July disappeared when I wasn't paying attention and somehow it's August already (which is my birthday month, so I won't complain—but, really, where did July go???). I have the round-up of some books I enjoyed in July for you today.

Eclipse the Moon by Jessie Mihalik: This is the second book in the Starlight's Shadow space opera romance series. The grumpy/sunshine dynamic between the main characters made for a fun romance, which had been set up in the first book, and the high stakes plot moved quickly, resolving some issues and leaving others open for the third book, which is due next year (*sobs about the wait*). I also continue to adore in all ways the found family in these books. Start with the first book, though, because though there's a new romance in each, the overarching plot carries over.

For the Throne by Hannah F. Whitten: I listened to this conclusion to the Wilderwood duology almost as soon as it came out and enjoyed it as much as the first (this is definitely another series you need to start at the first book!). I found this story darker than the first, but also beautiful, and you won't be able to miss the Snow White inspiration. The point of view switches between a few characters, but primarily Neve and Red, the sisters we meet in the first book. Red, though happy and lovely to see in her relationship (which I loved seeing—and also loved having more time with their found family), is desperate to save her sister after the events at the end of the first book. Neve, however, has her own journey to embark on—and something of an enemies to lovers romance with a characters I wanted to strangle in the first book but came to love here.

So This is Ever After by FT Lukens: My hold on this audiobook from the library came in at just the right time! So This is Ever After has the premise that Arek, the chosen one of a prophecy, and his band of friends/found family overthrow the evil sorcerer on the throne and save the kingdom. Arek's best friend Matt convinces him to take the throne until they can free the rightful heir from the tower, but the rightful heir is dead. And now Arek is stuck being king and also must get married both to stay king and to stay alive. The only person Arek wants is Matt, but he's convinced Matt doesn't want him, so he tries wooing his other friends to amusing effect. There's lots of mutual pining here, and the narrative is witty and light. 

In the Ravenous Dark by AM Strickland: The last book I want to mention is another fantasy romance, this one on the darker side. There's blood magic and death magic and death and violence and a creepy underworld and other stuff, but there's also wonderful characters (including an asexual nonbinary side character who is fantastic and I want to be friends with) and a delightful found family and two lovely romances (polyamorous rep) and a very interesting fantasy world. Rovan is a blood mage who has hidden what she is for years, but when it's finally discovered, she's bound to a ghostly guardian to keep her in line. She ends up falling in love with her hated ghostly guardian and a princess, as she finds out what's really going on in the city and stokes a rebellion in both the living world and the underworld.

​What have you read and loved lately?

​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.
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​I'm sharing a few snippets from The Scholar's Heart this month because it has a book anniversary on the 13th. The Scholar's Heart is an estranged friends to lovers romance. Etan is a scholar and cousin to the Crown Prince of Tournai, and Tristan is the oldest son of a prominent merchant family (the older brother of Maxen from last month's snippets from The Merchant's Love). Etan and Tristan were close friends, and Etan had fallen for Tristan, but Tristan broke his heart when he chose to marry the person his father chose for him. This is probably the angstiest thing I've ever written, but they do manage to find their way to each other eventually. This weekend, I'm sharing a snippet of Etan using his magic, a mysterious magical Talent kept secret by Tournai's royal family.

You can find out more about The Scholar's Heart here. This is the last weekend to get The Scholar's Heart and my other books 50% off at Smashwords. Don't miss out on a great sale! Thanks for reading today and I hope you're all staying safe and well!

​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.
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​I'm sharing a few snippets from The Scholar's Heart this month because it has a book anniversary on the 13th. The Scholar's Heart is an estranged friends to lovers romance. Etan is a scholar and cousin to the Crown Prince of Tournai, and Tristan is the oldest son of a prominent merchant family (the older brother of Maxen from last month's snippets from The Merchant's Love). Etan and Tristan were close friends, and Etan had fallen for Tristan, but Tristan broke his heart when he chose to marry the person his father chose for him. This is probably the angstiest thing I've ever written, but they do manage to find their way to each other eventually. I have another kiss between Etan and Tristan for you this week, this one not in the middle of an argument!

You can find out more about The Scholar's Heart here. And don't forget that The Scholar's Heart and my other books are 50% off at Smashwords through the end of July (which is somehow not much longer!). Thanks for reading, and I hope you're staying safe and well.

I'm not sure if I ever announced this here, but I will be attending GRL this year as a Spotlight Author! This will be my first GRL, and I'm both excited to finally be attending and nervous because there's still a pandemic going on. I don't have much information about my GRL schedule yet, but I will be signing books at the book signing on Saturday. I'll have some books with me to sell, but you can also preorder signed books using this form and pick them up from me at the signing. I hope to see you at GRL!

​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.
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​I'm sharing a few snippets from The Scholar's Heart this month because it has a book anniversary on the 13th. The Scholar's Heart is an estranged friends to lovers romance. Etan is a scholar and cousin to the Crown Prince of Tournai, and Tristan is the oldest son of a prominent merchant family (the older brother of Maxen from last month's snippets from The Merchant's Love). Etan and Tristan were close friends, and Etan had fallen for Tristan, but Tristan broke his heart when he chose to marry the person his father chose for him. This is probably the angstiest thing I've ever written, but they do manage to find their way to each other eventually. The snippet I'm sharing today is Etan and Tristan's first kiss, which happens in the middle of an argument.
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You can find more about The Scholar's Heart here. And don't forget that The Scholar's Heart and my other books are 50% off this month in the Smashwords sale, so it's a great time to read Etan and Tristan's story. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

I had lots of plans for my Pride Month reading, and then my brain decided not to cooperate. Ugh. It's been so frustrating the last couple of years when this happens—all I want to do is get lost in a book (and I have so many waiting for me!) and it just doesn't work. I did get a little reading done, though most of it wasn't the books I planned to read.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh: I wasn't sure if I was in the mood for this book (and I hadn't planned to read it in June) when my library hold on the audiobook came in. But, library holds must be read, of course, so I dove in on my morning walks. And this ended up being a wonderful listen. A retelling of a Korean tale, this story gives us a village that sacrifices a young woman every year, throwing her into the sea to be the Sea God's bride in the hope the god will stop the storms destroying the village. Mina isn't supposed to be the bride that year, but she jumps into the sea in the place of the woman her brother loves. She's carried away to the spirit world and the Sea God's city, where things are not as she might have imagined and the Sea God needs saving. The world building is lovely, and the story is a beautiful combination of adventure, romance, and fantasy with a focus on family (blood and chosen) and the power of storytelling.

Kinship and Kindness by Kara Jorgensen: This historical paranormal has been on my kindle for far too long. especially considering how much I ended up enjoying it! Fox shifter and transgender man Bennett has traveled to Louisiana at the beginning of a gathering of werewolves to see their leader and plead his case that a union for non-wolf shifters is needed for their protection. Only he finds that the man is away and his son Theo is standing in for his father. Theo doesn't feel he can fill his father's shoes because of his epilepsy, but he'll do anything he can to protect his family and those depending on them. (He also stress-bakes, which makes him instantly relatable to me.) I loved Bennett and Theo, and Bennett's fox who has his own fun personality. The relationship that developed between them was lovely. 

The Botanist's Apprentice by Adren Powell: This novella is quick, easy read. Set in an alternate 1920s where magic seems to be the norm (I say seems to be because there isn't a ton of world building in this short), the story introduces us to Eli who has graduated college and comes to a reclusive botanist in search of an apprenticeship. The romance between the two is sweet—there's an age gap and some mutual pining and ultimately sex pollen (sort of) leading to a steamy encounter. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series and learning more about the world.

Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly: Love & Other Disasters was my only contemporary romance read last month. The premise—two competitors on an amateur cooking competition show falling for each other—sounded fun, and it was, though I had some moments of acute secondhand embarrassment at the beginning that almost had me putting the book down a couple of times! Recently divorced from the guy she'd been with since high school, Dahlia quits her job (though she can't afford to) to travel across the country to be on the show and figure out who she is and what she wants. Convinced while drunk by their twin sister to try out for the show, London is the first openly nonbinary contestant on, and they're determined to do their best and prove haters wrong. The book is fun and adorable and charming, as is the relationship between London and Dahlia. The relationship forms the bulk of the story. Issues with London's dad not accepting who they are and a bigoted competitor on the show are there in the background, but the focus is on London and Dahlia. (And there were definitely a few times this book made me want to cook/bake.)

​What have you read and loved lately?

​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

​I'm sharing a few snippets from The Scholar's Heart this month because it has a book anniversary on the 13th. The Scholar's Heart is an estranged friends to lovers romance. Etan is a scholar and cousin to the Crown Prince of Tournai, and Tristan is the oldest son of a prominent merchant family (the older brother of Maxen from last month's snippets from The Merchant's Love). Etan and Tristan were close friends, and Etan had fallen for Tristan, but Tristan broke his heart when he chose to marry the person his father chose for him. This is probably the angstiest thing I've ever written, but they do manage to find their way to each other eventually. This snippet is the very beginning of the book, before things come crashing down.

​“There you are!”

​Tristan’s musical voice made the simple sentence something special, or perhaps Etan’s feelings made it seem so. Etan smiled as he looked up from his book, a glow of warmth and welcome lighting him up inside.

Tristan strode into the small room Etan had claimed for his own in the palace’s labyrinthine library. He had a desk in the university library as well, but these days, out of necessity and preference both, he conducted most of his work in this cozy little room. Obscure history books filled the shelves lining the walls. The table in the center of the room held Etan’s notes on his studies and projects, all neatly organized so he could find anything he wanted quickly. But this morning he slouched on the comfortable couch instead, book propped in his lap.

He sat there, book forgotten as he watched Tristan, the morning sun streaming in through the window and glinting off Tristan’s bright gold hair. Tristan seemed to bring the sunshine into the room with him, brightening what had been an ordinary morning until that moment.

You can find out more about The Scholar's Heart here. And, if you want to give it a try, it's 50% off at Smashwords this month, along with my other books. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well.

If you missed NineStar Press's Pride Month sale, you're in luck--the big Smashwords Summer/Winter sale started today, and all of my books (and lots of others) are 50% off there through July. Go grab something to new to read!

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I decided to share a few snippets from The Merchant's Love this month because it's four year book birthday is June 18th. I always call this book a warm hug in book form because that's how it's always felt to me (and what I needed when I was writing it). It's the story of Faelen, a demisexual bookish royal, falling in love over books and baked goods with Maxen, a bisexual merchant who is utterly besotted with him from the start. There's also some family drama and a bit of magic gone wrong. Here's another moment between Faelen and Maxen to finish out the month.

​When Maxen got to the bedchamber, he kicked the door shut behind him—the servants may have witnessed his playfulness, but they would see no more—and carried Faelen to the bed. Maxen tossed him down among the still mussed blankets. Faelen laughed, his cheeks flushing a delicate pink, his eyes dancing with mirth. Maxen went still and just looked at him, marveling that someone so beautiful inside and out wanted him—was, perhaps, his. He was beginning to realize how completely he belonged to Faelen.

​He wouldn’t think about how terrifying that was.

“Maxen?”

“I just needed to look at you for a moment.” He lowered himself to the bed over Faelen, feeling Faelen’s arms come up to hold him, his legs lift to cradle him. “You take my breath away.”

You can find more about The Merchant's Love here. And don't forget that The Merchant's Love and my other books are 40% off at NineStar Press through the end of June. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.

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​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

I decided to share a few snippets from The Merchant's Love this month because it's four year book birthday is June 18th. I always call this book a warm hug in book form because that's how it's always felt to me (and what I needed when I was writing it). It's the story of Faelen, a demisexual bookish royal, falling in love over books and baked goods with Maxen, a bisexual merchant who is utterly besotted with him from the start. There's also some family drama and a bit of magic gone wrong. I've skipped ahead quite a bit this week. I did some baking in honor of Faelen and Maxen's anniversary and thought this snippet the perfect one to go with the cinnamon rolls I made. (I went long again—I'm sorry! I promise I'll stick to the line requirements next week!)

You can find more about The Merchant's Love here. And don't forget The Merchant's Love and my other books are 40% off in ebook at NineStar Press this month. Thanks for reading today and I hope you're staying safe and well.