August 2022 Reviews – Page 2 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Her Valentine Surprise

Sam has a secret he holds close to his heart…

Joy Paulson is fine being single. In fact, it saves her from the maddening dating rituals in Manhattan. If she ever settles down, it will be with someone she truly loves and trusts. That’s why she turns down her super-hot boss when he asks her out, leading to disaster when he retaliates, forcing her termination.

Sam Davidson has pined for Joy since the first time he saw her sweet smile and stunning eyes. But there’s a secret that the shy IT developer holds deep inside: Sam is still a virgin. At twenty-nine, he never intended it to happen, but accepts that he could never please Joy in all the ways she deserves.

Sam can offer her a job, though, and proceeds to help Joy rebuild her life after the unfair firing. As their work relationship grows, Joy is taken with Sam’s kindness, gorgeous crystal-hazel eyes and generous smile. And his hands…oh, his firm, broad hands…Joy can’t figure out why Sam resists the desire that sparks so vividly between them, but Valentine’s Day is coming and she’s determined to seduce him and make them both burn. Even if it means discovering all his secrets…

Inexperienced hero trope lovers unite! This is a fun, fast-paced, steamy novella from an author who wanted to flip the script and write about a sweet, sexy, inexperienced male main character. Sam is so adorably sensual and endearing, he might just melt your heart. Here’s wishing you a fantastic Valentine’s Day all year round!

Review: Axed in Austin

Nick O’Flannigan needs a break.

The Austin music scene is just the ticket, and throwing in a little recreation seems like a good idea. But a local musician has been killed, and a new friend of Nick’s wants his help. However, the police have warned him off the case, and he really doesn’t want to be involved.

One step back

But something is wrong. There’s a critical clue, a footprint at the scene, and only Nick seems to suspect it means something more. Will his insight save the day, or will he find himself once again in deep trouble?

From a deep mystery, some great music, and the gritty atmosphere of Austin, Texas, you won’t want to miss this travel murder mystery, the next in the Capital City Murders series.

Review: SHREDDED

Reader beware! This sports and fitness body horror anthology is dangerous. Side effects include monstrous steroid transformation, concussion-induced madness, possession by jock ghost, death by yoga cult, and more. Read with caution!

Featuring seventeen reps of terror by Nikki R. Leigh, Tim Meyer, Brandon Applegate, Red Lagoe, Caias Ward, RW DeFaoite, Mae Murray, D. Matthew Urban, Charles Austin Muir, Joe Koch, Michael Tichy, Rien Gray, Robbie Burkhart, Eric Raglin, Matthew Pritt, Madeleine Sardina, Alexis DuBon, and J.A.W. McCarthy.

Review: EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT IN THE END

What happens…after?

In Everything Will Be All Right in the End: Apocalypse Songs, you’ll see the lengths a father will go in order to protect his child, the emptiness that revenge can harness, gods compelled to act after being forgotten, a boy carrying the weight of decisions he didn’t make, and monsters both within and without. You’ll meet people who have lost everything, faced everything, lived through the worst that could happen, attempted to pick up the pieces of their shattered realities, and you will hear their apocalypse songs.

Listen closely.

Review: The Battle That Was Lost

When there is something you can’t do or won’t do yourself, you get a bastard to do it for you. They are thieves, cheats, and murderers, loyal to nothing but the coin. Everyone knows that,

Yet in war, payment in blood is more likely than payment in coin.

Staegrim knows coins better than he knows people, and he isn’t giving his life away for free. Not to the rebels, not for the lords, and not for all of the bloody coins in Rengas.

But then… Everyone has a price.

Review: Crystal Queen

Devotion. Duty. Power. Deceit.

Princess Lilia Talendor of the Graven Kingdom finds herself promised to marry a foreign king to secure her father’s release. She will do her duty, but even the plans forced upon her suffer as slavers take advantage of chaos in the kingdom during the king’s absence.

King Gavin Stoutheart wants desperately to meet and impress Princess Lilia, even if she is the daughter of his enemy. He hopes to bring peace to all of the Crystal Kingdoms, but traitors, spies, and uncertain advisors challenge his plans as he seeks to discover why the princess has been delayed.

Crystal magic and animal avatars join the intrigue as challenges come from all quarters. War looms on the horizon, and one thread runs through it all. Gavin needs allies, and Lilia could be the key to saving or destroying both their kingdoms.

Review: Reckoning

A cold, efficient killer. A secret society. A vengeful woman.

After a frenzied attack by two drug addicts robs Maddie of her husband and youngest child, she relocates to a remote village in Scotland with her two remaining children to rebuild her life.

Her eldest son, mute since witnessing the bloody attack, becomes obsessed with a far-right politician on TV. And Maddie starts receiving mysterious emails, and she knows she has to return to London.

As her life, and everything she thought she knew about it, begins to unravel, Maddie taps into a capacity for violence she never knew she possessed.

A mother will do everything it takes to protect her children.

And avenge the one she lost.

Review: Hearts Reclaimed

Two weary souls find each other against all odds…

Ashlyn Rivers left her cheating fiancé behind and moved to Ardor Creek to revamp her life. Done with men in general, she has plenty to focus on, like building her new business and renovating her house for the local haunted homes tour. Falling in love is definitely not on the agenda.

Scott Grillo lost his family in a tragic accident several years ago. Still processing the loss, he throws himself into his contracting business, pushing away the loneliness and heartache.

When Ashlyn blazes into Scott’s life, he turns down her request to renovate her house, vowing to squelch the desire she stirs deep inside. But Ashlyn is a force to be reckoned with and Scott finds himself longing for her embrace each day she remains in Ardor Creek.

Can these two disillusioned souls reclaim their hearts and choose to love again?

Welcome to Ardor Creek, the small Pennsylvania town where love is in the air! If you like a grumpy hero and feisty heroine, this book is your jam. As with all of Ayla’s books, there’s a slight holiday theme, and Halloween ghosts play a part! The main character is a widower who discusses the loss of his family so please take note of this before listening. Settle in and fall in love with Ardor Creek today!

Review: Tainted by Prophecy

Book Two of Seven

Even at its very beginning, her reign felt tainted by the prophecies that surrounded it and the death that they foretold.

They were dark, speaking of unknown evils and the potential destruction of the realm, and even the eradication of magic. It was not a destiny that Bae, the Kumari, wanted but it was the one allotted her.

Bae wished that she could deny them, call them falsehoods but she couldn’t, not when the fate of the whole realm rested on her shoulders.

It might cost her her life, or the lives of those she loved most, but she would stop at nothing to save magic, save her Ren, and hopefully save herself.

More About the Kumari’s Kitsune Series

Kumari’s Kitsune is a RH Fantasy Romance. Bae is the Kumari of Maho, a fictional realm with seven tribes. To ensure magical and political stability she must claim a mate from each of the seven tribes, but an unknown enemy is hell-bent of destroying the realm, its queen, and the magic that sustains it.

Books in the Series

Cursed by the Crown, Tainted by Prophecy, Lost to the Throne, Corrupted by Innocence, Deranged by Darkness, Undone by Destiny, and Returned to Magic.

Review: Starvation

Sixteen-year-old Wes McCoy is not the favorite child. He does not have a wrestling scholarship to Stanford nor does he live up to the family legacy as an athlete, unlike his brother, Jason. But when Jason dies in a car accident on the way to the state high school wrestling championship, Wes turns to food to give him the control over his life he didn’t have before, and the kind of success he never tasted.

Told through alternating past and present chapters, Wes must come to terms with more than Jason’s death. There’s Caila, a defiant girl who introduces him to the painful pleasure of starving. And there’s Collin, Wes’s best friend who speaks in Shakespearean insults and with whom his relationship is irreparably damaged. But most of all, Wes must take back control from his eating disorder as he learns more about himself and the mystery surrounding Jason’s accident, before he loses his life and those closest to him.