S. J. WestReseñas

To be honest I would honestly give this a 2.5 but since I can't I gave it the 3. The continuous of this being primarily about Jess and Mason sexual life or lack their of or whatever you want to call it, I personally call it cringe worthy. It did not keep me focused on the story, nor kept me wanting to read more on it, if anything I found myself skipping through pages just not to read it. Now don't get me wrong I love romance in books, I will even admit to loving smut in my reads but this was just not in my tastes. It was overall annoying and although in the beginning I was rooting for these two it was just badly done. Sorry to the author because the overall concept of this series I do love but the sexual part and the code names and pet names I just absolutely dislike.
The other thing I absolutely just disliked is that everyone and I mean everyone knew about their personal life, I'm sorry but what?! I can see a best friend or even a family member getting the full deets on their personals but this was just absurd.
What saved this book for me was the fall out with her and Lucifer because I absolutely cried. Not a fan of said Lucifer in real life but to the point of this story I was really hoping for redemption and it broke my heart at their fall out; but it kept me interested to see what happens.
So with that being said I will keep reading the series because now I find myself invested, hopefully more about the story than Jess and Mason otherwise I will not finish.

I read SIncerely, Dane by Ilsa Madden Mills and this short story was such a sweet read.

This is a cute and fun novella that is part of anthology and I hope will eventually be a full length story. Dane and Piper went to school together from high school on and now that Dane’s twin bother is married to Piper’s best friend they end up spending a lot of time together. Piper has always crushed on Dane but believes he has her firmly placed in the friend zone that she just accepts their relationship as is until one night a text makes her think about more. Dane hasn’t had it easy in life, he derailed at one point, and his relationship with Ari fizzled out because deep down I truly believe he’s always felt like Piper was his. In this story Dane comes to Piper’s apartment dressed as a werewolves and so the chaos ensues. He recruits her to help with a scavenger hunt that ends with an epic ending/beginning. The tension between them was tangible, the chemistry off the charts, and the can they will they flowed off the pages. I rally hope we get more of their story!!

I like The story and I like the slow romance between Mason and Jess; however the overly sexual innuendos , the over the top flirting only for Jess to pull away. I understand her childhood trauma is not something to take lightly but I find her character to be so contradictory. How can she be this traumatize but be so expressive with the innuendos and so bold with Mason. Am I the only one finding this to not make sense? It just too much cringe moments that it reached the point that I almost did not finish this.
And let's not forget about her constantly calling Mason "Mr. Collier" as a way of flirting, who does that? This is not sexy at all, it made me want to scream "STOP IT!" lol.
I'm not a writer and I hate to dislike anyone's work but as a reader this was not a fit for me, someone else might be okay with it but I was not.
What I do love is her friendship with Chandler (he is just so adorable), to be fair I wouldn't have minded a Love triangle here but I'm also okay with it just being a friendship.
Overall it was good enough that I would recommend if you like fluff romance so I gave it 3 out of 5 stars.

This was a random pick for me and I am all the happier for it. I love these paranormal slow romance building types of books.
Jess has endured more heartbreak than most people can get through in her 20 something years causing her to keep a very small circle of people she loved and let in her built up walls. Then Mason comes along and her destiny starts to unravel along with a love she didn't think would be possible for her to ever have. I cried and laughed and cried, man I am a big mooshy person but I'm okay with that.
If you love paranormal- war between fallen Angels, destiny, different worlds this is a good book for that.Broken (The Watcher Chronicles, #1) by S.J. West
I love Brittany Pressley as the narrator, she gets you sucked into the story that you forget it's just her narrating and not a full cast. Already started the 2nd book soon as I finished the first one.

Back to loving this series

I was ready to DNF this but them last few chapters had me crying is all I have to say. Though I'm left with some questions I am hoping they will be answered in up coming books.

Moonshade Is Not Your Normal Vampire Story

Moonshade is not your normal vampire story at all. It definitely threw me off on a few parts in the book. Sarah does seem to take it all in stride when she finds out she is bound to a vampire, like it's an everyday occurrence or something. Other than that I found the book to be pretty good.

Two More Days

*A note before you slog through all of this. 1) I only listened to some of the stories. I skipped unfamiliar authors due to time constraints. B) I'm leaving this long mostly blank list as I had a hard time finding a list of the story names and authors so hopefully, I can save someone else a little time.

Tequila Mate - Author - Stars - Character Names - Review/Thoughts.

Always Cake - Max Monroe - 3 Stars - Emily, Austin - Two best friends born on the same day. They celebrate their birthdays together every year and on their 24th the night goes further than planned. Now it’s their 35th birthday and they have decided to honor the pact they made when they turned.

Confessions - Lora Richardson - Stars - Character Names - Review/Thoughts

Heels Over Head in Love - Willow Aster - Stars - Character Names - Review/Thoughts.

Second Summer - Laurelin Paige - Stars - Character Names - Thoughts/Review

Protected - Dr. Rebecca Sharp - Stars - Characters - Review/Thoughts.

The Vanished - Jennifer Wilson - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

The Shelby - Jewel E. Ann - 3 Stars - The issue with this being an audiobook is I forget names quickly - I wasn’t expecting his tale of revenge. It was indeed sweet.

Sunshine Rae - Kandi Steiner - 2.5 Stars - Parker and ? - Just an okay story. Nothing mind blowing, just angst about being in love with your best friend who is about to propose to his girlfriend. It’s been done before and done better. Also, I didn’t really like the narrator as she sounded very juvenile.

From Friends to This - SERIES INFO - Dominique Laura - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

The Kiss - SERIES INFO - M. Robinson - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Stone Heart - SERIES INFO - S. J. West - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Without Yesterday - Lexi Ryan - 2.5 Stars - James Cooper, Krystal aka Kris, - Honestly this I’m in a relationship but super attracted to someone else bit is not my thing. It was well written and there was no cheating, but I didn’t like the vibe.

Good Girl Gone Bad - SERIES INFO - R. K. Lilley - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Of Potions and Poison - SERIES INFO - Chanda Hahn - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Breaking the Rules - SERIES INFO - Charleigh Rose - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Stray - SERIES INFO - Jessica Hawkins - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

A Home for Hobgoblins - SERIES INFO - Eric R. Asher - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Falling for my Stepbrother - SERIES INFO - Kelsie Stelting - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

When Fire Strikes - SERIES INFO - Marni Mann - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Armageddon, Again - SERIES INFO - Aileen Erin - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Strike One - SERIES INFO - Meagan Brandy - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Office Hours - SERIES INFO - Alessandra Torre - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Pineapple - SERIES INFO - Leia Stone - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

Sincerely, Dane - Ilsa Madden-Mills - 3 Stars - Dane and Ava - A cute story. I loved the scavenger hunt and how it didn’t end the way I expected it to end.

Dark Eyes - Karina Halle - 3 Stars - Amethyst, Wolf, Shannon, Ezra - It was nice to see a PNR twist in the middle of all the contemporary stories in this anthology. This was an interesting examination of who the real monsters are. This world shows me more and more of that every day.

What If… - K. Bromberg - 3 Stars - Shiloh ”Shy”, Jake - I liked the set-up of this second chance even if it involved one leaving their fiancé (who we could all tell was wrong for her)

When It Happens - SERIES INFO - Micaela Smeltzer - Stars - CHARACTER NAMES HERE - REVIEW/THOUGHTS HERE

F*ck - Tijan - 3 Stars - Tysan Koda, Kase Crow, Aiden - Why did I find this story so hot. At first, I was disenchanted by the thought of another jerk hero but that somehow melted away.

The Dress - Colleen Hoover - 3 Stars - Can’t Remember the Names - A woman chooses herself over a superficial man. It was okay. I think I am fatigued from all of these stories.

4.4 stars

I love anthologies. This one was really unique because of how each story started. It was interesting to see them all take a different approach to their story that fit into a plethora of romance subgenres.

3.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling generous (and apolgetic, I made some snarky remarks about this whilst reading).

This is not a book I would have picked to read, under normal circumstances. But I was doing a reading challenge, and the book had to feature an angel. This was one of the first ones that came up, and actually, I'm glad I read it.

To be fair, I didn't like the first 30% of the book. I do have to admit, I was in a foul mood, and so made a lot of snarky updates. Around the 40% mark, I started laughing. And around 65-70% I felt like I just HAD to know how the story continued.

Originally, I wanted to describe this as Twilight with a touch of Final Destination, but it's really more like True Blood, especially with all the vampires, werewolves and shifters fallen angels fawning over the main character. Anyways, it was actualy a fun and gripping story, once I got into it. And the other 2 parts of the trilogy are going onto my tbr. (I do currently have a paranormal romance overdose, I read to many stories in this genre lately, and it's actually one of my least favourite genres. That being said, me giving this 3.5 stars is really something).

didn't like-didn't finish

This is the first book in the Vankara series, there are three books in that series. There were some things I liked here and some things I didn’t. I wavered between 3 stars and 4 stars for this one. I just found some parts of the story really unbelievable. However, I did enjoy some of the steampunk elements, the Fae, and the dragons.

Sarah Harkar is a shifter who can take over a person’s body at the moment of their death. When the Queen of Vankara catches the plague she calls on Sarah to take over her body so that her kingdom doesn’t fall into turmoil. Sarah, now Emma, tries to lead the kingdom as best she can. However, the question of where these plagues originate from, lead her to try and bargain with the Fae kingdom which is dangerous and potentially kingdom destroying.

This whole book felt a bit off to me. I really loved the beginning part about Sarah’s childhood. Then she was quickly thrust into the role of Queen, which was very abrupt and seemed very contrived. Sarah steps right into the role of Queen Emma with very little issue which was confusing to me; she was a farm girl and now she is a queen and she suddenly has all the leadership skills she needs to rule a country? I had a lot of trouble getting past this, it felt very fake to me.

I also really enjoyed journeying to the Fey lands and meeting the dragons. However, I did not enjoy all the politics and intrigue Sarah/Emma is thrust into. I also did not enjoy the male leads in this novel (Fallow and Chromis) they both felt kind of creepy to me.

Overall this was a mixed bag for me. There are some things about the story I liked and some things I just couldn’t get past. The pacing was uneven and the whole story just wasn’t completely cohesive and felt kind of “off” to me. I wavered a bit about whether or not to continue the series since there are some aspects to the story I really enjoyed...however, in the end I decided not to.½

Meh?

2.5
So I’m going to start off with I live in the south, my family is all from the south (Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, the Carolinas) and it was kind of over the top. Don’t get me wrong we’ll ‘y’all’ it up till the cows come home, but ‘deader than an opossum on a road at midnight’ that stuff was just over the top.

I also was a little off out with the whole ‘we’re not racist like the media says we are’ bit. Again from all over the south.. there’s a lot of freaking racism. So it felt like a disservice to fight still happening to belittle it that way. And the whole stereotypical bits about ‘take my earrings off’ just made her friend seem like a caricature instead of a ‘real’ person.

Now the actual plot and storyline. Jesus Christ does this girl exude love out her pores or something? Every character was falling for her, it got old fairly quickly. And it was all so fluffy, nothing seemed dire or serious, just ‘I just met you, and this is crazy, let’s get married and have my baby’ 🙄. I also had an issue with her friend telling her she couldn’t do this or do that and she had to stay a virgin... women’s rights happened a while ago love, worry about yourself. Again I’m from a deeply southern and religious family but my friends don’t get to judge my actions and tell me what I can and can’t do (that’s what family’s for 😉)

So I think I’m going to let this series and I go our separate ways, I honestly have no interest in reading it any further

Actually worthy of all the hate that Twilight received.

I didn't like that Mason left her for her own good. It's so cliche. Boo. I knew one of them would leave and leave the other heartbroken. Why can't there be a story where they fall in love, stay in love, and the conflict comes from somewhere else? *sigh*
Other than that, I really liked this book.