I admit it. I loved this bonkers romance with a "meet-cute" over a maggot infested and gas bloated corpse, accidental (but hysterically funny!) cannibalism, a high body count, plenty of gore, and two soulmates who're meant to be together...because they're both successful serial killers.
But not ordinary serial killers! Blackbird, aka The Orb Weaver, aka Sloane targets very bad people who deserve to die, at least in her estimation. She's probably right. So when Butcher, aka Rowan, who also tracks and dispatches bad people meets Sloane over the aforementioned corpse, he knows she's the one for him.
In addition to the high body count, the sex is hot (Is this related? You be the judge...) as Sloane and Rowan navigate their relationship with all the usual modern problems, along with the blood and gore. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, but be forewarned, neither the gore nor the sex is for the faint of heart. That's part of what makes it so good.
A friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice, unlike anything you’ve read before.
Every serial killer needs a friend. Every game must have a winner.
When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.
But as their friendship develops into something more, the…
This is the kind of fantasy that makes you want to grab readers and say, "It's got everything! Banter! Road trip! Squabbling enemies to (maybe?) friends! Thieves who want your boots! Short berserker warrior nuns! Faith, romance, hot sex, interesting villains! Bishop Beartongue who reads books and knows things!
And at the center, an adorably hunky killing machine of a paladin and the spy who loved him.
If you're not autobuying T. Kingfisher's Saint of Steel books you're missing out on some of the most enjoyable fantasy romance out there today. I suggest reading them in order (one of the MC's in this book was introduced in Book 1) and savoring them. They're so good you'll want to race through them, but also so good you won't want to read too quickly. Highly recommended.
Marguerite Florian has spent her life acquiring and selling information, using whatever means necessary. When she falls afoul of a powerful former employer, her usual methods of self-preservation no longer work. Fortunately, she has collected enough favors to attempt an audacious scheme to undermine her enemies.
With the service of Shane, a paladin of a dead god and much too handsome for his own good, Marguerite will be forced to navigate a glittering and dangerous court, northern wilds, and the cult of a demon in a brazen attempt to destabilize an entire economy.
There was so much I loved about this follow-up to the fabulous The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy: The world-building and its incorporation of religion into peoples' lives, the glimpse of past characters and a peek at future characters in The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, the villain, and, of course, the glitter dragons.
But what I really loved, more than anything else, was seeing middle-aged characters, bulges and softer bodies and all, having romance and sexy times and not settling. It was especially wonderful to see a woman who'd been a wife, mother and now, grandmother, wake up to demanding satisfaction in her personal life, including her love life. Twyla isn't going to be a chair anymore (you'll get it when you read it), and Frank is the hero she deserves.
The adorableness can seem a little over the top at times, but Twyla and Frank's issues are all too real and are dealt with sensitively and satisfyingly.
I knew Megan Bannen would be an auto-buy for me after Hart & Mercy, and this second novel of hers for adults (earlier books were YA) completely justified my faith in her story-telling.
From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a heartwarming fantasy with a best friends-to-lovers rom com twist set in the delightful demigod and donut-filled world of Tanria.
The entire town of Eternity was shocked when widowed, middle-aged Twyla Banneker partnered up with her neighbor and best friend, Frank Ellis, to join the Tanrian Marshals. Eight years later, Twyla’s rewarding career patrolling the strange land of Tanria remains a welcome change from the domestic grind of mom life, despite the misgivings of her grown children.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) a recent decrease in on-the-job peril has made Twyla…
David Fletcher needs a surgeon, stat! But when he captures a British merchantman in the Caribbean what he gets is Charley Alcott, an apprentice physician barely old enough to shave. Needs must, and Captain Fletcher takes the prisoner back aboard his ship with orders to do his best, or he'll be walking the plank.
Charley Alcott's medical skills are being put to the test in a life-or-death situation, Charley's life as well as the patient's. Even if she can save the pirate's brother there will still be hell to pay--and maybe a plank to walk--when Captain Fletcher learns Charley is really Charlotte Alcott.
A war is raging on the world's oceans, and two enemies will fight their own battles and their attraction to each other as they undergo a sea change neither of them is expecting, but cannot deny.
