Alex K. Thorne

Out of the 11 stories in After Happily Ever After, there are five that I have not read. Instead of being satisfied with what happened after the HEAs, I've become more curious as to what happened before the HEAs. This statement is especially true for the stories written by Zett, Nolan, and Blue, who are new-to-me authors. With that being said, here is my take on some of the stories.

Favorites:
“The Brutal Lie” - I’ve read The Brutal Truth multiple times, and Elena and Maddie rank high on my favorite couples list. “The Brutal Lie” has a good mix of chivalry (on Elena’s part), sexiness, romance (again on Elena’s part), commitment, and the successful use of power with precision (Elena yet again). Yeah, I’m definitely reading this one again!

“Partners” - I haven’t read Under a Falling Star. However, knowing that Dee and Austen’s journey includes family drama, someone having a tree topper dropped on them, and one of the MCs going from being a tough-as-nails COO of a Fortune 500 company to co-owner of a tiny company that makes toys for pet birds, was all I needed to make Under a Falling Star my next read. (Hopefully, there won't be any hurling staplers and stress balls in the original story.)

Bummers:
I had high hopes for “Love Is Not Nothing” by Lee and “Water into Wine” by Sinclair because they are two of my favorite authors. The stories are well-written; however, they are just too similar to have really satisfied my curiosity about what happens next with Natalya/Alison and Mir/Ari. I read “Water into Wine” last year on AO3, which I enjoyed more because of the second POV towards the end.

Hopefuls:
“No Going Back” by Blue was okay, but the ending did make me feel as if I missed something. Perhaps there’s a to be continued in the mix?

Zett's "The Cat Emergency" and Nolan's "Two Hearts-One Mind" both have just enough information about the MCs' past to make me want to read how the couples met and fell in love.

Jae is another one of my favorite authors. Damage Control has been on my "Read at Some Point" list for a while now. Grace and Lauren's sweet and sexy story in "Dress-Tease" just bumped Damage Control up my "Read Before the End of Summer 2020" list.

Meh:
Victoria and Anna's journey in Keeley's The Music and the Mirror was just okay for me. The romance was just not there for me in the original story. As a result, "Interlude" is my least favorite in this anthology.


Overall, After Happily Ever After was a decent read, and I look forward to reading books by Zett, Nolan, and Blue.… (más)

Recensione presente anche su BookLover

Libro ricevuto da Ylva in cambio di una recensione onesta.

Questa è una raccolta di racconti di personaggi visti nei vari romanzi delle autrici. Personalmente ho letto solo uno dei libri da cui originano le storie brevi, quindi ho letto le altre storie come se fossero normalissime storie brevi.

Interlude - Lola Keeley 3/5
Dress-Tease - Jae 4/5
The Cat Emergency - Chris Zett 3/5
Love is Not Nothing - Lee Winter 3.5/5
Water into Wine - Roslyn Sinclair 3.5/5
All Wrapped Up - G Benson 4/5
Not going back - Cheyenne Blue 3.5/5
What Happens At Game Night - Alex K Thorne 4/5
Two Hearts-One Mind - RJ Nolan 4/5
The Brutal Lie - Lee Winter 5/5
Partners - Jae 4/5

Come potete vedere, la raccolta in sé è molto consistente per quanto riguarda la qualità dei racconti. Queste sono autrici che conosco per i loro romanzi (come Jae, Lola Keeley e Lee Winter) o per altre raccolte di storie brevi pubblicate da Ylva Publishing.

Ho dato il massimo alla storia di Lee Winter perché conoscevo già i personaggi e mi è piaciuto rivedere le protagoniste di The Brutal Truth, letto, se non erro, l'anno scorso.
Adoro anche Jae, l'autrice di cui ho letto più romanzi (ma non quelli da cui provengono i personaggi delle storie brevi), che si è rivelata costistente con la qualità dei suoi scritti.

Interlude e The Cat Emergency, rispettivamente di Lola Keeley e Christ Zett, sono le storie che mi sono piaciute di meno, non solo perché non conoscevo i personaggi e non mi è parso di poterli davvero capire, ma perché, rispetto al resto delle storie nella raccolta, le ho trovate a un livello minore, almeno per me.
Altra storia che ho adorato è What Happens at Game Night di Alex K Thorne, perché si può leggere benissimo senza aver letto il romanzo, come anche Partners di JAe e Two Hearts-One Mind di RJ Nolan.

Nel complesso, vediamo coppie già insieme da molto (o poco) tempo lavorare per restare nella relazione, o proporre il matrimonio, o avere tempo da sole. È un buon mix di emozioni e scene osé, momenti di crisi e momenti di estrema felicità. E poi, ormai lo sapete, le raccolte di racconti solitamente beccano dei voti bassi da parte mia, ma questa mi è piaciuta parecchio per il buon mix di autrici.

Ovviamene Jae è una delle mie autrici preferite in generale, ma ho apprezzato molto lo stile di altre autrici che spero di poter leggere presto, o comunque leggere, ecco.

Per me, Ylva Publishing non si smentisce e ci dona un'ottima pubblicazione come sempre. Ovviamente, consigliato.… (más)

This book was 2018 October’s Sapphic Book Club read hosted by sapphicbookclub..

It's like this book had everything I like in one place? Like, wow.

Aliens / superheroes, secret identity ✓
Sapphic romance ✓
Boss/employee age difference romance ✓
Fake dating and PINING ✓
One of them is a single parent ✓
Supportive and positive adoptive families (multiple!) ✓
Close female friendship ✓
Nerdy protagonist and cute/funny clothes ✓
LI has complex relationship with both identities ✓
LI’s kid adores MC’s superhero identity ✓
Queer side characters ✓
Complex plot with both romance and mystery/action ✓
Alien having to hide non-human traits, failing ✓
Addresses social issues like racism ✓
Fits one of my reading challenges! ✓
That. Line. Reading. Scene. ✓

The only negative thing is that Gwen was about to call herself bisexual and use the word and Ava literally interrupted her about how labels aren’t important? Like, that scene could have been handled better. But that’s all my complaint for the entire book.… (más)

I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.

I am not jumping up and down, nope, I mean, sure, it looks like I am, but I am not. I mean, I was totally psyched for this book, amazingly psyched for any and all books that are coming out in this Superheroine Collection (this is the third one so far), but, nope, not jumping up and down, the me jumping up and down is a mirage.

In all seriousness, with lines like "Sentient Column of Raw Emotion", how could I not like this book.

As I said, this is the third book in the Superheroine Collection series, and, whoo-ee, it was almost as awesome as Shattered, and just a teensy bit more awesome than Power of Mercy).

It's the story of Gwen and Ava. Ava is an alien, one who crashed into the Mojave Desert with a bunch of others who all became known as the Andromeda Orphans, although she didn't get swept up in the Men in Black who came in, but flew away and crash landed in a backyard. She was adopted by a woman named Rachel, and I was happy to see that Rachel was still alive too. So often in the graphic novel comic books especially authors just seem to have this need to kill off the parents. Oy.

As the story starts Ava is a superhero called Swiftwing, as well as being an Assistant to Gwen, a superstar actress. And where Ava is open and kind and more, Gwen can be prickily and is seen in the greater world as 'mean'. She does have a son though, Luke, and that's where the complicated part of the story gets started. Luke's father wants custody (has just gotten married), and so Gwen comes up with a plan, pretend to date Ava. I mean, where could that go wrong??

It does go as most fake relationship books do (or Workplace romance books for that matter). The relationship has a lot of fits and starts, twists and turns. But, this book also has a really cool (I'm not sure whether to call it the subplot, or the main plot, the co-plot?) plot in it with a big Alien Praying Mantis sort of thing, not to mention what happens after Ava gets sprayed by another alien.

It all fit together really well. And I flew through it so fast because I just could not put it down. I'd love if this were a series, the stories of other aliens who crashed with the ship, etc., but, if this is the only story with these characters in this world, it was amazing!… (más)