant voice. “And loves me.” Zhuqa had said something like that once. This time, it was beautiful.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked quietly. “Something I really have known all along. Something that is one hundred percent true. Something…Something I could have built my own shrine on.” He didn’t answer, but he didn’t say no. “You’re an alien,” she told him. “Or I am. One of us is, at any rate.” He sighed and rubbed at his brow-ridges. “Our worlds are billions of miles apart. We come from two entirely different evolutionary trees. You have scales, I have hair. We have different skeletons, different organs, different everything, right down to the number of fingers and toes. We are one hundred percent incompatible. The only thing we have in common is a carbon base.” “So?” he said wearily. “So I’m pregnant,” said Amber, and was amazed at how matter-of-fact she sounded, saying it for the first time. “What the hell do you call that if it isn’t God?”
“You told me once that I was good at seeing evidence and, boy, did it piss me off because this is something that I really did not want to see. But men can only push themselves so far, Meoraq, and men with faith can only push so much further. All the evidence is telling me…there’s something else out there, pulling from the other side. I don’t like it,” said Amber bluntly. “I’m not at peace with it. I sure as hell don’t take comfort in it…but I’m glad you do.” He frowned, tried to look away, but Amber caught his snout and turned him back. “Because all the things God isn’t for me,” she said, “you are. Because of you, I see Him every day. So start talking, lizardman, but I warn you, you’ve got a hard talk ahead of you if you’re going to convince me there’s no God after He gave you to me.” She waited, but he didn’t say anything. He took a few deep breaths, then reached up and brushed the back of his hand along her cheek. His eyes closed. He bent and let her guide his head to rest on her shoulder. He put his arms around her. He did not rage. He wept.
“What are you afraid of the most?” He was quiet. Neck bent, he opened and closed his mouth several times before finally whispering, “Being alone.” She put her arm around him again. “I know I should be more worried about my soul,” he said in a quick, almost embarrassed way. “But I think I have one and I don’t think I’ll care if I’m wrong when I’m dead. What frightens me is knowing I’m alone now. When it matters.”
Format: E-Book Read with: Kindle Oasis Length: Novel Genre: Fantasy Romance POV: First Person, Single Series: Green Valley, #5 Publisher: Self-Published Hero: Theo Humphrey Heroine: Maya Alexander Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥 Published On: December 13, 2024 Started On: December 16, 2024 Finished On: December 18, 2024
A Christmas Mystery by Noelle Adams is a gentle, heartwarming holiday romance wrapped in the tenderness of loss, healing, and unexpected love.
Maya Alexander returns to her small hometown for Christmas after years on the road, living in her tiny house and chasing a nomadic life that has helped her process the grief of losing her fiancé just three weeks before their wedding. Her plans are simple enough; spend time with family and finally discover the identity of the mystery pen pal who has been writing her for more than a year. Those letters, filled with warmth and understanding, have been a lifeline. What she does not plan on is the constant, grumpy presence of Theo Humphrey, her late fiancé’s best friend, who never seemed to approve of her in the past.
Theo is the kind of hero who quietly steals your heart. Reserved and steady, he has always seen Maya as flighty and too frivolous for his best friend, but his actions tell a different story. Beneath his glowers and dry sarcasm lies a depth of patience and devotion that slowly begins to surface as they are drawn together during the holiday season.
Maya, with her free-spirited and restless nature, is his opposite in almost every way. Yet their banter, the unexpected moments of tenderness, and the ways they challenge each other create a beautiful, slow-burn connection that feels all the more satisfying for the push and pull.
The undercurrent of grief runs through them both, but while Maya’s healing has taken her on the road, Theo has stayed rooted, holding on to quiet truths he is not ready to voice. Their dynamic is layered with the shared weight of the man they both lost, which makes their growing feelings all the more complicated.
Theo is perhaps everything that I loved about this story; steadfast, quietly protective, and endlessly patient. His love for Maya is the kind that waits, no matter how long it takes. I also enjoyed the epilogue, though I did wish the epilogue had been from Theo’s perspective; seeing the world through his eyes would have added an extra emotional punch. The pacing is gentle, almost deliberately so, matching the tone of a story about healing and second chances. While some readers may find the plot quieter than expected, it works for the emotional journey these characters are on.
Recommended for: fans of holiday romances with emotional depth, grumpy hero dynamics, and stories where love waits with patience.
Final Verdict: A tender and quietly romantic Christmas tale that shows how love can bloom even in the shadow of loss.