Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

I had the amazing opportunity to attend the RT Book Lovers Convention before it ended, and it was probably the best experience I’ve ever had as a book blogger.

I loved sitting in on all the panels and listening to authors break down how they create their characters and build entire worlds with nothing but words. The mix of fun activities, like playing bingo and card games with other bloggers, readers, and authors, was a great way to break the ice and meet people.

Ava Wixx and I really hit it off, and I ended up hanging out with her and her author group quite a bit throughout the event (so there are definitely some repeat photos of all of us!). Darynda Jones was also really awesome. I only got to hang out with her once, when she was hosting a game event I took part in, but she was so down-to-earth and genuinely cool.

I met Rachel Marks and Merrie Destafano later on at an author event at a local bookstore. I had read an ARC of one of Merrie’s upcoming novels, so I was really excited to get the chance to meet her. She actually remembered that I was one of her ARC readers and took the time to chat with me. She even introduced me to Rachel, who was there promoting her new trilogy.

Looking back, the whole experience of the RT Book Lovers Convention was a one-in-a-lifetime moment for me. Getting to meet authors, connect with other readers and bloggers, and simply be surrounded by people who love books as much as I do made it an experience I’ll never forget.

It’s sad that the RT Book Lovers Convention is no longer a thing. The convention that is trying to replace it sounds like it’s less about connecting with each other and more about selling books, which just doesn’t feel quite the same. Hopefully, when I move back to the US, I’ll be able to attend another convention and, hopefully, see some familiar faces along the way.

 
Ava Wixx, Christina Lauren, Megan Mitcham, Brinda Berry, Ava Wixx, and Jen Crane.

Have you gotten to attend any book conventions or author events?

Cassie came to her sister’s destination wedding determined to survive the humiliation with a smile, a steady supply of champagne, and as little direct eye contact with the groom as possible. Watching her sister marry her ex was bad enough without every pitying glance in the room reminding her that everyone expected her to be gracious about it.

When the bride’s dog bolts through a forbidden hedge on the private side of the luxury resort, Cassie follows, desperate for a few minutes away from the reception. Instead, she stumbles into a moonlit ceremony that was never meant for human eyes and lands at the feet of a man who is far more dangerous than anyone in the wedding party.

Ian is the Alpha’s brother, the pack’s enforcer, and the one wolf everyone knows better than to provoke. He agreed to the ceremony out of duty, not desire, but the moment Cassie falls into the circle, something ancient and uncontrollable chooses for him. One bite later, Cassie is marked by a bond that should not exist and trapped in a world where humans are never supposed to know monsters are real.

Now her family believes she is recovering from a suspicious accident while Cassie is kept on the wolf side of the resort, caught between pack law, a mark that is changing beneath her skin, and Ian, whose protection is the only reason she is still alive and the clearest proof that she is not free. Cassie may have fallen into his world by accident, but surviving it will mean learning which monsters want her dead, which ones want her kept, and what it costs to belong to a man who never meant to claim her.

My thoughts…

This is not your normal shifter romance novel. There’s no insta-love or magical mate pull that leads to true love. Instead, this felt like a very realistic story about what might actually happen if a human was bitten and claimed by a werewolf.

As someone who loves shifter romance, it’s safe to say they usually follow the same story arc. However, that wasn’t the case with this story. The author took her time building the story. There are no quick-moving plot points or declarations of love and mates. Rather, this story marinates and simmers on low the entire time, giving the reader time to fully grasp the ramifications of what is happening.

Because the author didn’t rush the story, we’re given time to understand all the nuances of the characters. They aren’t simply one-dimensional, and while we do get Cassie and Ian’s POVs, the author doesn’t expect us to know everything at once, just like Cassie doesn’t know everything at once. This allows the story to build, layer by layer.

I really enjoyed the author’s raw style of writing. There were no paragraphs waxing poetic about the MMC’s physical appearance or lengthy descriptions of every tiny detail. The writing felt straightforward and focused on the story rather than dressing everything up.

I also enjoyed how the author managed to incorporate humor throughout the book. Between Cassie and her knack for using sarcasm as armor and Sava’s complete lack of concern for who she pisses off, I found myself smiling a lot throughout the book. Especially when Cassie and Sava would bounce their sarcasm off each other.

This is the first time I’ve read this author’s work, but it definitely won’t be the last. She took something that has been done hundreds, if not thousands, of times and created something completely her own.

I enjoyed every minute of this book. I found myself staying up late at night to read, then picking it up first thing in the morning before I even started my day.

Favorite quote…

“Marianne, your future son-in-law has the sexual discipline of a racoon in a dumpster.”

A virgin lights a candle summoning a hot pagan god who only wants one thing in this cozy, spicy, small-town, 90s, paranormal Halloween romance novella.

Jack
One hundred years after the mortals stopped believing in me, a virgin lights the orange candle and I’m back.

But the only way I can regain my full power and return to the mortal realm for good is to deflower the fair maiden who lit the candle.

Now I have just two days to convince small-town girl Clementine to give up her mortality and become my queen for all eternity.

If I can’t, this Halloween will be my last and I’ll become nothing but pumpkin dust.

Clementine
When I inherit my great aunt’s old house, I’m looking forward to a new start, even if it means sorting through all her weird old junk first.

Next thing I know, my cousin is daring me to light an old orange candle and say “Pumpkin King” three times to make him appear.

It’s just an urban legend, right?

Except it’s not.

The Pumpkin King is real, and if I don’t let him deflower me by midnight on Halloween, he’ll be gone forever, and this could be the last good harvest. Ever.

My thoughts…

This was a fun read. It was really short, as most novellas tend to be. So a lot of crammed into a short period of time and you need to just let your sense of reality go. Because, honestly, would a woman decide to not only give her v-card to, but be stuck with a man for eternity when she just met him not even 24 hours ago? No. No sane person would do such a thing. So don’t go into this book expecting real-world decisions, because you’re not gonna get it here.

What this book offers is a fun fall harvest pagan god romance. The FMC is kind forgettable but let’s be honest, we aren’t here to read about her… we’re here to read about him. Jack, the pagan god of harvest. He is responsible for bountiful crops, but when people stop believing in him, his power disappears. Back in the 1800’s he used to be worshiped and honored every year with rituals and offerings of pumpkin pie, but that’s not the case anymore. So when over 100 years later he is summoned, well, let’s just same homeboy is eager. He’s got 24 hours to make a virgin fall in love with him or he disappears.

Now, I’m not overly sure on the whole deflowering thing to find a queen for eternity. It was said that he was worshiped hundreds of years ago, which makes me wonder… was no one ever successful in summoning him before? They say he’s very handsome, which leads me to believe that someone summoned him at some point and laid eyes on him, but if that were the case, his bride would be immortal and he wouldn’t be on earth in this book looking for a bride. So I suppose previous attempts were unsuccessful?

This story was a fun mix of fall vibes, small-town feel, and spicy times.

My village was desperate to stop the orc raids, and moved to force the only kind of treaty orcs one sealed with passion. They captured an orc and told the monster that he’d take a human bride, or he’d die.

I’m avoiding a slightly worse fate.

We’ve both made the choice to survive. Now, we’re saying our vows through prison bars, neither of us fully able to trust the other. Everything about him screams danger, from his chiselled body to his too-intelligent eyes. He’s called us barbarians; he’s mocked at our faith. He’s wary of me, as a magic user, as a human, as a weakling…though that doesn’t seem to have dampened his interest in taking me to his bed.

I want to hate him. I want to see him as a monster. I want him to be someone whose blood won’t weigh on my conscience, if I have to kill him.

If only he didn’t show me more tenderness than any man I’ve ever known.

My thoughts…

Another great story by Penny McMara. I fell in love with her world when I read Wed to the Orc Warrior, and this story continues to deliver.

In this one, we have a similar premise: a human female who doesn’t necessarily want to marry an orc but does so to save someone else from having to do it. However, unlike Khal, who was actively seeking a human bride, Vrathgar is imprisoned and on the chopping block. The humans seem to think that marrying him off to one of their village’s humans will secure their safety with the orcs. Who is he to correct them of their stupidity when it means he gets to go free?

These two have a mutual understanding. They know they were put in a difficult position in order to survive. As they travel toward safety, you start to see them work together while still navigating this new situation. I liked that Annora never really fought against being an orc bride. She volunteered for it, and therefore settles into her fate. However, it’s clear that the abusive upbringing she suffered is not the future she has with Vrathgar. I think having him be gentle and go slow with Annora really helps her let her guard down. She was expecting a brute, but instead, he is probably more civilized and kind than the humans from her village.

Just like the first book, we follow the couple getting married, traversing to the Orc lands, and navigating the fact that an orc brought in an outsider. Unlike the first book, Vrathgar is not a high-ranking orc; in fact, a lot of people do not trust or care for him since his father is from a tribe known to be rather brutal and aggressive. So, not only does Annora need to navigate being an outsider, but her husband’s low standing doesn’t earn her any respect either. It was really interesting to see the tribe’s reaction to both of them showing up.

I have thoroughly enjoyed both books in the series thus far, and I am curious to see who the next orc/human couple will be!

Previous reviews from Orc Wed
Wed to the Orc Warrior

In the Alfarie court, a daughter born without magic is not an heir. She is an embarrassment, and Sarai Silverthorne has spent her life being treated like one. So she sets her sights on the one thing no one else has ever managed to do.

Kill the Wolf King.

Kayde Bjornson knows war with the Alfarie is coming. As leader of the Valkara, he will do whatever it takes to protect his people from the kingdom that has hunted wolf shifters for generations. But, when Sarai is pulled into his territory, her presence threatens to destroy everything his family has built.

Among ancient gods, brutal traditions, and wolves bound to human souls, they uncover a truth that could spark Ragnarok itself.

As the deadly Lunar Hunt approaches, Sarai is forced into a trial meant to awaken the beast sleeping beneath her skin.

If she fails, the hunt will kill her. If she survives, she may become something far more dangerous than the monsters she once swore to destroy. And Kayde may be the only one who can help her survive it.

The moon is rising, and whatever lives inside Sarai is beginning to wake.

My thoughts…

I really enjoyed the mix of Norse mythology, wolf shifters, and the overall world that the author created. This isn’t just your typical shifter story where our main character learns she’s secretly a shifter. Oh, no. This story is so rich with history, that it’s so much more than just a “coming of age” shifter novel.

This story is told mainly in Sarai’s point of view but we do get a handful of chapters from Kayde. While it doesn’t give us too much insight into his character, it does show us just how much is riding on his shoulders and how having Sarai, an enemy, in his territory is affecting his pack. He tries to help Sarai, knowing she’s about to enter the hunt, and could die if unprepared for it. However, the entire time he’s keeping his wolves in line from attacking her, while also restraining himself as well.

From Sarai’s character to a little girl named Else every character brought so much life to the story. No character fell flat. They all added depth and richness to the story the author was telling. As Sarai learns about her heritage, we, too, are given a crash course of this history. Only, every side seems to have their own version. So it will be interesting to see how everything plays out in the next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I’m not usually someone who has the attention span for long books, and at over 550 pages, this one’s size did worry me. However, there’s so much to learn and pay attention to in this book, that it didn’t feel like it was over 500 pages. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for the next book in the series because I need to know if some of my suspicions are correct.

My twin sister was murdered. To find her killer, I had to die. CATALINA
I was never supposed to survive.
As the mortal spare to an immortal sister, I lived in the shadows
until Ry was murdered by a weapon that shouldn’t exist.
Now, justice is all I want.
To find her killer, I must take her place in the Queen’s Elite Cadre
and become the very monster everyone fears.
But becoming a weapon means losing my humanity…
and losing the one man I can’t resist.

VALOREK
The immortals bleed my world dry while my sister rots from the inside out.
I swore to burn their reign to the ground,
until I met her.
Sterling is the enemy,
a silver-blooded soldier of the regime that destroyed my family.
But the electricity between us is undeniable.
We are on opposite sides of a brewing war,
and falling for the enemy is a dangerous mistake
neither of us can afford.

Excerpt

Meet the author

Diana Hicks writes dark, emotional romance where obsession runs deep, secrets cut sharp, and love always comes at a price.
Her books blend steamy billionaire drama with forbidden marriages, high-stakes betrayal, and antiheroes who will burn the world to protect what’s theirs. Best known for The Empire Trilogy, Diana’s stories deliver heart-pounding romance with morally gray men, strong heroines, and just enough heat to leave you breathless.

When she’s not writing about power and passion colliding, she’s probably sipping coffee like it’s a love language, sweating off a plot twist at yoga, or posting angsty book teasers on TikTok.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

Giveaway

Reign of Silver & Stardust Blitz

This post is linked to Sunday Post, Staking the Shelves, Sunday Salon, and #IMWAYR

This month we saw two typhoons. So, needless to say, I was able to get quite a bit of reading in.

Every summer I take part in a summer reading challenge with my friend and her circle of people. There’s usually a theme to the overall challenge, and there are 18 book categories. Things like “a book published before you were born”, “a book published this year”, “a new to you author”, etc. Every year I fail to finish the challenge, but not this year. This year I finally finished the challenge with time to spare since it ends Labor Day weekend.

I’m honestly surprised I read all the categories since some are things like thriller or mystery, and those aren’t really my genre. Somehow I made it work, found a book that would interest me, and got through it.

Below is the list of book categories and the books I read for each slot.

Summer Reading Challenge

Currently reading

Currently listening to

Read this month

Listened to this month

For review

 

On Instagram

Help Wanted: Grumpy mountain man seeks baby momma. Job is an incubator position only. Surrogate must be impervious to grunting as the form of communication and nosy brotherly neighbors. Rustic mountain range housing available upon request.

I wanted to pummel my irritating brothers when they posted their own version of a wanted ad to help me with my life.

But I can’t fault the results once the right woman lands in my lap.

Becoming a single father is not a decision I made lightly. In fact, it’s the biggest decision of my entire life.

Which is why when I interview Trista, I know she’s perfect.

She’s wild, she’s opinionated, she wears cowboy boots. Even my pet goat loves her…

She’s the exact type of person I was holding out for.

And to my great horror, I realize on our first night of attempting this baby-making dance—when the lights are low, the cheap wine is flowing and the home-insemination supplies are laid out on the kitchen counter—I want to do a lot more than just make her my surrogate.

I want to make her mine.

My thoughts…

I absolutely adored this book!

Now, I need to be honest, I had my eyes set on Bad Boy Era, which is apparently the 4th book in the series. Since each book features a different couple, I shrugged it off and was ready to dive in. That is, until my friend caught wind of what I was doing and immediately put the breaks on my plans. She was adamant that I had to read the series from start to finish. Since, she’s never given me such demands before, I decided to listen to her advice and grab the first book in the series to read. Let me just say, I owe this 5 star read to her!

Everything about this book just worked for me. From the main characters, to the side characters, to the animals Trista kept bringing home, I was HOOKED. Trista isn’t some sassy-mouthed strong female, but she’s not broken either. She’s just your average girl trying to make it in life. She decides to be a surrogate because she needs the money. What she ends up with is a contract that not only gives her that money, but also puts her up in an amazing apartment on a mountain with a barn for her eccentric rotation of exotic rescue animals she helps out. We’re talking alpacas, goats, pigs, mini horses, you name it Trista is bringing it home with her. Her big heart for animals is the whole reason she’s doing this whole surrogacy thing, because she wants to start up her own exotic animal rescue. A safe haven for animals that your typical rescue would turn away because they aren’t a cat or a dog. I just found Trista to be an amazing character and I really wish she was real so that we could be best friends.

Wyatt was not slouch in the character department either. He is this strong quiet figure who is always there for his family. Whether it’s singing his head off at a Taylor Swift concert with his niece, or getting in a bar brawl to defend his brothers who are throwing down. Wyatt was a character that you could always depend on. So when Trista comes into his life, he doesn’t become protective of her just because she’s growing his baby in her womb, he’s protective of her because that’s just the kind of person he is. The moment she agreed to have a baby for him, Trista became part of his family.

There are also the side characters of Wyatt’s family who is in the picture a lot. Wyatt and two of his three brothers live up in kind of a communal living situation on the mountain that Wyatt owns. So, Calder and Luke are around a lot and those two are hilarious. Calder is the wild card who seems like he flies by the seat of his pants every day and lives life to the fullest. While Luke seems to be a mix of Wyatt and Calder, more reserved, but still up for some fun. So you can imagine the dynamics with the three together in a room.

This story hit me hard in the feels and had me smiling and crying at times. The author wrote the story in a way that I was able to picture everything she was throwing at me like I had a mini movie playing in my head the entire time. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the banter, and sexy times. This truly was a well rounded story that had me staying up way too late to read, and was the first thing I would pick up when I woke up.

Catherine Reynolds has enjoyed a life of luxury, but her diplomat parents have cut her off financially, leaving her flat broke. She is determined to turn things around and gain her independence—so, when an old family friend offers her a lifeline as a PR consultant for his sparkling wine company, she jumps at the chance. But working with Chris McDermott, the company’s no-nonsense president, is anything but easy.

A purist at heart, Chris clashes with Catherine’s glitzy marketing flair; still, the chemistry between them is undeniable. As they travel from New York to Napa, Paris, and the Champagne region of France, their partnership blossoms amid high-stakes industry rivalries and a launch that could make or break them.

When sabotage threatens to shatter their dreams, Catherine must dig deep to prove her worth. With the dazzling unveiling of their new sparkling wine in Bordeaux in jeopardy, will she and Chris overcome the challenges of the past and present to secure their future—and find love in the process?

Excerpt…

Audiobook Sample:

About the author…

CAROLINE O’CONNELL is the author of six travel guidebooks, including Every Woman’s Guide to Romance in Paris (Square One Publishers) and Affordable Paris Hotels (Travel Smart Press).
Her debut novel, THE CHAMPAGNE CRUSH (SparkPress), launched in Sept. 2025.

She has written numerous travel articles for magazines and websites, appeared on national TV, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, and been featured in the Los Angeles Times. O’Connell helmed a successful public relations firm for twenty years that specialized in national author tours. She is a member of the Authors Guild and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Website

Giveaway

The Champagne Crush Blitz

Evelyn intends to kill the man she’s destined to love.

She’s the shifter alpha’s fated mate, and the red marking on her hand is the proof. Captured as a child and raised in a human government facility, she’s the weapon that will finally bring the shifters to their knees.

Evelyn knows her purpose. Get close. Learn the alpha’s secrets. Then kill him.

Sent into shifter territory under the guise of a failed kidnapping, she quickly finds herself in the presence of her mate—the elusive Alpha Knox. He’s feared, ruthless, and yet nothing like the monster she was taught to expect. Instead of brutality, he offers protection. Instead of cruelty, he offers patience.

For the first time in her life, Evelyn begins to question who the real enemy is.

If she accepts the mate bond, she betrays her people. If she completes her mission, she destroys the only man who has ever treated her like she matters.

My thoughts…

You know, the whole reason why I decided to read this is book is because I read a one-star review on Goodreads where the person talked about all the things they didn’t like about this book, and it piqued my interest. Not because I thought it would be fun to mock the book, but because everything she had an issue with, sounded like my cup of tea. With that said, it did take me a while to fully get into this book. A lot of it is Evelyn living with Caleb while she struggles with her mission and her growing feelings for him. I did feel like the writing was a bit clunky and stilted, but I wanted to see this story through, so I pushed on, and I am glad I did.

I honestly thought this would be your typical story where she’s programmed to take out the enemy, catches feelings, and then confesses to everything she was tasked to do. Except, that is not what happens with this book. Even though Evelyn is developing a connection with Caleb and he’s showing her compassion and comfort that she never received in the human facility she was raised in, she still thinks she has to kill him for the greater good. She has been brainwashed and manipulated since the age of 7 when the human agents abducted her, saw that she had a mate mark to a werewolf, and then started training her as their weapon to infiltrate the werewolves and take out an Alpha. So, even though Caleb makes her feel safe and she catches feeling for him, she still reminds herself that they are nothing more than animals and resolves herself to the mission.

Now, the beginning may have been slow going for me, but let me tell you, when she goes to kill Caleb this book takes off like Usain Bolt. Unfortunately for me, this part took place at 10pm when I wanted to just read one chapter before bed. I wound up staying up past midnight, heart racing, devouring the second half of the book. For me, this is when the story got really good. It’s no longer just Evelyn and Caleb in his house, it’s Evelyn living on pack lands after she completes her mission. For obvious reasons, they can’t release her to the humans because she knows too much, but for whatever reason they won’t kill her, either. So she’s stuck living on pack lands, trying to navigate her new life, while coming to terms that she was manipulated and brainwashed by the people she trusted. I found this portion of the book to be fascinating and at that point I had a hard time putting the book down.

I liked the fresh take the author had with the mate marks. Rather than some invisible internal pull we always read about with shifter novels, this one is a mark on your hand that you are born with. The mark changes color if you are intimate with someone other than your mate, or if you betray your mate in any way. I liked that there was a visual marker for mates and that due to the magic of the mate bond, it was a unique pattern and color. I also liked that the storyline did not follow the usual story arc I expected. Evelyn could have given up her purpose, confessed, and moved on like every other heroine who is trained to assassinate someone. However, she followed through with her mission, and paid the price. Another aspect that I liked was that each chapter had an illustration depicted from a scene in that chapter. It was interesting seeing the characters through the author’s eyes.

All in all, it was a bit of a rough start for me, but it sank its hooks in me and grabbed me at the end. It ends on a cliffhanger, but thankfully for me, book two is already out.