Cruel God
Book Synopsis
My name is Rex Cain…but you can call me god.
I am the ruler of the Cain empire—a legacy built from the blood and bone of others. Here in my kingdom, only the strongest survive, and only the wicked can thrive.
That’s why I took my father’s life before he had a chance to take mine. But my life doesn’t flow through my veins. It flows through hers, the girl he tried to take from me. The woman I’ve stained my hands in blood for.
My most prized possession.
My weakness.
My butterfly.
She thinks I’m her savior, and I’ll burn kingdoms to the ground to keep it that way.
While she waits for me on her knees, I’m a king who reigns without mercy. While she obeys my every command, I’m a dictator who starts wars. And while she breathes, I’m a man with something to lose.
My name is Rex Cain, and she is my Hope.
⭐ Rating: 0.5 out of 5.
CRUEL GOD by Bella J is a dark romance. This book was a hard one to read. Rex Cain is a human trafficker. I went into the book knowing there were some kidnapping elements, but Rex is a human trafficker for the ENTIRE BOOK.
The book opens with Hope as a young girl; her age is never told, but she plays hopscotch, and her brother, Colton, is supposed to babysit her. Hope and her friend are kidnapped off the street. Hopes brother Colton was supposed to be babysitting her and is racked with guilt for years behind his sister’s abduction. He’s vowed to never stop looking for her and vows revenge against those who took her.
The author seemed conflicted throughout about how to portray Rex. When she does the flashback chapters of him when he first meets Hope, both as a pre-teen and a teenager, he seems horrified by the family business. His father is an irredeemable character who pushes his son into corruption.
This is a dual POV novel, but mostly we hear the POV of Rex and his obsession with his butterfly, Hope.
” Me… I had something to lose. Something precious. Something so dear to me that I would slit every motherf** throat to those who dared try to take it from me. My most prized possession. My butterfly. My salvation. “
After his father’s death, no one knows he has his own ‘pet’ as he keeps her locked away on the top floor, and she has been let out of the apartments for years.
“The woman, currently naked and on her knees, remained silent as she kept her head down. It was the ultimate display of submission, something she had mastered years ago.”
I appreciated reading from his point of view more so than Hope’s, as she is entirely one- dimensional. Each chapter or interaction with Rex and Hope is her submitting to him on the floor and him using her body. She is not allowed to speak until permission is given, and she doesn’t seem to have A SINGLE THOUGHT IN HER HEAD. I was disgusted for most of this book and almost didn’t finish it.
The flashbacks are meant to invoke sympathy toward Rex, but all it really shows is how he became a bully and trafficker, like his father. He uses manipulation, violence, and mind games to get what he wants from everyone, including Hope. He’s even hired Hope’s brother and never discloses that he has his sister locked away. Instead sets out to corrupt the brother with manipulation and lies.
The reason I abhorred this novel was not because of Rex. As an avid dark romance reader, he tracks with the theme. My issue with this novel is Hope. She completely lacks substance. I understand that this book has Stockholm elements, but even when they flashback to when she is still younger, she never tries to get away. She never lashes out and always looks for Rex in this horrible prison cell? It doesn’t seem plausible.
She has no personality and is utterly devoted to the hero. At the novel’s end, it comes to light that Colton works for her brother, and when he tries to rescue her, she doesn’t leave.
I was upset for most of this novel and would not recommend it. It was not a romance but a thriller or horror novel. There was no respect for any woman, including the heroine, in the book.
UGH!
The Inmate
Book Synopsis:
There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison:
1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates.
And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart—the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke’s testimony was what put him there.
But Shane knows.
And he will never forget.
⭐⭐⭐Rating: 3 out of 5.
THE INMATE is a thriller by Freida McFadden and tells the story of Brooke Sullivan, a down-on-your-luck nurse practitioner who accepts a job at a maximum security prison after multiple job denials. This new job will take her back to her hometown- where infamously, eleven years prior, she and her best friend Tim Reese testified that Shane killed their three friends and attempted to strangle her. Although she never saw who it was. Making a promise to her parents to never return home, she leaves and earns her degree in medicine.
Now back in her hometown, she anxiously starts her new job where Shane Nelson, her ex-boyfriend and the father of her ten-year-old son, Josh, is incarcerated for life. When she finally sees Shane in prison, he reminds her of the boyfriend she had before the horrible day of attempted murder. It doesn’t help that Shane insists he is innocent and is confusing Brooke with feelings she thought outgrown over eleven years ago. Now she begins to question herself. Could he have actually done it, and if not him, then was it someone else? Her old friend Tim, as Shane keeps insisting?
Throughout the pages of this novel, I waffled a bit on who could have been the killer but figured out who the killer was before Brooke did. Brooke was two-dimensional and seemed to lack common sense, which I found frustrating, and they often yelled out, “Come on, really,” while flipping the pages. The last chapter was unexpected; I liked it.
You Look Beautiful Tonight
Book Synopsis:
A secret admirer’s devotion turns deadly in a twisting novel of psychological suspense.
Mia Anderson is an invisible woman. An unremarkable thirty-two-year-old Tennessee librarian, she’s accustomed to disappearing in a crowd, unseen and unheard. Then she receives an anonymous note: You look beautiful today.
It doesn’t stop there. The attentive stranger—a secret admirer named Adam—has plans for Mia. With each new text comes a suggestion for her hair, clothes, or attitude, and for the first time in memory, Mia feels noticed. Slowly, she develops a confidence in herself she’s never had. But Adam has a surprise coming…and Mia finally sees him for who he is and what he’s prepared to do for her. Even kill.
Fearing she could be implicated in the murder, Mia’s forced to turn to the stranger in the shadows watching her every move. Adam’s game of cat and mouse begins with Mia as the prey. In order to survive, she must also become the predator.
YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL TONIGHT is a thriller by L.R. Jones and the first novel that I’ve read by this author. This book opens in real time and tells the story from weeks prior. This book is a thriller, so it’s about finding Mia’s stalker and unveiling them to us with each chapter. Mia is invisible, not really- as this is not a fantasy novel, not theoretically.
“I’m objectively unexceptional, with pale skin and hair perpetually secured at my nape.”
Her dark hair, glasses, and propensity to wear black make her so. She’s an introverted librarian who dislikes coming out of her shell. She has two friends, Jess and Jack- her two J’s. And she has a complicated relationship with her mother, so she is used to being ignored.
” Three times he’s walked by me and ignored my various grabs for attention- the hand life, the hand life with a verbal ” excuse me” and finally the shove of my dark-rimmed glasses higher up my nose to show seriousness before the hand life and verbal ” excuse me.”
Then one day, a dark-haired stranger is staring at her in the library, followed by a notecard left on her desk at work ” You look beautiful today.” Coupled with her friend Jess convincing her to try online dating.
As the story unfolds, she meets someone online. Adam. He sees her and desires her.
The reader still is determining who sends the notes and gifts as the story unfolds. And with these gifts, there are also demands, and Mia wishes she could return to being invisible.
This novel was well-written, well-paced, and entertaining. I didn’t immediately figure out who the stranger/stalker was, which was unexpected. I recommend this book and plan to look for more books from this author.
The Perfect Find
Book Synopsis:
Will a 40-year-old woman with everything on the line – her high-stakes career, ticking biological clock, bank account – risk it all for an intensely lusty secret romance with the one person who could destroy her comeback, for good?
Jenna Jones, former It-girl fashion editor, is broke and desperate for a second chance. When she’s dumped by her longtime fiancé and fired from Darling magazine, she begs for a job from her old arch nemesis, Darcy Vale. The beyond-bitchy publisher of StyleZine.com, Darcy agrees to hire her rival – only because her fashion site needs a jolt from Jenna’s old school cred. But Jenna soon realizes she’s in over her head. She’s working with digital-savvy millennials half her age, has never even “Twittered”, and pretends to still be a Fashion Somebody while living a style lie (she sold her designer wardrobe to afford her sketched-out studio, and now quietly wears Walmart’s finest). Worse? The 22-year-old videographer assigned to shoot her web series is driving her crazy. Wildly sexy with a smile Jenna feels in her thighs, Eric Combs is way off-limits – but almost too delicious too resist.
Written by the best-selling author of The Accidental Diva, The Perfect Find is a scandalously sexy, laugh-out-loud funny, utterly quotable saga about star-crossed love and starting over.
THE PERFECT FIND, was the the perfect find for me! I’ve read one other book by this author, and I honestly, I was underwhelmed. I went into this book with low expectations and found this love story to be one of the most authentic I’ve read.
This book follows Jenna, a 40-something, a former it-girl fashion editor, who is restarting her life and is now working an entry-level job with one of her nemeses’ from the industry, Darcy Vale. She is used to big budgets, large-scale photo shoots, and print. She has no social footprint and doesn’t understand why texting is vital to her colleagues. Enter Eric, a twenty-two videographer assigned to assist her with her social media account, which she met and made out with a weekend before.
Age-gap romances are typically my least favorite. I always find it hard to see how two people can fall in love when they’re so different. This book was not that. Their work ethic, quirks, and passion were so similar that it jumped from the pages how much these two characters belonged together.
“I don’t want these clinical, awkward setups. I don’t feel like doing this twenty more times. I can’t imagine meeting my soulmate through an interview process. I want to know without words. I won’t fall so violently that I risk breaking into a million pieces. I want to love so desperately it’s indecent. I want it to be wild and fated and forever. A no-choice connection.”
The love story was authentic, funny, and genuine. The ending felt a little rushed, and I wanted more in the etiology, but that was only because I was genuinely invested in this couple and their happiness by this point; I hated for the book to end.
The Wife Before
Book Synopsis:
Samira Wilder has never had it easy, and when her latest lousy job goes south, things only promise to get harder. Until she unexpectedly meets a man who will change her life forever. Renowned pro golfer Roland Graham is wealthy, handsome, and caring, and Samira is dazzled. Best of all, he seems to understand her better than anyone ever has. And though their relationship moves a bit fast, when Roland proposes, Samira accepts. She even agrees to relocate to his secluded Colorado mansion. After all, there’s nothing to keep her in Miami, and the mansion clearly makes him happy. Soon, they are married amid a media firestorm, and Samira can’t wait to make a fresh start—as the second Mrs. Graham . . .
Samira settles into the mansion, blissfully happy—until she discovers long-hidden journals belonging to Roland’s late wife, Melanie, who died in a tragic accident. With each dusty page, Samira comes to realize that perhaps it was no accident at all—that perhaps her perfect husband is not as perfect as she thought. Even as her trust in Roland begins to dwindle and a shadow falls over her marriage and she begins to fear for her own life, Samira is determined to uncover the truth of Melanie’s troubled last days. But even good wives should know that the truth is not always what it seems . . .
THE WIFE BEFORE was a two-star read for me. From the prolong, I was immediately intrigued and couldn’t wait to learn why Samira, the heroine, thought she was able to be murdered by her husband, Rodney.
Five things bothered me about this book. Firstly, the author needs to detail what the characters look like. When she first meets Rodney, she talks about his hazel eyes. Paired with the fact that he was a pro golfer who lived in Colorado, I assumed he was white. She never described the main character, Samira, aside from her corkscrew curly hair or anyone in the book.
Second, Samira was highly unlikeable. She was twenty-eight, couldn’t keep a job, and didn’t care to own one. Her brother and roommate often bail her out of tight situations, and she was ungrateful. She fell into this romance with Rodney and seemed to like what he could do for her more than his actual character.
Third, upon coming to Colorado, Rodney shows her the She-Shed, which belonged to his dead wife, and she finds the journals and is immediately suspicious and pulls away from Rodney. It was unbelievable because Rodney’s character hadn’t changed, and he was still sweet and caring to her.
Fourth, and probably my biggest pet peeve, the journals were written like a chapter, with direct quotes and no introspection or a date/timeline of when these things happened to Melanie ( the dead wife). We’re told that the journals were a therapy session requirement and that Melanie knew the therapist would read the entries. That still doesn’t account for the quotes and all the specific detail that you would typically see in a chapter.
Rodney just seemed to go along with everything. In the journal entries from his first wife. To Samira. He never asked the crucial questions and knew that his cousin, wife, her sister, etc…. were using him for money. He was a doormat. But also, he was the main person we were supposed to suspect killed his wife. It was unbelievable.
The book was repetitive and unrealistic. I can understand suspended reality, but the whole book was suspended. I wasn’t able to invest in any of the characters. Samira is an airhead who wants someone to take care of her. Samira’s brother was overblown, her best friend didn’t ask her any questions, Melanie was a hateful, spiteful woman, and Rodney was a cuckold.
There were other issues in the book that were never answered, so it stood to reason; why mention them?
It was good enough that I could finish it all the way through, so I gave it two stars. This was my first, and definitely, the last, book that I’ll read by this author.
It Started with a List
Book Synopsis:
A BUCKET LIST. THE POPULAR GUY. A LONER. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Time’s up for Vassa Blackwell.
With her college graduation looming, Vassa reflects on the past four years. Man, she is mega disappointed. No wacky misadventures, no drunken nights, and no regrettable mistakes you can NEVER tell your parents. Work and class, Class and work. That’s it. College is suppose to be the best years of one’s life… Right?
Vassa feels as though she’s cheated herself out of a full college experience. Notably with romance and boys and stuff. So, she makes a college bucket list. Then the worse thing ever happens.
Her list falls into the hands of Lazarus Gilbert. King of the baseball team, sworn enemy (in her opinion), and her annoying upstairs neighbor. He thinks he’s found something fun to do. She thinks she’s in trouble. With the pressures of post-college decisions and failing classes looming, can they complete the bucket list before the semester runs out? Are Vassa and Lazarus just too different to get along? Or will Vassa learn to live and let live, and let love enter her heart?
It Started with a List is an opposites-attract romance. Perfect for readers who love drunk karaoke, spring breaks to Las Vegas, and sea lions at Pier 39. This novel contains cursing and sex scenes and is intended for audiences 18 years and older.
It Started with a List was the first book I’ve read by this author, and I generally like opposites attract novels. This book follows Vassa and Lazarus in their last year of college. Vassa is an introvert and has been hurt by past friendships, and is struggling to let new people. She also seems to suffer from anxiety and is anxious when thrown into new environments or around new people. But she wants to change, so she makes a bucket list to make her senior better than the years before.
Lazarus is fun-loving, popular, and charming; he seems to have it all. But is failing an English class and wants to improve his grades and make a plan for himself after graduation.
Next, Lazarus finds out about Vassa’s list and offers to help him if she tutors him. I enjoyed the chapters when they were marking things off the list. Vassa is in her head and seems to carry the weight of what other people think about her to the point that it’s stifling. To see her come out of her shell and to see that there is some commonality between these two characters was refreshing.
There was one steamy scene book, but for the most part, it’s PG, and I finished this book feeling like this would be a great summer reading or a beach reading. It’s light, and the characters are likable.
War
Book Synopsis:
They came to earth—Pestilence, War, Famine, Death—four horsemen riding their screaming steeds, racing to the corners of the world. Four horsemen with the power to destroy all of humanity. They came to earth, and they came to end us all.
The day Jerusalem falls, Miriam Elmahdy knows her life is over. Houses are burning, the streets run red with blood, and a traitorous army is massacring every last resident. There is no surviving this, especially not once Miriam catches the eye of War himself. But when the massive and terrifying horseman corners Miriam, he calls her his wife, and instead of killing her, he takes her back to his camp.
Now Miriam faces a terrifying future, one where she watches her world burn town by town, and the one man responsible for it all is her seemingly indestructible “husband”. But there’s another side to him, one that’s gentle and loving and dead set on winning her over, and she might not be strong enough to resist.
However, if there’s one thing Miriam has learned, it’s that love and war cannot coexist. And so she must make the ultimate choice: surrender to War and watch humankind fall, or sacrifice everything and stop him
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Rating: 5 out of 5.
I just finished the book War by Laura Thalassa, the second book in the four horseman series. This book follows the heroine Miriam Elmahdy in a Post Apololyic world. Pestilence has already come and wiped out most of the people in the world, and at the introduction of this book, War has been running a rampage for several years with his army, leaving none alive in his wake.
War has come to Jerusalem, her city, and when Miriam sees War, her motto of “be brave,” she decides she will kill him. Instead of death, he claims her as his bride. Now along with his army, she and her indestructible “husband” pliage and plunder town to town, and Miriam is set on stopping him. If not by force, then by showing that there is more to humanity than war and violence.
I was intrigued by this book; it made me think of that saying about what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. One has to surrender. This book had a lot of that push and pull. Will they/won’t they submit to each other, their beliefs, and finally love?
I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it, and I’m looking forward to continuing in this series.
Thank you Netgalley and Lavabrook Publishing for this advanced reader copy, for giving me this arc in exchange for my honest review.
The North Wind
Book Synopsis:
Lush. Dark. Romantic. Introducing a newly reimagined tale written in the vein of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone.
Long before civilization, there were the gods. And before the gods, there was the earth, the celestial bodies, and air given flesh. They are the Anemoi—the Four Winds—and they have been banished to the four corners of the world.
Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. Her parents are gone. Survival is all she knows. For three hundred years, the land known as the Gray has been encased in ice, surrounded by a great barrier called the Shade, which protects the townsfolk from the Deadlands beyond.
But day by day, the Shade weakens.
Only one thing can stop the Shade’s fall: a mortal woman taken captive across the barrier, bound in wedlock to the dark god who reigns over the Deadlands. He is the North Wind, the Frost King, an immortal whose heart is said to be as frigid as the land he rules.
And the time has come for the Frost King to choose his bride.
⭐⭐⭐Rating: 3 out of 5.
This book came highly recommended by several clubs I’m in and also on social media. Truthfully, I do not read much fantasy, but I liked the idea of a fantasy romance. This book starts with us meeting Wren. She and her twin sister are orphans. They live in a community called The Gray, where it is always winter. It is a harsh environment, and Wren has taken over the caretaker role for her and her sister. She hunts and forges to feed them.
Every so many year, the Frost King comes to specific towns and is offered a sacrifice. Typically, he picks the most obedient and beautiful of women. The book plays up the ” I’m not like other girls” with Wren. She is brass, opinionated, and not obedient; she also has a scar on her face that she thinks deems her unattractive. When The Frost King, aka The North Wind, selects her sister as the next sacrifice, she dupes them and trades places.
Now that she’s in his domain, there is tension from her deception and she is upset to learn that she will not be a sacrifice but, instead, his wife. This is a single-POV book, and it is only told from the perspective of Wren. I was interested to know the Frost King’s thoughts and motivations. Wren fell short of her interpretations of why he did what he did. The reason I hesitate to give this book more than three stars are
- For the caretaker role, it seems unrealistic; I only found out later in the chapter that she and her sister were identical twins. If so, why is she taking on the burden of caring for a 26-year-old woman she treats like a child?
- When she gets to the Deadlands, she makes everything more complicated and plots to return home. But she has no idea what her returning home would do to the Deadlands or the Gray.
- She is harsh to the Frost King, but when he returns that same behavior, she’s childish and doesn’t ever seem to understand why.
- Hearing only her POV, she is not likable, so I couldn’t empathize with her as you would with other lead characters.
Both characters could have developed more, and more should have been explained about the other sacrifices and why he chooses to marry the women instead. Lastly, this was an extremely slow burn. They only meet a resolution at 86% of the way into the book. And the book had a quick resolution for all 500-plus pages of build-up.
All this to say, I finished the book in two days, and it did capture my attention. This book is the first in the series; although I will not immediately be reading book two, I plan to at some point.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes a retelling of Beauty and the Beast or Hades and Persephone.
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