Book Review: Captured Prey: A Primal Play Novella by Reno R. Mist

 

Book Description

I want to be hunted…but not by just anyone. No – it must be by the monster I have secretly craved.

Chase me.

Devour me.

Take what is already yours.

I know I shouldn’t speak these desires aloud, but I’ve longed for this – to be the heroine sprinting through a moonlit forest, breathless and trembling, pursued by something dark enough to unmake me.

When I uncovered the rumor buried in a forgotten academic footnote, I knew I would come here. A secret invitation. An unholy promise. If this is what I want, why not indulge?

I will be the prey.

All I need now is the hunter waiting in the forest.

Captured Prey: A Primal Play Novella is part of the Second Circle Entry series, told in third-person POV. Each story explores desire, inhibition, and awakening in richly sensual worlds. Often pairing mortals with monsters, love and hunger intertwine as things that go bump in the night steal your heart…and possibly your soul.

Seductive. Sinister. What are you waiting for?

Readers who enjoy Scarlett St. Clair, Carissa Broadbent, Allie Oleander, Laura Thalassa, Cassie Alexander, Layla Fae, Sylvia Mercedes, and other dark romantasy authors — especially lovers of high heat chemistry, alpha monsters, and dark fantasy romance — will find themselves right at home.

This spicy, primal novella features a tall, dark, and handsome Slavic deity, a 35+ gutsy academic mortal, and a pulse-racing chase that ends in a sweet and steamy reward for adult readers. This book can be read as a standalone.

My Review

Asmodeus, the demon of lust owns a club where you can make your deepest desires come true. When Celia finally gets up the nerve to go inside the club, she's met with Asmodeus. After talking and finally getting out of Celia what she really desires, Asmodeus gives her a contract to sign, a way to back out and an explanation of what will happen once she walks through the door. 

Lahs is a Leshy demon, he's not expecting Asmodeus to come to him and ask to cash in the favor he owns him. Once Lahs hears what he wants, he's surprised that a human female actually desires a Leshy demon for her fantasy, since he's made of the Earth. Mostly vines, leaves, bark and wood but he also has a human form he can shift into. Lahs agrees to her contract details. 

Celia's desire? To be stalked through the woods by a mythical creature, chased, caught and ravished. 

Quote "So you want ravishment, not violation. Fearplay without harm."

That one sentence from the book was one of the sexiest things I've read so far this year. Right then and there, I knew I was hooked. 

Once Celia walks through the door into her fantasy, Lahs holds up his end of the agreement, chases her and they both have fun in the chase. Once Celia is captured though, Lahs expects to find her scared of the way he looks, but she just smiles at him, waiting to see what he'll do next. Lahs was fun, the chase was fun and when they get together for some steamy time, that was hot! These two completely different beings are so good for each other. They gave each other what the other needed and they both had fun doing it. This was a fun, dark fantasy read. I can't wait to read more of this series now.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir, but it just never comes together for me, but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe, I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order; I'll just write them as they come to me.

Hurricanes I've been in

I've told you before that when my parents split and divorced, I ended up living with my grandma for almost 2 years. My dad didn't want me or my brother living with him because he wanted to date a bunch of women. My mom had a boyfriend named Larry and he hated me and didn't want me living with he, my mom and my little brother, and my mom went along with it. So, my grandma took me in for a while. I lived with her when I was 11-13 years old. During that time there were a couple of hurricanes in California where we lived. 

In September of 1982 California was hit with a category 4 hurricane named Olivia. I was living in Redondo Beach, California at the time with my grandma. I remember my grandpa coming over and boarding up some of the windows of our house. He stayed with us for a couple of days while the hurricane passed. They weren't a couple at the time, but you could tell they really cared about each other. 

I mostly remember all the rain, wind and flooding. Trees in my grandma's yard fell over, tiles flew off the roof and the fence in the back yard fell over in parts. The wind was the scariest part. I was 12 years old and had never seen wind like that before. When parts of the fence fell in the back yard and some of the wood started slamming up against our house, me and my grandparents went outside and took the wooden slats and threw them over the fence into the vacant lot next door so they wouldn't keep slamming up against the house and wouldn't break the windows. The wind was absolutely nuts. It was hard to hold onto anything let alone big pieces of wood from the fence, but I helped as much as I could. Back then I thought of my grandparents as old, but I realize now that they were the same age I am right now! That's crazy to think about. 

Then the next year in August of 1983, we got rain and wind from Hurricane Ismael which at the time it came over us was a tropical depression, but I remember being scared because I thought the same thing was going to happen again. Thankfully it didn't and while there was a lot of rain and wind, it wasn't anywhere as bad as the previous year. 

I've been in other storms but nothing like Hurricane Olivia. 

Have you been through a hurricane?

Links to past stories

2023

January 2023

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April 2023

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June 2023

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August 2023

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December

2024

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

October 2024

November 2024

December 2024

2025

January

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

September 2025 

October 2025

November 2025

December 2025

2026

January 2026

February 2026

Apartment Life #410

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

Maintenance covered my window and a bunch of the wall so they could paint some of the white part of the wall that was flaking off. But they started at 6AM and were pounding on my window AC and my window at 6AM! I was mad when I got up and threw open the curtains and saw maintenance standing there. 

He smiled and waved at me. 🤣🤣🤣 Like, "Good morning" It was not a good day to be woke up at 6AM. I had a kidney infection and a cold this past 2 weeks. Sorry I haven't been visiting your blogs as much in this time. I'll catch back up when I feel better. 

This complex with the orange roof also was bought by our new owner and my new manager is their new apartment manager too. This apartment complex is right next to mine. So maintenance started painting their buildings the same color as ours this week. So to prevent any overspray from getting on the 3 cars in the street, they wrapped the cars in plastic. 

The owner of the middle car came out to walk her dog and lost her mind when she saw plastic on her car. She started yelling at the guy who was on the ladder and started ripping the plastic off. The guy on the ladder didn't speak English so he went and got another guy who was trying to tell her why they wrapped the cars in plastic while they were spraying paint on the building. 

But all she kept yelling was, "Keep your MFing hands off of people's cars." 

The high this week was 84F/28C

The low this week was 49F/9C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

My daughter and I are trying to eat healthier, so I am sharing some of the dishes that we are eating each week. 

Sauteed Edamame and Buffalo Cauliflower

For the Buffalo cauliflower

You will need: 

1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce

3 TBSP Honey

1/2 tsp. McCormick's Mesquite seasoning

1/2 tsp. McCormick's Smokehouse Maple seasoning

1/2 head of cauliflower

What to do: 

Place hot sauce and spices in a baggie, set a side. 

Cut the cauliflower into small bite sized pieces. 

Place the cauliflower into the baggie with the mixture, close the baggie and shake well to get all the cauliflower coated. 

Place cauliflower onto a baking sheet and bake at 425F for 20 minutes. 

This makes 2 servings. This side dish has 100 calories for the 1 serving and about 50 carbs per serving. 

For the Edamame

You will need: 

1 cup of frozen Edamame

1 TBSP Butter

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. McCormick Mesquite seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt and pepper

1/2 tsp. McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning

What to do: 

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a small pan. Boil the frozen edamame for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add spices. Add drained edamame and stir to coat all the edamame. Serve while warm. 

This side dish serves 2 and has 150 calories and 20 carbs per serving. 

I served these with some baked chicken. We both really liked this.

Would you eat this. 

Book Review: Redemption by V.E. Huntley

 

Book Description

They think his love for her makes him weak. They're about to learn it makes him unstoppable.

The breathtaking conclusion to The BloodStone Legacy trilogy—a dark, seductive paranormal romance about forbidden love, impossible choices, and the price of redemption.

For centuries, vampire commander Aden Westcott's reputation for brutality was legendary. Until her. She's his salvation and his damnation wrapped in mortal flesh and he'll tear apart heaven and hell to protect her. When enemies close in, Aden must choose: lose her forever, or become the monster that even other vampires fear.

In a society divided by power and blood, redemption demands the highest price. In this final chapter, Aden's and Ellie's choices will echo through eternity. Some say love conquers all. In their world, it might just destroy everything.

Redemption is Book 3 of a trilogy. It ends with the HEA you've been waiting for.

Perfect for fans of enemies-to-lovers romance and dark fantasy who crave high stakes, forbidden love, and a brooding immortal hero facing his own redemption.

This book contains dark themes, including scenes that may be distressing to some readers. Be mindful of the trigger warnings. For a full list of content/trigger warnings, please visit the author's website.

My Review

This is the third book in the Bloodstone Legacie trilogy but it's the first book in the trilogy that I've read. That did not make this book any less enjoyable though. This book can be read as a standalone in my opinion. 

Ellie is taken by an ancient and evil vampire named Matthais, who wants to be the most powerful vampire in existence. Matthais wanted to start a war between the humans and vampires so that vampires were in charge instead of the humans. He thought that vampires were far superior and should be at the top of the food chain, so to speak. 

Not only does Matthais have enhanced vampire soldiers at his disposal, he also has a weapon he can use against vampires that kills, even the oldest, strongest among them and Aden and his family have nothing to fight the effects of the weapon. Matthais wants Aden to pledge his loyalty to him in the coming war but Aden not only wants to save Ellie from Matthais but eliminate him too, for even touching her. 

Along the way, Aden has to make some serious choices since his father was hurt and now Aden is in charge. His actions hurt a lot of people but even though he sent the actions in motion, it was Matthais that was truly responsible for the horrible outcome. 

Aden will stop at nothing in order to save her though, which I loved. While I haven't read the first two books and I have no idea what went on between Ellie and Aden, but that didn't take away from what I have read here. 

This book was so full of action, it really kept me engaged throughout the entire book. Plus, I loved the spice level between Ellie and Aden, something that I've come to expect in a vampire romance. The ending was everything that I could have hoped for.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Book Review: Dark Hunter by Logan Fox

 

Book Description

His obsession is her addiction.

After a torrid evening spent with the billionaire founder of her rehab institute, Clover expects a gourmet breakfast in bed.

Instead, she finds herself abandoned in an overgrown forest, an unwilling participant in a twisted game.

He claims all she has to do is follow the rules. If she wins, she'll be free.

But Clover's never been one to bow to authority, even with her life at stake.

And who's to say her dark hunter is playing fair?

My Review

Clover is doing good, she just got out of rehab and is going to get her certificate and chip at the rehab center graduation party for the people who finished too. But once there things are little weird, like where are all the others who she was in rehab with? Why are there so many people there and who are they?

While there at the party her friend, Gail tells her that she can't stay at her place because her mother said no. Now she has no place to stay. 

Hunter/Dr. Hill who is in charge and owns the Hill Institute where Clover did her rehab has been watching Clover, pretty much stalking her while she did her rehab. She's to be his next victim it seems. Clover gets a note from Hunter and thinks it's strange he would want to talk with her. He invites her to dinner, and they end up at his house, but dinner isn't all that's on the menu and they end up in bed together. 

The next morning, Clover wakes up on the ground in the forest, not knowing how she got there. Hunter is watching her because he thinks of her as a test subject in some twisted experiment he's conducting. This is a twisted Doctor/patient type story where the doctor is a bit psycho himself. 

I'm not sure whether to say this is a psychological thriller or a dark romance because it felt like a split between the two and at the same time, not enough of either to categorize it either of them. Their relationship is strange and most times didn't strike me as romantic at all, just kind of twisted on both their parts. 

I like that this story is told from both their points of view, that made it interesting, seeing what both are thinking and going through. I had no idea where this was going or how this would end. I can say that I haven't read a book quite like this so the twists and turns this book made kept me on my toes for sure. 

It was entertaining and weird at the same time. 

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Last week it snowed and we've had snow on the mountain to the West of us, towards Mount Charleston/Red Rock area.

Snow is on the mountains to the North of us too. 

I took pictures of the mountains as I walked the dog down the street.

Sunset on Monday.

Sunset on Saturday. It looked pink and purple.

Sunrise on Wednesday. There were so many clouds you could barely see the sun. 

On Tuesday a storm rolled in and rained off and on all day. 

I saw the storm clouds coming our way and started snapping pictures. 

As it got closer and darker.

The clouds were just about over my apartment complex at this point and the wind really picked up. We had 50 mph gusts all day and into Wednesday.

I made sure to take Falcor out right before it got here because he doesn't like getting his dainty little feet wet. lol 

It rained off and on all night. 

Book Review: Dark Joy by Christine Feehan

 

Book Description

The destinies of an ancient warrior and a reluctant shifter entwine in this riveting novel in Christine Feehan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series that unites Carpathians new and old….

Sarika Silva has come to Peru’s rainforest to learn about her family’s history and her own capabilities as a jaguar shapeshifter. What she finds is a dangerous world out of her nightmares, where jungle shifters and ravenous vampires vie for dominance and a gorgeous, lethal predator is waiting to claim her for his own.

Tomas Smolnycki and his brothers have hunted vampires for centuries. As some of the oldest Carpathians, they are accustomed to seeing the world in unfeeling gray. So Tomas is ill prepared for the emotions that rise like a tidal wave when he hears Sarika’s voice. As his world bursts into color, he knows he has finally found his lifemate—a woman he’s compelled to protect whether she likes it or not.

Despite an attraction to Tomas that defies logic, Sarika has no interest in being bound to anyone. But as an ancient enemy gathers power in the darkness, Carpathians and their lifemates from around the world must come together to fight back. And Tomas and Sarika’s bond could be the one thing that will save them from total destruction….

My Review

Sarika is a jaguar shifter and has come to Peru to learn more about her family. 

Tomas is a Carpathian. Most Carpathian males are very old and very dangerous because they have lived so long without their lifemates. Some of them are close to turning in vampires or meeting the sun so they don't turn vampire. Vampires are Carpathians that have lived too long and chosen to turn into evil vampires rather than meet the sun and now the Carpathians have to hunt and kill these evil creatures. 

Most very old Carpathian males are pushed very far without finding their lifemates to stop them from turning vampire. It's imperative that Sarika accepts Tomas as her lifemate so he can complete the lifemate bond and he doesn't turn into a vile vampire. 

This story starts out a little slow but sometimes that happens and I hoped things would pick up. They did once these two meet each other. Since Tomas is a Carpathain, he knows right away that Sarika is his lifemate right away. But Sarika stands her ground because she doesn't want to a man telling her what she can and can't do. But like with most of the other books, she does give in over time as she feels the pull towards him. 

An ancient enemy shows themselves and they know they're i trouble so when other Carpathian's come to help, I loved that. 

I really liked seeing characters from past books show up since I've been reading this series for years. It was nice to see what some of the past characters and couples have been up to. There's a lot that happens in this book so anyone who loves this series is going to want to read this one. 

If you plan to read this series, I would start with the first book in order to really get to know these characters that pop up in the books as the series goes on. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

"When one of us has a birthday, we all celebrate."

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #409

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

These tiny wild flowers are popping up all over my street. After changing some things on my camera I was able to get a pretty good picture of them. They are tiny but cute. 

I spotted this ugly car across the street. 

What color is that? Flat periwinkle? Terrible. 

Maintenance drained our pool and they're filling it in with dirt. 

It took about a week, at least they put caution tape around the empty pool to warn people.

Almost filled.

Later this day they had the pool completely filled in with dirt. I guess we'll see what happens now. 

If they actually do anything with this, I'll let you know.

My new neighbor that just moved in a week ago into Xavier's (missing man) apartment, already is getting complaints against him from residents. The first complaint was all the noise all night long out in the alley. He and all his friends and girlfriends stay up all night yelling and screaming at each other. The manager gave them a noise warning. 

Then my daughter's best friend sent me this video she took of the guy's dog out offleash again. He has a big pitbull, which we aren't allowed to have that breed dog here per our lease.  The dog was running all over the courtyard. My friend had just gotten home and she couldn't open her door because she has 2 cats and was afraid the dog would run in her house or the cats would run out. The manager gave our friend her personal cell phone number and told her to call her if they were making noise in the alley at night again. So, she sent this video to the manager and the very next day, the manager put another notice on the guy's door. 

---

On Wednesday I noticed one of the old spigots that still had some of the old hardware from when we had sprinklers here was turned on and broken and water was shooting 20 feet in the air.

The water was shooting up in the air and over the roof of the office. It got turned off and fixed eventually.

The high this week was 59F/15C

The low this week was 36F/2C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.