The beloved dog rescue advocate and star of Animal Planet’s hit show Pit Bulls & Parolees chronicles her life in this heartwarming memoir told through the stories of eleven of her best-loved dogs, capturing the spirit and heart of these beautiful, intelligent, and loving canines.

Tia Torres has devoted her life to shattering the stereotype that pit bulls are dangerous, vicious animals prone to bad behavior. Through her hit show Pit Bulls & Parolees she has shown the world that these wonderful animals have nothing but love to give. As the owner of the Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans, the largest pit bull rescue facility in the United States, Tia knows firsthand that pit bulls’ easygoing, adaptable, and vulnerable nature allows them to be used and abused, giving them a bad rep.

In My Life Among the Underdogs, she combines never-before-told rescue tales with select stories from Pitbulls & Parolees, introducing such amazing, affectionate dogs as Tatanka, Joe, LA, Duke, Moose, Monster, Lucky, Bluie, and Taz, who overcame abuse, trauma, and neglect to become forgiving and adoring friends and helpmates. A sweet and stirring gallery of unforgettable canines, My Life Among the Underdogs captures the hearts of dog lovers everywhere and is a testament to the loyalty, love, and devotion these dogs have to offer—if they’re only given the chance.

My thoughts…

I’m a big fan of the show. So much so that when I was doing a cross country drive, I made Villalobos one of the stops. I am a huge animal person, and the amount that Tia and her team take on is admirable. So, when I saw this audiobook at my library I was excited to dive in.

I really liked that this book featured a specific dog and their timeline with Tia. Whether it was her first dog that she had her father watch which she was in boot-camp, or a dog that one of her kids took on as their own, each dog got their time in the spotlight. I really enjoyed the stories of her trained movie dogs who would perform in music videos and Hollywood movies. The story of J-Lo and “Moosey” had be chuckling a lot. With that said, my one major issue is that these stories do not line up as a whole. I thought the book would sort of follow a chronological timeline, but that wasn’t the case. One story we are following a dog in New Orleans, the next story we are following Tia before she had the kids (or when they were tiny babies). I wish the book kind of followed a timeline so I had a better understanding of the overall pictured.

I will say that these dogs, and the humans have been through a lot. There were so many stories of these dogs not only persevering,  but showing the world that they were much more than just a dog. While the timeline of the chapters was a bit jarring, the message still rang through.

I was trained to be a pawn, but I will rise as a queen.

My life has never been my own. After the death of my parents, I was saved by my grandfather, with the promise that he would turn me over to the Brotherhood on my twenty-first birthday.

I was kept away from the outside world so I could one day be sold to the highest bidder—pure and unsullied. Penance for my parents’ alleged crimes.

That’s how I come to be sold at an auction.

And who buys me but the reclusive billionaire, Lincoln Knight?

Some say that he’s a monster, more dangerous than any of the evil men from the Brotherhood. That he wears a mask to cover his scars. But I believe he’s hiding more than just his face behind his mask.

My fate is sealed when he takes me to his crumbling mansion deep in the woods. I’m trapped. Entirely at his mercy.

I have to escape.

But something here isn’t what it seems.

Lincoln isn’t what he seems. Maybe he’s not a monster at all. I’m drawn to him in a way that I can’t explain. Until I discover that his secrets go far beyond his mask.

My Thoughts…

I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this book was. I thought I was getting a dark mafia romance, but what I got was book porn, with a scratch of substance of a story line.

You see, when Lincoln purchases Imogen at a human trafficking auction for the “Brotherhood”, you know things are messed up. Imogen has been groomed since she was three years old, to be sold in this auction. She’s the daughter of the traitor to the Brotherhood, and her flesh is payment for those sins. So, when she’s purchased, I was happy to see that Lincoln wasn’t a total perv and was there to save her from going to another buying where she would be abused. Then we realize that Lincoln has spent the last 18 years (the same years that she’s been groomed for) hunting down Brotherhood members, rescuing the woman sold, and trying his hardest to demolish the Brotherhood. That right there is when I took more notice and got excited. I already knew Lincoln wasn’t buying her for nefarious reasons, and I was excited to see the other girls be rescued and get some nitty gritty when it came to the fight scenes. However, we only get two of those moments. The rest is of these two rutting away “in love” with each other. Mind you, he’s in his 40’s, is her god father, her deceased father’s best-friend, and he purchased her. She has no clue he’s trying to take down the Brotherhood, or that he was besties with her father. All she knows is this billionaire bought her; and yet in stead of keeping her walls up, she falls in love with him and tries to live a happy life locked away in his house.

I just expected more from this book. I wanted to see more of Lincoln going after the Brotherhood. I wanted to see more of Imogen piecing her new life together compared to what she’s been conditioned for. I wanted to see the story unfold. What I didn’t want to see is them going at it, page after page, while the other girls are out there suffering and dying.

The God War is over. An empire built on suffering, slavery, and betrayal remains.

In the fractured lands of the Salvian Empire, the Great Houses rule through blood and fear. For years, Alandra Phoenyka has hunted powerful Sonomancers in the empire’s name, paid in empty promises that her stolen daughter would be returned.
Each step forward demands another compromise. Another betrayal. Another piece of herself lost.

When those promises turn to treachery, she is forced to take matters into her own hands and risk everything to reclaim her child.

In the empire’s mining camps, Bez Windstrider has endured years of torture and brutal experimentation. Broken but unyielding, he clings to one purpose: vengeance. The men who murdered his parents will pay, and their deaths will complete the ritual needed to free his parents’ souls from damnation.

But the deeper his grief cuts, the more he becomes something far more dangerous, for himself, and for the empire.

As their paths draw closer, the buried truths of the God War begin to surface. What begins as two personal vendettas threatens to unravel something far greater than either of them can control.

Because empires do not fall quietly.

And the gods that shaped them are not as dead as they seem.

Excerpt

Meet the author…

Daymon Ashcord was born in Gdańsk, Poland, in frosty December and grew up in New York, for better or worse. He spent much of his misspent youth causing mayhem, but in his saner moments, read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, dreaming of causing mayhem in other worlds. It was his grandfather’s made-up stories at nap time that must have hooked him.

He went on to university to study accounting and then public policy, as proper citizens do. The mayhem and fun stopped, but the reading continued. After college, he had a few false starts writing in the fantasy genre until he quit his job to travel the world, as improper folk do, and created a documentary film. Storytelling stopped being a dream and became a necessity.

After years of a slow grind, with personal setbacks, he finished his first epic dark fantasy novel, Makerborn (2026). It is a story shaped by trauma, endurance, pain, and the uncomfortable truths people tell themselves to survive. And what folk wouldn’t do for those they love.

Daymon lives in North Carolina, hiking mountains by day and trekking into darker worlds by night, writing stories meant to keep you company through life’s mayhem—especially the painful parts.

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Giveaway

Makerborn Blitz

She chose to trust him.

He swore to protect her.

But surviving Esperance was only the beginning . . .

Amryn never intended to betray the rebels she swore to help—or fall for the husband she was forced to marry. But when everything at Esperance fell apart, Carver became the one person she could trust. Now, she must rely on him more than ever—especially since the knights who hunt empaths know one was at Esperance. If they find her, they will kill her. Yet the threat Amryn doesn’t see coming may prove deadlier, because even though she turned her back on the rebels, the Rising isn’t done with her.

Carver has already lost too much at Esperance. He won’t lose anyone else—especially Amryn. He’ll fight to protect his wife from every threat, including the mysterious bloodstone that nearly killed her. He knows the dangerous relic must be destroyed, but first he has to get the surviving Chosen to the capital—a mission that soon turns deadly, making it clear there is still someone out there who never planned for the Chosen to leave Esperance alive.

But safety isn’t guaranteed in the emperor’s palace. Here, every action is scrutinized and politics twist every word. Surrounded by hidden enemies, ruthless assassins, and deadly conspiracies, Amryn and Carver must navigate a web of danger that could cost them everything—including their lives.

My thoughts…

The second book in the trilogy takes place in the Emperor’s Palace. Which, is kind of a death trap for Amryn since the Emperor is not only completely against empaths, but has knights at the ready to help find empaths. They just have this innate ability to sense an empath with the bone rings they wear, which have the bones from an empath infused in them. So yeah, going to the palace is not the wisest decision, but it’s also something she can’t get out of without drawing suspicion to herself.

Not only are you on the edge of your seat, waiting for Amryn to be found out, but there are rebels in the palace, as well as hired assassins who keep trying to kill the Chosen from Esperance. There were a lot of moving pieces, and new characters coming into play. So, the book didn’t feel stale like a lot of sequels tend to be. It had a good story arc to it that allows you to see more pieces of the puzzle coming together. I have a feeling I know who the head of the rebellion is, but I’m interested to know if my suspicions are correct.

This book does end on a cliffhanger, and it’s one that has me wishing the next book was already out so I could dive right in. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to focus on the next book without knowing what is happening to all the characters. The way they ended this one had me flipping pages non-stop because it was just so many moving pieces between Amryn’s POV and Carver’s POV.

Needless to say, I will be impatiently waiting for the last book of the trilogy to come out so I know how the whole story unfolds when the truth comes out that Amryn is an empath who isn’t the evil monster the kingdom has been lead to believe, but instead is the reason why the Chosen made it out of Esperance in the first place. Will they see her as the demonic evil the church has preached about, or the healer who saved them all?

Previous books from the Esperance trilogy
Esperance

Dune Queen
Dune Queen #1
Amina Adamou
Publisher: Self- Published
Publication date:
Genre: Fantasy Romance

When Salima Farhan turns eighteen, she thinks she’s finally old enough to escape the absurd teachings of the cult her parents joined ever since she was a kid, but Farik Masood, the founder and leader of the Crescent Compound, has other plans for her: he wants her to join a recruitment program to bring in more cult members.⁣
⁣
Salima agrees to join the program in order to eventually escape—but she quickly regrets that decision when she finds out Masood’s ‘program’ is actually a front for something far more sinister. Knocked unconscious before she can run, she wakes up two months later only to be told that she now has the same magic as djinn, mischievous, mythical beings who are normally invisible to the human eye. And as a reward for these powers, she’s expected to use her new abilities to help Masood take over the world.⁣
⁣
Distraught but determined, Salima must fight for her freedom and for the innocent lives Masood wants to destroy—even if it means marrying the very djinn who has sworn to protect her enemy.⁣

Excerpt

About the author:

Amina Adamou is a Nigerien living in Niamey, Niger, where several of her books are based on. As a kid, she wanted to become a manga artist, but after suffering defeat after defeat at the hands of complicated battle scenes, seemingly endless panels of scenery, and an aching hand, she threw in the towel and decided to tell stories in a different way. When not reading or writing, she likes to watch K-dramas and listen to K-pop.

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Giveaway

Dune Queen Blitz

Before she became the mother struggling to understand her American-born son in Neither Out Far Nor In Deep, Gwendolyn Richards was just a girl in St. Kitts trying to figure out who she was.
She had her best friend Sharon, her father’s quiet wisdom, her mother’s firm and loving hands, and Lenwell Turnbull whose eyes found hers across every school assembly. Life moved to the rhythm of sugar cane fields, market mornings, and the island’s radio reading out the names of the dead.

Then everything changed.

In one season, Gwen will discover the electricity of first love and learn that some things cannot be rushed, like yam vines, like grief, like growing up. She will face heartbreak she never saw coming and changes that will alter her world forever.
Sweet Like Sugar Cane is a lyrical, tender coming of age story set against the vivid backdrop of Caribbean island life. It is a story about the sweetness of first love, the bitterness of loss, and the bittersweet reality of becoming someone new.
Perfect for readers who love Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat, and stories about Black girls finding their strength in the most difficult seasons of their lives.

My thoughts…

This book weaves the tale of a young girl as she falls in love, and loses those she cares for the most.

The story is written almost like poetry. There’s a calmness to the writing that really transports you in the island life mindset. I honestly don’t know how to explain it. I listened to the audiobook and it was almost like I could feel the warm humid breeze, and hear the sugarcanes sway in the wind as the narrator told the story.

However, despite the beautiful storytelling, the book ultimately felt incomplete. Something was missing, perhaps because even though this is a prequel to Neither Out Far Nor In Deep, it was written years after the original story. Gwen was simply not given enough time to develop. My main takeaway was simply a teenager whose story moved very quickly from a brief infatuation to major life changes right before she had to move away.

On the positive side, I loved the family dynamics. Her mother and father had very different ways of interacting with Gwen and handling her interest in boys. I laughed out loud when the boy showed up at her house and her mother answered the door without holding back. I truly wish we got more of her family life and the core of who she was in St. Kitts without Lenwell.

Yet, one thing cannot be denied about this story. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s authentic. While I wish for more of just Gwen and her family, I was once a young teenage girl, infatuated with a boy. I’m sure if my story was written in a book, there would be a reviewer out there saying that I was too focused on the boy and needed more personal substance. So, taking that part out of the equation, the author did a really good job. She captured the true essence of adolescence while making the reader feel like they were right there in St. Kitts.

I did a deep dive into my Goodreads TBR list this weekend, to go through all the books and delete ones I don’t plan to read. I have had books sitting on my TBR for over a decade. A DECADE!!! Books that I saw and thought, “That looks like a good book” but then never actually purchased it or read it. It’s safe to say that some of those books are no longer of interest to me. Most were YA, and while I still enjoy reading YA, it’s not my primary genre anymore.

So, I went through my list, and any books that I immediately went “meh” over, got the boot. Books that are not available on KU or at my library, that I was not willing to pay money for, got the the boot. I was able to knock out almost half of the books on my TBR. What was once a TBR of over 200 books is now a list of 112 books. It’s still a bit overwhelming, but I feel like it’s more manageable… as long as I don’t go crazy adding books to it again.

Therefor, I have decided that I will spend this summer going through and reading my TBR one book at a time from oldest to newest. I won’t push myself to read anything that I’m not feeling, but I do feel like I need to give these books a chance. So many of these books have so few reviews and ratings. The book I’m currently reading now only has 83 ratings on Goodreads and  only 12 on Amazon.

So, it’s time to brush off my TBR and start giving these books a chance in the spotlight.

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To save my sister, I’ll marry a monster.

The orc mercenaries were meant to die. When Khal Drazha’s-son, their scarred, lethal leader, returns to claim his prize, a bride of noble blood, I know only one thing: my frail half-sister cannot be the one sacrificed.

I’m the bastard daughter no one wants, but I have street cunning, and a plan: I’ll deceive this golden-eyed orc warrior, taking my sister’s place at the altar and in his bed. If I can endure the wedding night, I can find a way to betray him. I can escape into the wilds beyond my father’s walls.

Now, we’re locked in a chamber together. I’m braced for the worst. But the warrior I’ve deceived believes I chose him…and he’s here to rescue me. He intends to bond us, soul and flesh, for a lifetime.

I came here prepared to survive a monster, but this green-skinned mercenary wants peace for his people, a peace he won’t win, because he’s married the wrong daughter.

My lies are about to tear his life apart. The bond we’ve forged in the dark might just shatter my heart first.

My thoughts…

I don’t know why, but I’ve been on a monster romance kick lately. They can be hit or miss, and thankfully, this one was a total hit!

Rowena is the bastard daughter to the baron. His lineage has a magical bloodline, but there have been no magic wielders for generations. However, that hasn’t stop the baron from spreading his seed in the pleasure district and yanking any bastard child from their home to test them for magic, and based off of the way we find Rowena, the tests are not overly humane. Which is probably why Rowena is known to try to run away from the keep and find safety. Unfortunately for her, her last attempt was another fail and she finds herself quickly married to an Orc in some sort of ruse of an alliance. The orcs think they are getting the princess, and Rowena thinks she’s trading one abusive prison for another. However, everything she knows about orcs is wrong, and her new husband unknowingly is the first person to show her true kindness outside of her sister.

This story is in Rowena’s POV, so we are there as she goes from one captor to the next, and then soon starts to unravel that she’s not actually in danger with the orcs. Her husband is kind and attentive, and cares about her well-being; a concept she’s not used to. Seeing Rowena go from this mentality of freeze and flee, to being comfortable was a gradual transition. As the reader gets used to the orcs and understands their personalities and bonds, Rowena also starts to see them as not just Khal’s friends, but also as her own. The pacing of the whole relationship dynamics was done perfectly. I usually have a hard time with quick moving timelines where people just “fall into place” immediately, but this story allows you to grow into the situation with Rowena. Heck, at some of their banter, I found myself smiling and snorting because I had felt like I had a bond with these characters and was part of the inside jokes.

With that said, there was one thing that bothered me about the book… and that was the ending. Without going into too much detail, I felt like the ending was a bit abrupt. It wasn’t a cliff-hanger, which leads me to believe the next book in the series will feature new characters. So, the fact that this book sort of just ends after the climatic part is over, left me wishing for more closure for these two characters. Another thing that threw me off was that Khal randomly calls Rowena “Rue” towards the end of the book. “Rue” is a nickname her sister gave her, not the name she goes by. Plus, “Rue” wouldn’t be my first thought if we are shortening a name. It would have made more sense if he randomly called her “Ro”. So the fact that he randomly used a nickname given to her by a person he’s never met just felt random and out of place for his character.

I’m curious to know where this series goes next. Will it feature a new orc as they find romance? Will we continue the story-line of a half-human orc warrior and his sorceress wife? Regardless of what the next book holds, I plan on keeping my eyes peeled for it. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style, and her storytelling. I felt for the characters and was invested in each one of them. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

We’ve all been there. A book explodes onto book blogs, BookTok, and Bookstagram.

Everyone is talking about it, reviewing it, and making videos about it.

You add it to your TBR list with the best intentions.

Then… time passes.

Months turn into years, and suddenly you realize you are the last person on earth who hasn’t read it.

Today, I’m clearing the air and confessing to ten books that have been sitting on my TBR Goodreads list for way too long.

*each book cover will take you to its Goodreads site* 

What is that one mega-popular book that everyone else has read except you?
Which book from my list should I read first?

Calandra’s five kingdoms are on the verge of destruction. The crux migration is coming. And in the wake of a devastating attack, I’ve been separated from the man who owns my heart.
I’m lost. Terrified. Homesick. Hunted by monsters, driven to exhaustion, and kidnapped by a powerful priest, the only thing keeping me going is the little girl counting on me to keep her safe. It’s my turn to become the Guardian.

Our lives change one fateful night. A night of death. A night of monsters. A night of truths. That night, I learn the real meaning of fear—and the depth of my own strength.

Everyone wants me to be something I’m not—a queen, a spy, a sacrifice. But what if I embrace my crown? What if the secrets I uncover save our realm?

What if my sacrifice means salvation for the man I love?

For too long, I’ve feared the monsters we make.

It’s time to discover the monster within.

My thoughts…

This book did not suffer the usual sequel syndrome that so many series have. You know what I mean, that book that is just a bridge between the first and the last book. This one brought so much to the table, that it was hard to put down at times. We meet new characters, follow along as two sets of story-lines play out, and learn a lot about the world the author created.

Sure we get Odessa and Ransom’s story arc as they travel to her homeland. While that was enjoyable to read, because we meet new characters along the way, I have to be honest… I was drawn to Caspia and Andreas’ story. Caspia is a Starling from another realm. She travels to Odessa’s realm on a mission to find and save her sister. You see, Caspia has visions, and one vision has been playing over and over again, and that is of her sister being killed in a distant land by a silver eyed warrior. Caspia refuses to let that be her sister’s fate, so she decides to travel to this new world to find her sister’s killer, and end him before he can end her sister. However, this new realm is nothing like her homeland and she soon finds herself at the mercy of the land. Thankfully, Andreas finds her, saves her, and nurses her back to health. They build a friendship and then fall in love as time goes on. Which, should be a beautiful story, only… it’s filled with so much uncertainty and heartache. Reading their story was by far the best part of this book.

Meanwhile, between chapters from Caspia, we have chapters of Odessa as she journey’s to her homeland. She travels with the vestos, then hires mercenaries to travel with her, and ultimately makes her way back to her kingdom where she is all but forgotten and unwanted. Which, is no surprise, since in the first book it felt like she was the forgotten princess. Between not knowing what happened to everyone she left behind in Turah, the dangers of being on such a long journey with lyssa spreading throughout the lands, and the migration looming over her head, Odessa is constantly in a state of worry. I will be honest, if this book was only in Odessa’s POV, I would have been very bored since her story, for the most part, was just one big journey. Having Caspia’s story included, helped break up the monotony of Odessa’s journey.

There are some twists and turns that happen. I didn’t catch onto the big reveal until closer to the end, but when it clicked for me, my mouth was hanging open. Then I saw a lot of pieces start to fall into place, and then I just felt sad. Sad for so many characters in this story. I can’t say that everything made complete sense to me. I still have some questions. Like, why does Odessa’s sister seem to dislike her so much? Can she be trusted, or is it just another tactic for something else. I don’t know why, but I feel like Odessa was not treated well growing up. So the shift in her sister towards the end leaves me feeling uneasy.

I do think that I probably should have waited to read this trilogy once all the books come out. I fear I will forget all the major points in this book that will play a large roll in the finale. However, that’s a problem for another day.

Previous reviews from the Shield of Sparrows series
Shield of Sparrows