Rumbles Of A Book Dragon

  Hey all!  Welcome back to the campfire. Tonight's tale of terror is brought to you by Kayla Cottingham. Like its two predecessors, this author's unknown to me, but, you're interested in the book.  So let's dive into it.  Submitted for the approval of those who are following, I call this: The Review Of The Tale Of The Vanishing Circus.    Characters: Riley Beasley, Genevieve Monroe Premise: When two best friends stumble upon a strange circus, they end up with more than they bargained for. Riley and Genna are two thirteen-year-old best friends who couldn't be more different.  Riley's studious and focused on getting out their hometown of Lake Glory while Genna's very bouncy/happy, likes to have a good time and obsessed with the paranormal after binging the X-Files on DVD with her father, which, I mean, it's X-Files, I was watching that show as well as Buffy around that age, so it was kind of cool to see it get a shout out.   Anyways, our story...

 Okay, admittedly, this is not my usual book.  I don't really do the whole enemies to lovers trope as it's not something that usually appeals to me but my roommate had this book, decided she didn't want it, so I decided to give it a shot.  Eri La Rosa is a new author to me and as such, this is also a new type of story. Characters : Nina Lyons, Leo O'Donnel Premise : To save their jobs and show, two feuding coworkers fake a romance.      Nina Lyons and Leo O'Donnel cohosts of a cooking show that's similar to things like Top Chef l don't get along which culminates in her quitting the cooking show on live tv.  What she doesn't know is that Leo's family restaurant is failing and he needs the show to be a success so that he can save it, so when he learns that she's in the same boat with her own restaurant, Lyons, he convinces her to pretend date him so that they can save the show and their restaurants.  Pretty standard trope solution, something I'...

TRIGGER WARNING: MISCARRIAGE AND INFERTILITY ISSUES. I understand that this is a sensitive subject for a lot of people, so if you don't feel you can join me for this review, that is absolutely okay.   I was wrecked.  Absolutely  wrecked.  Abby Green is another author I took a chance on and it was an emotional ride.  I didn't know about the infertility issues when I first started the book, but once I realized that this was part of the story, I became curious as to how it would be handled.  Characters: Primo Holt, Faye MacKenzie Premise: A couple agrees to a marriage of convenience with the caveat of being able to divorce each other and walk away clean after sixth months. Both Faye and Primo (I know, I know.  What kind of name is Primo?  Ask the author, not me) have been burned by love before----Primo through witnessing his mother leaving and watching his father deal with the pain by serial dating/marriage and Faye through the loss of her ma...

  Okay, so in honor of valentine's later this month, I chose a new-to-me author, Michelle-Lindo-Rice.  Over the years, I've found that Harlequins can be hit or miss no matter which franchise they're from---Special Edition, Suspense, etc.---and I mostly tend to stick with authors that I know, but at the same time, I try to expand my horizons with new-to-me authors. Characters: Selina Cartwright, Trent Moon (guest appearance by Selina's mother, Helen, and Trent's sister Pammie). Premise: Two people who hate valentine's day decide to become friends-with-benefits and then find themselves falling in love. Okay, so this wasn't a typical harlequin for me.  Usually with Special Editions it's either life-long friends who start a relationship out of convenience (to convince parents or friends not to meddle in romantic lives of the main characters)  or one-time rivals putting aside old preconceptions and falling in love.  I do not recall ever seeing a friends-with-...

TRIGGER WARNING: CREEPY DOLLS .  If this is a fear of yours, please back away now.  Hi all!  You know what time it is! I'm bringing a fourth tale of terror and frights.  Like Rin Chupeco, Danielle Valentine is a new author to me and is part of the new wave of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? merchandise.  And so, let's get down to it. Submitted for the approval of my fellow readers, I call this: the Review Of The Tale Of The Twisted Toymaker. Characters: Layla Griffith, Dylan Cane (crush, secondary character) Premise: A girl races to save her sister when she realizes that the doll she bought her is trying to take over her life. Layla Griffith buys a fancy doll for her eight-year-old sister, Emily that's basically her mini-me named Grace and she gets weirded out when the proprietor of the store---Ms. Mabel---starts taking measurements of Emily "for the doll" and honestly, if it was me , I woulda noped out there, getting my money back and buying my younger sister---not...

  This is a new author to me---at least, I don't think I've read Caitlin Crews.  If I have, I haven't kept any of the prior books of hers that I read because they just didn't wow me.  This one however, spoke to me. Characters: Geraldine Casey, Lionel Asensio (with guest appearances by their family) Premise: In order to please his grandmother, man impulsively marries a woman who crashed his wedding after his intended bride is carted off. People, I did not expect this story to begin by the intended bride being carted off ala King Kong and Fay Wray, but that happened and our male lead, Lionel Asensio, turned to wedding crasher Geraldine Casey, dragged her up to the altar, and married her before she could even say "How do you do?", which, Sir!  No!  No!  That is not how any of that is supposed to go at all!  But anyways, after that's accomplished, Lionel tries to tell Geraldine what he expects from her only to have her make her own demands: take a paterni...