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Crimson Mate - Nikki McCoy

There's some interesting world building going on here and I enjoyed the story for the most part. I did often feel like I was in book two of series with some of the time and info jumps. Key scenes were passed over with a blithe reference after the fact which was frustrating because I wanted to read about them.

I did like the MC's, their chemistry was strong and sex scenes were hot. The story moved at a fast clip and I wondered if things were going to end on a cliff hanger. It didn't but it suffered again with a lot of key moments not being shown and only referenced after the fact. 

Still this was an interesting twist on the eternal shifter/vampire pnr stories that I found fascinating but it didn't make up for the often confusing jumps and rushed ending. A decent read though

Discussion Rooms - Create Groups and Book Clubs

We all know that book lovers love discussing books and sharing their reading experiences. We're opening discussion rooms on BookLikes where you can create reading groups, book clubs and set up discussions about books you enjoyed. 

 

This is the first version of groups, we'll be constantly improving and releasing new additional features so stay tuned :)

 

Discussion rooms are added on the top of the page next to Explore, Giveaways, Daily Deals, Goodies and Friends.

 

Creating group is easy, just fill up the form with name, image, description, rules and tags and hit Create at the bottom of the page.

 

 

You are the administrator of the group and it is you who is responsible for keeping your discussion rooms clean, safe and sound. 

 

As an administrator you can:

- set up and remove discussions and particular posts;

- block and unblock members from entering the discussion room;

- remove members from your group.

 

Please take a look at several rules mentioned on the "Create group" page. 

 

Each BookLikes member can join a given group, set up a discussion or enter existing discussions and add his/her posts.

 

As a creator of a discussion you can:

- add books to discussion topic; books will be visible in group overview and once you enter a given discussion;

- add your posts.

 

All information about a given group, its rules, tags and administrator are visible on Group info page.

 

 

You cannot add discussion topics or posts if you have not joined the group. But you can read the thread. 

 

 

We've also prepared several options for discussion notifications.

 

An administrator of the group has the following options: All (mail and notifications), notifications only or none for new members and new discussions. Options for administrator are available on Group info page.

 

 

An administrator and each member of a group can set up new posts notifications on particular discussion page. The notification option are visible just under the discussion topic on Discussion Page

 

 

So now get ready for discussion and book talks :-)

 

Discussion rooms presented today are in their first version and we'll be developing, improving and adding new features to them so stay tuned and let us know what you think :-)

 

 Here are several things that we will be working on in discussion rooms:

- private groups,

- discussion members' profiles and stats,

- adding books and links to posts in particular discussion,

- adding group moderators by administrator.

 

Update: 

Now you can find books without covers on your Shelf and easily add missing book covers to make your shelf look better organized. Select sort by cover in table view of your Shelf and you'll see books with green covers - click on the cover and upload cover image.

Nighttime Dreams (Nighttime Wishes) - M.A. Church, Julie Lynn Hayes, Mika Star

Another great installment of this alien tentacle series. This one focuses on the sheriff Bryan and the alien second in command Daroshi. I did find Daroshi a bit too tentative for the big bad warrior he's supposed to be but that didn't impact my enjoyment too much. I loved that we got quite a bit of Ziang and Shawn as well. 

This one ended a bit abruptly so I'm definitely on board with book three.

Nighttime Wishes  - M.A. Church

One of the better tentacle stories I've read...not that I'm any kind of expert on the genre. ;) 

I enjoyed the story of the alien Ziang and the human Shawn. Their odd history and even odder courtship. The tentacle sex was over the top hot. Also, cute cat in the story as well. Fun read.

The Caldwell Ghost  - K.J. Charles

4.5

Oh my. K.J. Charles I love you. This is a short, short story but damn the writing is amazing. Here's a sample:


This was no game. Simon held me captive and buggered me ruthlessly. My legs were splayed, my arms trapped, and I could do nothing but groan and grunt and take the forceful fucking he administered. I was hopelessly mastered, utterly subject to his will, and I had never been so hard in my life.

(show spoiler)

 

Robert Caldwell hires ghost hunter Simon Feximal to clear his ancestral house of an angry ghost. Things don't turn out quite how they expected.

Medium, Sweet, Extra Shot of Geek - R. Cooper

This was an odd little read. I really enjoyed the style though but I think that's because it reminded me a lot of some of the copious amounts of Sterek coffee shop AU Teen Wolf fanfics I've read. Tommy was very Stiles to me and Tavio very Derek. It lost me when Kaylee was introduced and we didn't get a proper adult sit down conversation with the men about their attraction to each other.

Enjoy The Silence - L. A. Witt

2.5

A short HFN story about a pop/rock god and a guitar tech. Usually I'm a big fan of alternating POV's but I would have preferred this one to stick with either Zander or Brad.

A nice story about nice guys on the road. Will their romance last longer than the tour? That's up in the air.

Flying Colors - Clare London

I really enjoyed the Miles/Zeke True Color stories and I was looking forward to reading about Red and Carter. I didn't. Throwing in an extra star for the M/Z cameos though because they're the only reason I kept reading the story.

Salvage - Con Riley

2.75

 

This has been a hard book for me to rate. While I enjoyed the style I had some issues with the characters and story. In the end, this wasn't really a book that I can recommend. What bothered me most I think was the what I perceived as the bait and switch with Jamie:

 

 

 

Through the whole story Jamie is being built up, to me, not as the bad guy but a selfish and unstable friend to Gabe. Distancing him from his family, encouraging him to not take job offers, etc. He's a user but Gabe has allowed it and has allowed Jamie to walk all over him. Whether that's been due to Gabe loving Jamie or wanting to protect him from himself, he's still been a pushover and Jamie has taken advantage of it for years.

We're then thrown with Jamie meeting Alec and moving on and pushing Gabe out. It's presented in a way that's very bait and switchy to me, this is Jamie's new man, oh...he's a sugar daddy, oh...he's his sponsor, shame on you for thinking he was his new boyfriend! I guess the whole making amends at the end was trying to make Jamie be a sympathetic character but it didn't work for me.

(show spoiler)

 

 

When Scott and Gabe did get together their chemistry was lovely. This story was very somber and at times I was so frustrated with the characters that it was a struggle to finish. The writing was so well done and the dialogue natural with a great flow but this was a depressing read for me despite the sweet HEA.

[REBLOG] Synchronization With Goodreads

Reblogged from Stumbling Over Chaos:

We're very sorry to inform you that BookLikes -> Goodreads Synchronization is switched off. We've received mail from Goodreads Staff who are blaming BookLikes' sync for not working right. 

 

All BookLikes Team hopes that this is just misunderstanding and will be sorted out soon. Until then we decided to switch off the BL->GR synchronization option. The text below describes in details how  the synchronization proceeded.

read more »

Spoiler Tag & Top Reviewers

Reblogged from Ami's Hoard:

 

We have some extra features for all who love shelving and reviewing books and reading reviews. Spoiler Tags let you hide moments in your text that could spoil reading experience for those who haven't finished a given book yet. Explore Page received a box with Top Reviewers where we present a group of BookLikes members who have impressive collection of reviews on their blogs. 

 

How to add spoiler tag? It's so simple.

 

Just type your review, then mark text fragment that contains spoiler and should stay hidden and press new SP icon on upper tool bar. The text will receive opening and closing spoiler tags and after Saving this part of post/review will be hidden. 

 

 

To reveal hidden part, click "show spoiler" and to hide it hit "hide". Spoiler tag is active on Dashboard:

 

and on your Blog in public view.

 

 

This means that the hidden text stays invisible for your friends who follow you on BookLikes and read your text on Dashboard as well as for guests and non BookLikes members who visit your Blog (yourusername.booklikes.com). 

 

Explore page received this week new category of Top Reviewers.

Top Reviewers present group of BookLikes members who have an impressive amount of reviews on their BookLikes Blog. 

Now you can look at their recent posts, follow them and stay up to date with their book updates.

 

Explore page presents also popular blogs, hot reviews and new and trending on BookLikes. All boxes can be sorted by given category and language. BookLikes Team also would like to welcome all Authors who recently joined BookLikes :-)

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

My own comment: SPOILER TAGS!!

 

And oh, that screencap, it actually had ME in it (Ami's Hoard). How cool is that?!?

In Kelly's Corner - Roxie Rivera

3.5

This is spin off from Rivera's Her Russian Protector series and while you don't have to read those books to enjoy this one I'd recommend it because there is quite a bit of character crossover. 

This has one of my favourite tropes, guy falling for his best friend's sibling, and it's always a winner for me. Kelly's family owns a gym/training facility that's in jeopardy because his father has a gambling addiction and now owes money to loan sharks and the mob. 

In order to save the gym and their father Kelly agrees to do an underground fight tournament for the mob. He's a former marine and his brothers are also ex-military but they're still recovering from injuries. Add into the mix, Kelly is trying to protect Beatrice, his best friend Jeb's younger sister, from a stalker. 

I enjoy Rivera's writing. This is more erotica and she does a great job with the sex scenes but as a result some of the plot suffers. The stalker storyline is pretty transparent, although the Jeb twist did surprise me. I would have enjoyed more details about the tournament but it was glossed over. Still I found what we did get with the training and the brief fight mentions very interesting. 

There is a TSTL moment by Kelly and Bee's bodyguards which had me shaking my head at how easily manipulated they were by the bad guy. I like the Connollys. I'm looking forward to Jack's story and especially Finn's because I'm hoping it will be an M/M, I have my suspicions! :D 

A good erotic read. Heavy on the sex and light on plot but with strong, interesting characters that have all very distinct personalities. Not quite a standalone but you're not inundated with other characters to the point where you're swimming in confusion. 

Exclusive Status For Your Books On BookLikes

Reblogged from BookLikes:

It's time for Thursday Release and it's a feature many of you requested :-) Now when a given book doesn't fit any default status on your Shelf (Read, Planning to read, Currently reading) you can create your own exclusive book status.

 

How? You can create and organize your books with new statuses in several ways.

 

Go to your Shelf Page and create your new status with your name, e.g. Not finished. New status will be added and visible at once on your Shelf.

 

 

You can also create exclusive status directly in book pop up, select it and Save for a given title. The book will receive new status immediately. 

 

 

If you want to reset previously given status (Read, Planning to read, Currently reading), click on it and Save. It should go white (inactive) and notion "On Shelf" will appear instead. 

 

You can also create exclusive status on Table view of your shelf (the entrance is on Shelf page). It is also a place where you can re-arrange your books one by one:

 

or move several books at once:

 

You can still create thematic shelves which will be added to your Shelf on the left and organize them the same way in table view. 

One Night Ever After - Elle Brownlee, Elizah J. Davis, Tere Michaels

Just a Drive by Tere Michaels 4.5

 

My favourite story of the anthology. Wyatt and Benji have a one night stand and just as Wyatt is sneaking out the next morning he gets a panicked phone call from his foster sister. He needs to get to her and Benji offers to give him a ride. The result is probably the most awkward morning after ever. 

 

Wyatt is a bit of player and he likes it that way and he thinks Benji is one thing but then finds out he has his own secrets. I love how Wyatt is forced to acknowledge that Benji is more than just a fun lay. There was an unexpected emotional component here and the very beginnings of a well earned HFN/HEA. Loved this one.

 

Just a Stranger by Elle Brownlee 3.25

 

Michael and Andrew meet months later after they had met in a club and had a one night stand. A misunderstanding leads to the reunion being a tense one but that doesn't last long and the relationship moves at a slow, steady pace. This was the sweetest story of the bunch. Kids and puppies. HEA

 

Just a Weekend by Elizah J. Davis 4.0

 

Devin plays white knight when he rescues James from falling into the trap of sleeping with his ex and charms him into taking home his saviour instead. One night of hot sex with expectations of more when the pair become snowed in comes to a crashing halt when James' sister-in-law drops off her daughters the next day. This turns into a fun babysitting day and the men slowly get to know each other outside the bedroom. I adored how James thought he was boring but Devin was charmed by him and called him Mr. Darcy. A HFN but definitely could see it become a HEA. 

 

Overall I found the stories in this anthology quite good. I confess to enjoying the snark over the sweet though but all are well worth the read. 

I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore - Jet Mykles

This was a pleasant and easy read. A younger man meeting an older man and they have a one night stand. They can't seem to forget each other though and start a sporadic long distance relationship with lots of texts and emails but still see other people. 

 

If you're looking for a slow moving romance that's low on the angst level this would be a good one to try.

Done!

My GR import is complete! :D