X Marks the Spot by Opal Carew

Amazon Link

X Marks the Spot is a stand-alone novella by Opal Carew. While celebrating Abi's brother's wedding, Abi is determined to act on the crush she has had on Del since the two of them attended college together. While trying to make her move on Del, Abi finds herself in Liam's bed by accident. Liam, deciding its time to renew efforts to win his estranged wife back uses Abi's mistake to his benefit and seduces her.

The idea for this book is good in concept. I enjoy a denied passion love story. The romantic encounters are pretty sexy and serve the purpose of getting your blood pumping. The scenarios are motivated mainly by Abi's indecision on which of the male characters she wants, which leads to bed-hopping between the two men, and eventually the three of them together. There is less time to develop characters the shorter the story is, and here they are a little one dimensional, but this fact may not matter depending on one's perspective. The story unfolds into a string of sexual fantasies and not much else, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The men are sexy and in love. The woman gets what she wants in the end, and everyone is happy. In between, they all spend a lot of time between the sheets. If lustful thoughts are what you want out of your erotic romances this one will deliver.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own and may not be identical to others. I urge all readers to come to their own conclusions.

Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks

Amazon Link

Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon by Kerrelyn Sparks is book three of The Embraced series. Starting with the third book presented no issues for me, I was able to follow the plot without feeling I was missing things, even when the characters referred to what most likely occurred in past books. Gwennor is an Elf, a race which is the sworn enemy of the Norveshka people.  Through happenstance, Gwen finds herself on Norveshka helping General Silas find a cure for the ancient curse afflicting his people.

This book was lighthearted, funny and sweet which was such fun for me. The banter between Silas and Gwen and the rest of the characters for that matter kept a smile on my face most of the novel. The couples were adorable. When events were more serious, it never became too dark which was appropriate for the setting.

The mystery alongside the love story was quite enjoyable and kept me guessing. What I most liked about it is in a world of mages and shifters, their problems were resolved in part by real-world applications. This approach helped ground the story to reality in unexpected and interesting ways.

Any issues I had, which were mainly due to Gwen being slightly too naive for my taste, was due to personal preferences. I was able to overlook it and have a good time reading Gwen and Silas's story. They were well paired and quite sexy. I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. All opinions are my own and may not be identical to others. I urge all readers to come to their own conclusions.