Larissa EmeraldReseñas

Magical Midlife Survival Guide by Larissa Emerald
The Wine, Chocolate & Paranormal Shenanigans series, book 1. Women’s paranormal fiction. Slightly older female protagonist. Trigger warnings: mental and physical abuse. Cliffhanger.
At forty-two, and now experiencing physical abuse from her husband, Lainie takes her two kids and leaves him for a safer address. On her own, and no money and children to keep fed, she gets creative with Halloween and recycling when she discovers a forgotten pocket watch that thrusts her into a world of magic. Lainie had no idea she has had the power of magic within her. Suddenly she has money by the duffel bag, and dozens of toads in her house. She is going to have to figure it all out before her soon to be ex-husband realizes that something has changed with Lainie.

Surprising events for wayward magic. I don’t trust that ex doesn’t already know. There are several unanswered questions that will hopefully be resolved in the next book.
The author calls it a happy for now ending. It felt a bit abrupt to me and open ended which will make you want to pick up the next book to find out what happens. So cliffhanger.
Amusing but not totally clear world building which may be deliberate.
3.5½

Well... my biggest issues with this was the insta-love, which I'm not a huge fan of, and also the fitting of this to Nocturne Falls. I feel like the writer wanted to connect this to her own series, which would be ok, but my issue was that the rules for vampires in NF series is obviously different. And I didn't like this rewriting of the rules. I would've preferred a clean story within this universe.

And then, yes, there is one more thing: the female and male stereotyping. I feel Nocturne Falls is pretty good in this regard with women actually being friends and not just competing who gets the guy and reduced to cardboard cutouts and also it's positively surprising in the lack of macho men. So, I was slightly disappointed in this regard. This wasn't the worst ever that I've read, but in comparison of the normal quality of NF, I would've wished something better.

Merry and Bright, a Christmas anthology from the Nocturne Falls Kindle world.

9 short holiday novellas by the same authors and storylines in the Nocturne Falls Kindle world.
Several of the stories revisit couples from previous stories in the kindle world. Christmas celebrations that include heart and misty eyes. To fully appreciate these short stories, you should read the associated Kindle world books by each author. It can be read as a standalone but you won’t appreciate the relationships.
My two favorite first:

The Meddlesome Misadventures of Merry and Bright by Alethea Kontis
A young adult beginning of friendship, pranks and magic. To adulthood and life. This author is becoming one of my favorites. A short quote from the book: “She brightened up again, like sunshine on snow”.

Magic’s Frost by Sela Carson
A new romance. A bit of humor. Fun and flirty. A slightly older couple. Adorable.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Alien by Fiona Roarke
The next chapter in “aliens come to Nocturne Falls”, revisit with one of the couples.

The Wizard’s Mistletoe Magic by Jax Cassidy
Fae, attraction, memories and finding a lost love.

The Dragon’s Christmas Mayham by Kira Nyte
Dragons trying to create a Christmas experience while their mates keep their own secrets.

The Mistletoe Misshap by Wynter Daniels
A romance ended because of family pressure. Hope restarts it. I liked this short romance. He wants to protect her and what says love more than that?

The Psychic Says I Do by Candace Colt
A wedding or two for the Falcon brothers.

The Sorcerer’s Christmas Miracle by Cate Dean

The Witch’s Snow Globe Wish by Larissa Emerald
A mis-delivered letter reconnects a couple for a second chance at love.

I won this book in a give-a-way for an honest review and I am glad I had the chance to read it. Nice book with a pretty good plot. Lots of laugh out loud moments and not too much sex but lots of tension. I enjoyed a great story line and a good read nicely done.

This is a nice romantic story with a hint of intrigue. The story flowed at a quick pace and I really enjoyed the mystery of who was making the threats and causing trouble. I liked the main characters, especially Kelsey, but Dr. Michael's seemed to be too good to be true- a dermatologist, film producer and real estate developer! I was disappointed that the build up to who was causing harm to Kelsey and her business was all tied up very suddenly and quickly without much drama. I thought I had accidentally skipped a bit but I hadn't.
Overall, this is a somewhat predictable but nice little romance and I would recommend it.½

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh man, I went into this book after finishing another romance novel which was extremely underwhelming, so I'm not entirely sure whether or not I enjoyed this book as much as I did because it was good or because it was spectacular by comparison. Either way, I really did enjoy myself. It almost made me wish that I could ski, which is ridiculous because I'm the least coordinated person ever. It did make me crave hot chocolate, which is nearly as ridiculous because it's heading into summer and my room was boiling today.

This was a nice, fluffy, wonderful romance story with a slight mysterious twist to it (read my thoughts on this later in the review). Kelsey is a stereotypical free-spirited, outdoorsy artist running a chalet for her father. Jared is a savvy businessman seeking revenge for his sister's injury at that same chalet. I think we all know where this is going, am I right.

There's heat, there's sparks, there's passion, there's a plethora of unfairly attractive people that probably wouldn't exist outside of a romance novel. There's also an incident involving a snowmobile which I'm still not completely sure how I feel about.

The "mystery" part of this book seemed a little... contrived at times? In some places it feels rushed and in others it just feels like it's thrown in to create extra drama and danger (which I guess it kind of does). However, the climax is not very climactic and everything is resolved really quickly and easily, with the whole build up through the book being fixed in like two pages. It didn't really seem like there was a huge amount of believably for the whole "explanation" of things.

But it's really not that big a deal, because most of this book isn't really focussed that much on anything aside from how much these two people are just constantly really attracted to each other. Like, from page one these two really dig each other and (aside from that snowmobile incident) I really liked watching them get together.

(On a complete side note, can I just point out how completely ridiculous every single romance novel cover is ever? Who even makes these things?)

This review is also posted on GoodReads.½