The latest edition of Ninestar Press's Once Upon a Rainbow series is thoroughly charming. The premise is simple: queer retellings of classic fairy tales, but the execution is, for lack of a better word,  magical. I haven't read the first two volumes, but bought them immediately upon finishing this review copy. As with their Into the Mystic anthologies, Ninestar's editorial chops are on full display here - none of the stories stand out as "filler." Yes, there are a few that worked better for me than others, but most of that is personal preference, not objective quality issues. 

Ready for school? For 2019? For a post-summer (or winter, hiiii southern hemisphere!) reset? Let's do this.

Here's the problem with planners - you only need one, maybe two, but there are so very many cute ones out there. Here's how we're coping - by sharing with all of you. 

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From Scratch is the sort of fluffy wish-fulfillment I needed this week. The plot is straightforward: three people go to a town called Seaport (not anywhere near the sea) to start over. They find each other and fall in love. The reasons to like this book lie not within a complex plot - they’re with the characters.

More mini-reviews! These books weren't terribly successful for our team.

Back during #RomBkLove, a group of very passionate readers were simply aghast that I hadn't read A.C. Arthur's paranormal romances yet. I knew A.C. Arthur for her Kimani books - contemporary romances and, most recently, a series of royals with some truly great covers. I immediately hopped over to her website, only to realize that she's written many paranormal romances and I had no idea where to start. When I met her at the RWA conference in July, I asked if she'd be willing to do an interview... and here we are!

We've got something really special to share with you today: all four covers for the upcoming f/f celebrity series, Rose & Thorns! Rose & Thorns is a series of interconnected standalone novels all involving the Rose & Thorns Ladies' Social Clubs, a decades-old social club for ladies who like other ladies. 

The Thorns is in NYC, and the Rose is in LA, and they are sister clubs on the East & West coast. Vanessa North's book takes place almost exclusively in NYC at the Thorns, another in LA at The Rose, and the others jet back and forth between the two!

This round of mini-reviews is a very mixed bag. An f/nb epic fantasy romance, a m/m romantic fantasy/mystery, and a gothic m/f historical with BDSM elements.

I really enjoyed The Last Wolf, so I was excited to read about one of the "Offland" wolves in Maria Vale's second novel. My conclusion, after reading A Wolf Apart, is that this book isn't for me. As I noted in that first review, Vale's pacing is a bit different than the romance novels I'm used to, which threw me at first but was fine once I settled in. This one never quite found its romance novel footing, however, missing some beats that I needed in order to believe the romance between the two main characters. I also wanted to slap the hero most of the time, but more on that later.

Woooooooo August! 'Tis the season for peaches and school/office supplies, so get yourself some fancy Post-Its, a smoothie and some wonderful books.