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.

John Blake, a wizard, is asked by a colleague to help his cousin Lady Dalton. Strange things are happening in her home: items turn up she has never seen, and animals act strangely. Nobody has hurt her, but she worries that things will get worse. And she suspects Thornby, her stepson.

I am not particularly fond of anthologies; in fact about a year ago I decided not to read them anymore. I don't enjoy the inevitability of being pulled into and away from characters, emotionally investing in them and then being told to move on. But I've been wanting to read a Nathan Burgoine book for a while, and was promised a collection of unabashedly queer stories with (videogame reference alert) easter-eggs scattered like jewels between them, and so I simply had to read Of Echoes Born.

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.

A serial killer is on the loose and the messages he leaves with the bodies suggest that he’s trying to settle a score with Holmes. Now she has to find the person behind this but also deal with something entirely unexpected: the developing romantic feelings she has for her friend.

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

Here's the thing about 2018: I have a NEED for rom-coms and really absurd paranormal or sci-fi bananapants books. I don't want to read about someone's emotional journey through depression and how they learned to love life and blah blah blah. I need to get the hell out of present day United States of America.

I don’t need to tell you that books are the best, especially those with kissing. But sometimes? Sometimes my budget tells me that I need to slow my book-buying roll.

I have a love/hate relationship with July.  I love fireworks (well except when my idiot neighbors are still shooting them off on July 14th…), it’s my birthday month, and I’m generally able to attend the Romance Writers of American annual conference (this year held in Denver).  However, it is also my busiest, craziest month at my day job. This entails a lot of time doing math and looking at spreadsheets (yes, it’s just as glamorous as it sounds!). I come home from work mentally exhausted and looking for anyway to unwind.  Which leads us to this latest batch of unusual historicals! Who doesn’t love to unwind reading and browsing for new books?