Title: The Unspoken Name

Author: A. K. Larkwood

Genre: Fantasy, f/f romantic elements

Release Date: 11 Feb 2020

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Goodreads

My rating: 4 Stars

Blurb

What if you knew how and when you will die?

Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.

But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.

But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.

Review 

This is a debut diverse fantasy with f/f romantic elements which I mostly enjoyed and had no major issues with it other than the pace being rather slow at the beginning. It's an engaging, complicated story involving death cults and sacrifices, all-powerful gods and magicians. 

The story has a slower start, descriptive, understated, very much reflective of who Csowre was at that time. As the story progresses we see her grow up, completely transform herself and through trial and error become her own person. I loved seeing her complicated relationship with her mentor and saviour and master. Csorwe and her friend/enemy Tal also had a turbulent relationship which brought forth major life-altering decisions for both of them.

Title: One Kiss from the King of Rock

Author: Ainslie Paton

Genre: Contemporary romance, Rockstar, Second chance

Release Date: 16 April 2020

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 4.5 Stars

Blurb

Evie Tice won’t kiss her ex, Jay Endicott, ever again. But she wants to. Burns for it. Half the adult population of the world does, because he’s a rock god who can apparently light up the stage. She wouldn’t know. When he quit on her, she made sure to block him from her life and stick to easy breezy hook-ups.

But Jay is back, sexier than ever, with the first leg of his global tour and her brothers’ band opens for him. As their social media manager, Evie can’t avoid Jay, but she can use him, to get off and get even like he once used her.

There’s one little issue. No kissing, because if Evie kisses Jay, she’s going to fall in love with him all over again. 

Review

I loved the first book in the series and read this one right after it, well ahead of its release. I enjoyed this one very much as well though it has a different vibe than the first. It's an over-the-top angsty second-chance rockstar romance - tropey and sexy and very moving.

Evie and Jay reconnect 10 years after a nasty breakup of what they both saw as their once in a lifetime , first and last love. They start with lots of anger, a deep grudge that is eating them from the inside. But the chemistry is there leading them making a sex pact before risking it all to be honest with each other. 

We see some bits of the rockstar world, though the main focus was on the internal conflict. There was a lot about how they have changed, who they are now and what they want. 

I was happy to see both of them as successful, happy with what they do. She has her own business, she is good at what she does and is in no way dependent o him. His success is also well deserved and this put them on an equal footing which I very much liked. 

They managed to overcome the hurt from the past (outside forces were at play back then and now they they were grown up to forgive and move on). His betrayal at present felt huge though, monumental because it was a sign he didn't know her now and that was difficult to accept/overcome. But it also prompted her to be honest with herself and let the music back in her life, this time on her own terms.

I am not happy with the reconciliation with her father and what he did, they all forgave him all too easily in my opinion, for something that affected his whole family and and in a way changed the course of their lives.

It's an intense, passionate romance that I can highly recommend. 

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Title: Blue on Blue

Author: Dal Maclean

Genre: M/M romance, crime thriller

Release Date: 24 March 2020

Author's links:

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

My rating: 3.5 Stars

Blurb 

I was excited to read this book after I enjoyed the previous two in the series (all of the books work as standalones). I liked a lot of things in this one but also bothered by some, most notably misogyny and some bi-phobia that never got challenged on the page. I liked the murder mystery plot and the suspense, had some issues with the romance and the general portrayal of women.

The author has created a complex world of villains, both within the police  and in the criminal world. I am ok with having women as the villains, but when it's only them, things don't feel right to me. This was my feeling for most of the first half of the book but gradually we got to see that men can be monsters too and some women acted as good people, so I'd say some balance was achieved.

What still bothered me and I would describe it as casual misogyny is how random women (Tom’s agent, Pez’ business partner/colleague were all presented in a negative light). I found it completely unnecessary for the plot and would have enjoyed the story much more without it. 

As for the romance, Will and Tom’s relationship was pretty volatile, lots of insecurity on both sides which I could understand based on who they were and their lives so far. It's a kind of second-chance romance (they are making a new start after ending things with Tom cheating on Will). I felt that we didn't get to see them together enough, they were both too busy and not talking things through and letting their own insecurities undermine their relationship. Tom’s biphobia (Will is bi, his previous relationship with a woman was pretty important to the story) went unchallenged and I didn’t like that.

Also, there were examples of fatphobia which was totally redundant. June’s fate was bad as it was, there was no need for casually judging her for putting on weight. It was nothing aggressive, rather a careless comment manifesting a deeply ingrained understanding of being fat as something bad. I find this kind of fatphobia the most hurtful.

On the positive side, I loved the writing, loved the politics within the police, the whole element of keeping secrets and at the same doubting everyone - I found it engaging, I was never sure who the murderer was, who among Will’s colleagues was on the take.

The story deals with pretty heavy subject matter, not just the murder investigation but also child abuse and rape (all in the past and not graphic but still, hard to read at times).

CWs: murder, violence, abuse and rape (including child abuse and rape, in the past), fatphobia, biphobia, manipulation, gaslighting

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