Hi! I thought I was going to kill my momentum early when I got to the middle of this month and realized I'd only read 1 1/2 books, so when I was done with Black History Spotlight prep and work I made up for lost time. I took a couple of self-care Saturdays this month and spent them reading and watching old black and whites on my DVR. I was also down for the count twice in the month, so I had no choice. Sounds boring as shit, but I don't think I could have been more content. With the reading, not with the illness. lol Why aren't the men lining up outside my window, you may be asking. LOL Probably because the window is boarded up and I've rubbed a skunk's scent on the wood to keep away squatters. As you can see, the month of love makes me more cuddly than usual. 😂 About as cuddly as a thorn in the ass. Anyway, I made up for lost time this month and read a few goodies. You know I suck at plot synopses so I'm going to use excerpts of the authors' descriptions combined with my summaries. Despite the rather short list, I have a lot of thoughts about a few of them so it may end up being no shorter than normal. lol Anyway, let's get to the books!
Alec: A Scottish Outlaw
I enjoyed this book so much that it made me sad once I read the other stories and they ended up pushing this one to the bottom of the list. They didn't push it to the bottom because it was a bad book, they pushed it to the bottom because those stories were much more complex. This one was fairly simple and unoffensive, but I really did enjoy it. Alec, the title character in this book, is just what the title suggests--a Scottish outlaw--but he begins the book masquerading as stuffy, uptight Randolph Tweed. He along with his brothers are spies for the Scottish regiment, and part of Alec's assignment is to find the currency stolen by England when the king had the country raided. That brings him into contact with a group of wealthy merchants, one of whom is the cruel master to the beautiful but ill Diana and her tender-hearted servant Joanie. He buys Joanie from her owner and even though she believes her life will be the same, if not worse, than her previous owners due to Tweed's unfeeling demeanor, Alec proves her to be quite wrong and shows her the truth of her heritage in the process.
I liked the supernatural part of this story; it was a bit different from other stories in the same vein. If Alec so chooses, he can hear the thoughts and feel the emotions of anyone he pleases. It's obviously overwhelming, so he usually tries to block it out. But he hears the pain in Joanie's heart and makes a vow to rescue her, and she does the same for him. I don't have too much to say about the book; it was simple, easy to read and well-written. I enjoyed reading along as Joanie finds her strength in Alec and he finds solace and comfort from the world in her. I think, in an ideal relationship, that's what you should have. Joanie was able to find her voice and strength with renewed purpose, and Alec was able to find somewhere safe where he wasn't constantly bombarded with thoughts, feelings and instincts that weren't his own. I loved how the plot tied into the history and rich heritage of Scotland; the author's descriptive skills really came into play while she was describing the landscape and general atmosphere of the country. The entire tone of the book changed when Alec and Joanie left the dreary, downtrodden England in their wake and headed for Scotland. I also liked reading about how such an important item to the history of the country had roots in this love story and interestingly enough, was completely ignored for a lot of the book. It seemed to have one meaning for the majority of the book, then it started to change into something else and in the end, meant something much deeper. The only thing I can think of to say that I didn't like as much was that, like most intro books to a series, this one seemed to end prematurely. I wanted to see where else the characters went after the main obstacle was removed, how Joanie adjusted to everything she'd learned about herself, and more importantly how daily life was with her with the massive changes she experienced. It cut off immediately after that, and even though I guess you could say the book ended there, for me it leaves a few too many loose ends. Other than that, I enjoyed Alec: A Scottish Outlaw. It was a good way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.
My rating:
Priest: A Love Story
If you're thinking this is a love story about a man named Priest, then you've sorely overestimated me and underestimated the subject content I'm willing to read. This is undoubtedly a smut book. lol Tyler is a Catholic priest whose days are uneventful and spent holding masses, hearing confessions, and ministering to the people of his congregation. Until Poppy comes along. She comes in seeking answers, trying to find a peace her soul seems to be craving, and Tyler finds himself, for the first time since becoming a priest, feeling conflicted. As a priest, he feels the undeniable call to help soothe her spirit but as a former Dominant who didn't spend his entire life in the church, he also feels the undeniable call to have his way with Poppy's body. As this troubled woman worms her way into Tyler's heart, Tyler recalls his own experience with guilt when he revisits what eventually drew him to the altar, the line in the sand event in his life. Just as something drew him to the altar, something happens to draw him away from it. Is the event a blessing in disguise, or has Tyler's life been destroyed by a mistake?
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the plot of this book. Growing up in the church myself, I'm more than a little familiar with the shame often synonymous with sexual identity and openness, and I'm more than a little familiar with the appeal of the forbidden fruit so I understood Tyler's predicament. I enjoyed learning who Tyler was, both because of and in spite of his vocation. There was something so dirty about that and because I'm disgusting, I enjoyed it more because of that. I honestly think that was part of the appeal and that understanding made the mistake all the more realistic. Even as we judge those in the church for thinking themselves above us and then judging us when they show they aren't, the truth is that we're all human. Excluding asexuals, we're all fans of the flesh in some capacity. Temptation is a real bitch, and nobody is immune depending on the temptation in question. Now as for the book itself, it was steamy. Fog my glasses up steamy, which I partially attribute to the obvious taboo factor, which is right up some peoples' alleys ✋ and I enjoyed that such a taboo topic seemed to have been tackled fearlessly. There's a reason why priest and nun costumes are always a hit come Halloween, and it's not all about satire or irony. The combination of temptation and taboo often make for a heady, conflicting, passionate mix of things and this book really delved into that from the first conversation right up until the epilogue. It was also nice to read along as the point of conflict reared its head and watching Tyler try to navigate his way through that. There was questioning and soul searching to do while he figured out the next steps he needed to take, and I really appreciate that there was no immediate nicely-wrapped package of HEA.
My rating: 
Don't Speak: A Jade Harrington Novel
In this political thriller, the reader is confronted with an America that looks startlingly similar to elements of our own current political outlook, from the viewpoints of various people in the Washington D.C. area. Various voices in the conservative talk show community, rising and prominent, turn up dead at multiple points within the last 10 years, but nobody puts the cases together until a prominent talk show host is found with his tongue cut out and the FBI is brought in to investigate. Lead investigator Jade Harrington is a hardnosed agent who keeps the world at two arms' lengths. This case forces her to step her game up to find the killer, who named himself TSK, who may be much closer than Jade anticipates.
While I enjoyed the book, I have to admit I wasn't terribly fond of Jade and at first, it affected how I felt about the book overall. I have no right to dislike her; in truth we're not all that different. She doesn't do vulnerable, doesn't allow people close to her, still has a chip on her shoulder from childhood--which is directly what led to her now having the former two attributes--that she feels she has to run from, and in general, comes off a bit cold. Sounds a little too familiar to me if I'm in self-assessment mode
(spoiler alert--I'm always in that mode lol) so objectively speaking, I basically got to experience what someone like me would probably look like if they were in a high-profile position like the FBI. Minus the anxiety, of course. LOL I liked the personalities of the other team members; there was a lot of variety and attention to developing individual characteristics of each person that made it enjoyable to read. It wasn't a carbon copy of the same person 6 times over and I was glad for that. Each person's strength and skill was properly shown in the book and even for the supporting characters, I still saw growth. As for the actual plot itself, I don't have many, if any, complaints. The killer was intelligent, arrogant, starved for attention, and five steps ahead of the investigation into the murders, which is everything he should have been. I loved learning about how intertwined everyone was, although they did not realize it at first. It brought another layer of intrigue to the story. I loved the main characters, even the ones I despised. I enjoyed reading the journey they each went on, being defined by their political leanings while having to deal with regular life issues that don't discriminate against who experiences them. It was also really refreshing to read about a politician who wasn't playing
(completely) dirty, who for the most part played by the straight and narrow and honestly believed in what she was saying. Being surrounded by those who weren't afraid to play dirty made her stand out all the more and I liked the way that was done.
One of the main characters seems to be heavily inspired by the living meme that is Alex Jones and I thoroughly enjoyed his character, even though I agreed with 0% of what he said and couldn't stand him. lol To me, he was probably the most fleshed out character in the book and for someone like him, it wouldn't have worked with anything less. Honestly, the parts of the book with him in it are where the author's work shines, because I feel like that's when I see her attention to detail, the work she put into creating this atmosphere and creating characters who properly fit into it. Creating a likable character, in my opinion, is easy. Creating an utterly detestable character, making it believable and still weaving enough emotion into the book to make us want to see what happens to the character is difficult to do, yet she did it. She also accurately created a worldview that isn't so different from today's America, with the various issues being discussed throughout the book and the depth she covered them in, something else I liked. She did her research and it shows. Who the killer ends up being surprised and disappointed me, but the ending of the book was awesome and a little heartbreaking all at the same time. With the last two sentences of the book, the author brought everything full circle and shone a new light on the entire book. It was fabulously done and for once, I'm actually looking forward to reading the next chapter in the series. Usually I can read the free chapter and go on about my life without reading the other installments, but I actually want to know where things go with this next one.
My rating:
Prisoner (Criminals and Captives)
Wowie was this one twisted. LOL Abigail is a quiet, reserved student who takes an internship teaching a writing course to prison inmates. Their stories are to be published in a short journal, and Abigail relishes the opportunity to teach, right up until she comes into contact with Grayson. Grayson is an inmate with a ton of secrets and a hard-on for the new teacher. They're immediately drawn to each other but for obvious reasons, Abigail does not act on it. Grayson makes her feel exposed in a way that scares her and initially she tries to get reassigned. Her mentor encourages her to stick it out, to help them tell their stories, and she relents. Abigail has her secrets too, secrets that make her wonder if she's any better than the inmates she instructs. The journal's publication has unexpected consequences, and a prison break ensues. Grayson inches his way closer to finding out those secrets bit by bit after he kidnaps her in his attempt to escape. He's not one of the good guys, and as she finally accepts that her life as she knows it is over, Abigail begins to wonder if she's really one of the good ones herself. The story goes much deeper than a prison break, and Abby discovers that Grayson and his gang could have been the good guys, in another lifetime, but the depravity of man reached them first.
If this wasn't the most Munchausen, mentally conflicting, kinda sexy but in a really twisted way books I've ever read in muhlife
(my life lol). The HEA in me kept expecting the story to clean itself up, to make itself PC and therefore acceptable for me to root for them, but it never did. And somewhere towards the middle of the book, I kinda stopped wanting it to. It's a book that makes you question yourself once you find yourself sorta rooting for them, then you wonder if you have Munchausen by proxy, then you wonder if you're not just as fucked in the head as you come to realize both Abigail and Grayson are. I think Abigail comes upon the realization around the same time as the reader, because it was around that same time that I began to wonder about my own sanity because I started to feel conflicted. What did that say about me that I kinda wanted them together? I really wanted Grayson to go straight and it threw me off the further I got into the book, waiting for a character change that never came, and eventually I realized that was the entire point. It wasn't going to come. Grayson wasn't one of the good guys, he continued to say it even though there were moments he showed otherwise, and he didn't disappoint. I mean morally, he disappointed; I actively disliked him
(a little lol) by the end of the book, but strangely, I didn't hate him as much as I should have.
He did something about halfway through the book that made me want to stop reading entirely because it felt like such a non-hero thing to do--it was disgusting actually,--but again, that was the point. He
wasn't a hero. To his credit he never pretended or even tried to be otherwise and we do eventually find out why he was the way he was, but somehow it seemed like there was still the smallest spark of hope for redemption at a later date. Despite that event, believe it or not there was still growth. He became an anti-hero of sorts. The authors did a really good job at keeping the question "What could Grayson have been if not for this event?" hovering over the reader's head for the entire story with the way the character was written, bringing him to the line of unredeemable--crossing it, if you ask me--then bringing him back, but just a little. Abby's main focus was trying to be free again, but at some point throughout the book strangely enough she seems to become more free, even as she remains captive and also becomes legally complicit in the crimes being committed. This is a twisted book about secrets, innocence lost and bonding through pain, even as the one inflicting some of said pain causes both of their deeply buried wounds to come to the surface. It creates this extremely questionable healing process as two wounded, broken individuals come to terms with their brokenness together and create something new that isn't any less broken, but works for them. Like I said, it's twisted. It's sexy, even when it probably shouldn't be, but it also reels you in wanting people to find their justice and maybe a little healing. I applaud the author for creating this very complex, Lord of the Flies-reminiscent world and these characters who aren't as black and white as such a layered plot would normally dictate. They seem to float in this morally gray area, where you can understand how everyone got to be that way, maintain your moral opinion and then find yourself doubting it later in the book. I really enjoy books like that, so hats off for this one.
My rating:
Hidden in Plain Sight (Serenity's Plain Stories #4)
It's very rare that I'll read a book in the middle or at the end of a series, but the free price tag on the book drew me in. lol Well that, and I'm also partial to the name Serenity. Serenity's the new sheriff of a small town with a strong Amish community, members of whom she'd tangled with in earlier chapters of the series. The book starts some fifteen years prior, with the murder of an abusive ex-husband who can't leave his wife alone. When Serenity's expertise with the local Amish community is consulted for the case, which is being reopened with the discovery of new evidence, she ends up drawn in to an uncomfortable level as details begin to lead to someone very close to her.
I didn't read the other chapters in the series but the author was able to efficiently give us bits and details so incoming readers would still be able to follow along. With the different series and documentaries we see on the Amish community, we know that things aren't as quaint, simple or innocent as we would believe otherwise. I think the author did a great job of capturing that sense of community as well as the sense of secrecy that is present in many communities. I wasn't reading along since Serenity's relationship started with Daniel, but from the bit I did gather from this book, he seems like the safer, less problematic option but I never got the feeling that she couldn't live without him. Maybe its because I'm late to the series but the characters, Serenity and Daniel in particular, kinda fell flat for me throughout the book. Speaking of Daniel,
(spoiler alert) the part of the mystery that involved him was dragged out for an unbelievably length of time considering that Toby and John are supposed to be FBI agents. Why wasn't every name that came up during the investigation properly, well, investigated?
It seemed to me that in order to keep the air of mystery about Daniel's role in the murder afloat, the investigative skills had to suffer as a result. I had a hard time believing that two agents couldn't put the name together and figure out that part of the mystery for as long as it was dragged out. The shifts in Daniel's personality may have been red herrings to create confusion about whether or not he was the real murderer, but all it did for me was send up red flags. Those were never explained, never mentioned again, and he came off a bit too intense and moody for me to really root for him. I understood the point of the book and I think the author captured what she was trying to capture, but personally the book wasn't for me. However, I am really interested in some of the side characters. There's another chapter in this series that follows this one, and I'm interested in reading that one. The person I am thinking is the heroine in this next chapter had a great setup in this book, and I saw more personality from her in just one conversation than I'd seen Serenity have the entire book. Again, I probably don't feel as connected to Serenity because this is the 4th installment in the series, so I would gather that by this point Serenity's character has probably already been explored, so the later chapters focus more on the story and the other characters who interact with her.
My rating: 
Alaskan Dawn (Pacific Horizons Book 1)
Mandy's Note: And here is my clean entry for the month. While there is an undercurrent of sexual tension throughout most of the book, there isn't so much as a whisper of a fondle, finger or thrust. I'm proud of myself. LOL
In this book, a woman named Haley has a lot on her plate. She's just reached her fourth month of pregnancy as a surrogate for her twin sister and her husband, she's finally reached lead associate for a huge environmental case in her firm, and she's reached the end of her rope with her needling mother and sister. Overworked, frustrated and in desperate need of some solace, Haley seeks refuge for a week on the Alaskan coast. While there, she meets and quickly falls for Ben, a handsome environmentalist-leaning boat captain who helps her make the best of her week away. But once she has to return to her life in California and Ben resumes his life, the roadblocks in their way stretch the miles between them even further, making a relationship seem more implausible. They agree to remain friends, but the emptiness Haley feels as time passes forces her into some soul searching. Is her job really what she aspires to do in life, at the expense of who she comes to realize is her soulmate, or is she ready for something new?
Like I said, this was my clean entry for the month. I really enjoyed this book. Ben isn't bulky, immaculately dressed and too handsome to look at directly. He's a tall, gorgeous ginge with beautiful eyes, adorable bedhead in the morning and no suits to speak of. lol He was a breath of fresh air. As much as I enjoy my suit-wearing, slightly condescending alpha male businessmen, I also love a quietly self-assured, nomadic leaning man who's knowledgeable, thoughtful, perceptive and considerate. The fact he also has a slight Captain Planet complex with his environmentalism doesn't hurt, either. lol I loved Haley, probably because I could relate to her quite easily and she wasn't a jackass. She was direct and honest without purposely putting on facades and changing who she was, she wasn't prone to theatrics, quite the opposite, and in the end didn't give herself up to love. And (spoiler alert) she didn't want kids! It is so rare, especially these days, to read about a heroine who doesn't want kids and to see that continuity moving forward. You also wouldn't expect to hear that viewpoint in a typical romance since Haley spent the majority of the book pregnant. That's usually the perfect plotpoint to take an initially resistant person and turn them around by the end of the book by bringing forth those deeply buried maternal feelings.
Many times, by the epilogue the hero and heroine have either had a whoops! baby and all of a sudden can't imagine not being parents, they open their minds to the possibility just in time for a positive pregnancy test, or they've actively started planning to have a baby. I don't intend to have kids either so it's nice to see that some authors recognize having a child isn't the end-all be-all for every woman and a heroine can still have her HEA without having a replica of her DNA biting her ankles. lol Its rare to see childfree couples without having a medical issue be the root of the problem and I enjoyed that. The plot was very refreshing, the author's style of writing suited the plot, and she created characters that were easy to love. There wasn't any contrived drama (okay maybe a little lol), in the end nobody had to sacrifice their dreams or goals--another typical romance plot that drives me insane--and no cliffhangers. It was well written, the pace was easy to follow along with, and the author smartly veered away from the typical romance tropes. Her ability to paint a vivid scene of the Alaskan coast entirely through words was amazing, as was her attention to the wildlife Ben loved so much. Those little details do a lot, and she didn't miss a beat. If you're into clean, modern romance and love sealife, give this one a whirl.
My rating: 
Before I go, I was wondering if I should start including purchase links for each book I read. Not for affiliate purposes or anything like that--can you even be an affiliate for a book you didn't write? I don't think so but who knows lol--but in case you were interested in picking the book up yourself, you could get the links from here. Let me know what you think.
The Royal Wedding: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
