LAST YEAR I WAS READING…(October 26, 2022)
Here are the rules:
Take your current read and compare it to what you reading this exact time last year. Which one do you like better? What is different about the books? Any special facts/things you want to make note of or bring attention to?
This meme was created by Reading Marie. It’s a great meme because it’s nice and easy to do.
This Year I Am Reading…
A grieving wolf. A hunted fox. Fated mates, thrown together by chance, and the looming threat of a fabled Huntsman who might tear them apart forever.
Fox shifter Liam Reynard is running from a killer. He uproots his life to find sanctuary in Fox Hollow, deep in the Adirondack Forest in New York.
When his car breaks down, sexy wolf shifter Russ Lowe comes to the rescue, and one touch makes it clear they’re fated mates. Neither man was looking for love, and both are still mending from past heartbreak. When mysterious fires and disappearances threaten Fox Hollow, Liam fears the killer is hot on his trail. Can he protect the town and his fated mate from the evil hunting him, or will an ex-lover’s betrayal cost Liam everything he loves?
Huntsman is full of sexy shifters, hurt/comfort, second chance love, sincere psychics, hot first responders, found family, and fated mates. Intended for readers 18 years of age or older.
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle | Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
Just started on this small-town shifter romance series by Morgan Brice. It hit the ground running with a suspenseful opening and a cutesy meet-cute, so I’m excited to see where this goes.
Last Year I Was Reading…
Sometimes salvation comes from the most unlikely hero.
When Tate Gillespie is marked for death for a crime he didn’t commit, his life crumbles. In a world where ‘justice’ is meted out by a relentless military force, he’s going to need more than a mythical guardian angel. His life down to seconds, he’s saved by the mysterious X, a knife-wielding man he’s never even met before. But who is X? Is he the man who threatens and kills without a second thought? Or the strangely gentle man who only seems to act that way around Tate?
X is a shadow. A wraith. A man who flits through the city virtually unseen. He’s got no time for people when knives are far more reliable. X does have one weakness though—the man he’s been keeping safe for years who doesn’t even know it. He’d burn the whole world to keep him alive. But what he won’t do is stake his claim. Tate’s not his and he needs to remember that, no matter how close they might become.
With the military in hot pursuit, they’re going to need to rely on X’s skills to keep them both alive. Tate’s feelings are growing with every hour they spend together, but X is a tough nut to crack. Can two people from very different backgrounds really find common ground? Or will one of the many perils they face throughout their long journey drive them apart?
It’s all about survival. Not love. Isn’t it?
Exposed is a 132k action/adventure story featuring two men who couldn’t be more opposite.
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle | Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
The shadowy, uber-mysterious X immediately grabbed my attention when I featured the book’s release a couple of years before. This dystopian, on-the-run story is a thrilling action-adventure, and adorable opposites attracts romance.
My 4.5-star review here.
Today we have a paranormal and a dystopian survival novel. Both books feature people on the run, a muscly alpha-type love interest paired with a twink, assassins, and small-town settings. The MCs have to contend with being stalked or hunted, the current by an unknown individual, last year’s by the love interest and law enforcement agencies.
While both books are in small towns, the current is in the US, near the woods and mountains. Meanwhile, last year’s is a dystopian version of Australia where the land was almost all desert. The current also has fated mates meeting for the first time, while last year’s has the MC stalking and pining for his oblivious crush since childhood. It also slightly touches upon class differences with the MC, an assassin from the slums, sneaking into wealthy city areas to watch over the other man.
The current book is Huntsman, which opens Fox Hollow Zodiac, a shifter romance series that belongs in the expansive Morgan Brice/Gail Z. Martin universe. From what I’ve gathered in the first few chapters, this will be about fated mates whose zodiac signs are compatible.
Liam Reynard is a fox shifter who escapes the deadly hands of the Huntsman by the skin of his teeth. Driving towards Fox Hollow because of a promised job, his car broke down in the snow. He was rescued by a tow truck driver/firefighter/mechanic, Russ Lowe. The two were in for a surprise when they discovered they were mates.
The book focuses on grief and moving on. Russ is a grieving widower, having just buried his husband two years prior. Russ’s late husband, Anthony, sounded like a great guy. Grieving spouses is tough to read sometimes, so I’d like to see how the author handles this issue. I don’t expect anything too heavy, but I’d like to see something that gives justice to the past and present. I’ve always wondered how a shifter already in a happy relationship feels they meet their fated mates. This one comes close to that. All in all, a very promising series opener.
Exposed is a standalone dystopian novel starring a man known only as X. He is a super deadly assassin who mostly stays in the shadows stalking and watching over a young man named Tate Gillespie. Unknown to Tate, he is X’s reason for living for decades.
One day, Tate was set up with a crime punishable by death. X had no choice but to break cover and swoop in, save the love of his life, and the two ran as fast as they could out of the city to the desolate desert lands towards the fabled utopian city.
The story is a great balance of action and emotions. One moment we get crazy ninja moves and throat-slitting, then we get some downtime of X cleaning Tate’s wound with excruciating tenderness. And then it’s back to adrenaline-pumping chases and explosions. And a LOT of walking!
Tate might be X’s raison d’être, but X was everything to me in this book. The man is soft for Tate and only for Tate. He was a badass through and through. He’s tough even to himself. He doesn’t believe he is worthy of being loved. Not even when Tate already said he liked him back. Their romance was equally intense and gentle, with a connection that slowly built heat until it went nuclear. It was a beautiful rendering of unrequited love getting requited.
Between animal shifters and shadowy figures, the real hunt begins when the hunter becomes the hunted.
I’m ending the post with a book I’m looking forward to reading.
In a remote village, a man named Azaiah goes wreathed in flowers and smiling to the sacrificial altar, willing to die to keep his village safe from plague. But the Harvester has something else in store for Azaiah, and it isn’t the shores of the world beyond that await him…but the cloak and scythe itself. Being Death means a long life that nevertheless requires a connection to humanity, and Azaiah learns that corruption awaits those who do not find a mortal companion to keep them tethered to the world. He finds it in Nyx, a soldier from an ancient empire and an adopted son of the Emperor, whose soul burns bright enough that Azaiah is certain immortality won’t be a burden but a gift.
But then a shocking betrayal changes Nyx from a gruff soldier with a kind heart to a man bent on vengeance, swearing fealty not to Azaiah, but his sibling, Ares. With Nyx set on destroying the empire that was once his home, Azaiah is dangerously close to losing himself to the corruption that threatens those who lose their tether to the mortal world.
Nyx once loved the Empire and the family that took him in, but when the perfidy of his adopted brother results in a tragedy beyond his ability to bear, Nyx wants nothing more than to burn the world in his wake. Turning from the quiet, intriguing Azaiah toward the promise of bloody vengeance, Nyx gives his vows to Ares and watches the empire he once served fall into ruin. But as the years pass, vengeance is a cold comfort, and the man who is now called Glaive is determined to save Azaiah from being lost in the dark.
STORMFRONT is the first book in the IMMORTALS DESCENDING series, featuring gods in search of their eternal companions.
Death gets a boyfriend and I’m here for it!
What were you reading this time last year?
(I hope it’s as riveting as Morticia’s book)
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