Arctic Heat (Frozen Hearts, #3) [Owen & Quill] by Annabeth Albert

I'll admit it took me awhile to get into this one. While Owen and Quill were simply adorable together, it was still a slow burn and even before that, a slow friendship buildup. Owen might be the friendliest guy who can get along with right around anyone, yet it still took him a while to make Quill his friend as Quill was doing his best NOT to allow that to happen...

Owen Han is making it happen. Life, bucket list, living the life he SHOULD have been living. Enough of making OTHER people happy. It's time to work on his own happiness. This realization didn't come sipping a glass of wine watching the sunset in a white sand beach, it came after he overcame cancer. Which is what he is doing in Alaska volunteering for the winter. Another line in his bucket list to make his life HIS OWN.

Waiting for Clark by Annabeth Albert

Fun novella! Loved both Clark and Bryce. I have my favorite turfs for sure - friends to lovers, slow burn and if I can get an epic love story spanning years (even decades if I'm lucky) even better! In a way I got all three in this one even if it was short. Bryce and Clark met in college, spend a few years together as best friends before Clark got a scholarship and left Bryce behind. It's not like Bryce could have gone with him since his father was ill ad needed him. Besides, Clark would have never asked Bryce to come or make a long distance relationship. Though they were close, neither of them was brave enough to admit - 'I love you', not even a 'please don't go'.

Bryce Weyland is in a good place. He owns a huge house where his misplaced friends sometimes live, a new business which starts to bring profit. Looking around considering all he has, he SHOULD be happy but truth be told he is quite miserable even if he won't admit it. His life might be eventful but at the end of the day he feels alone.

Fated Hearts (Shadow Bound #1) [Zio & Devan] by Garrett Leigh

OUTSTANDING. Sometimes giving a book ONLY 5 stars feels insufficient. I LOVED this book. Literally and actually didn't put it down - read it cover to back - in one sitting. While this was the story of Zio and Devan it was also the story of the Northern Wolf Pack of England. Trying to defend themselves from the Southern Wolf packs who put it their life task for the past 100 years to eradicate them. Being one clan, and quite small it hasn't been easy and now that Emma, their only healer, is dead their only hope lies in asking Dash - the alpha of the "Shadow Bound" an ultra strong shifter clan for help. 

The help comes in the form of Devan a strong Healer who made it his life task to "Do no harm. Give life not death". Sounds pretty noble, and it is, but it's not easy when everything and everyone around him is fighting for their lives. Coming from a peaceful place, being thrust into this conflict and even more than that to a pack who isn't sure wants him there (being a different species, even if still a shifter) isn't easy as well. That's without mentioning Zio, the guy he spent maybe 5 minutes - too long - in a club just before arriving on the pack's grounds.

The Prince and His Bedeviled Bodyguard (Paranormal Princes #1) [Owin & Grimmwolf] by Charlie Cochet

I honestly don't know what to do with this novella. It started out BEAUTIFULLY with King Alarick and his adviser Lord Jean Eldrich - best friends who are BOUND to be lovers but the story wasn't about THEM it was about Price Owin of the Ocelot Shifters and Grimmwolf of the Grimm Wolves pack. While Grim usually downplays his heritage he is pretty up there in the food chain as well as the monarchy (if it can be called this way) even though he is "merely" Price Owin's "bodyguard" though I'm not sure what he needs body-guarding from (himself?)

It's time Prince Owin shows his worth in a quest. Failing means loosing his crown, but he isn't worried, he is sure he can get what he wants. After all he is a prince, others should bow down to him and do his bidding. Including or mostly Grimm. He can't stand him, can't stay away from him and generally doesn't know what to do with him. Grimm just stand there on the side smiling because he has figured Owin a LONG time ago and instead of being offended he is simply AMUSED (which annoys Owin even more).

Happy for You (Love and Family #3) [Mort & Felix] by Anyta Sunday

It's my fault I'm dead tired or maybe it's Anyta's? I just COULD NOT and WOULD NOT put this book down. I did in the end, well, not in the VERY end, I just MADE myself go to sleep then woke up early to finish it. Hence - tired, but mostly stupidly HAPPY FOR myself and naturally Felix and Mort. ~sigh~ I wasn't ready for this one. When it started I didn't know where it was going -  what we got was a heart ache, heart felt story. The slow building of the romance but first the re-building of a friendship that was meant to be so much more.

We've already met Mort Campbell in the previous installments but while he seemed like a great guy - and he is! Finally getting his story as well as him getting his HEA was a treat. Mort didn't have a "real" family. Only a father who ignored him, so now that his father is gone he is truly on his own especially since his "adopted" family is out of the picture as well. It was his fault for leaving but he seemingly had a good reason. Or so it seemed at the time..

A year has gone by and Mort truly misses the Rochester family. His ex-best-friend Michael (he used to be able to fondly call Roch), Tiffany the teenager and the little twins April and May, their mother Dolores who used to be like a mother to him, but mostly he misses Felix though he probably shouldn't think about how he makes him feel.. He shouldn't.. But he's back now and he's going to make amends with everyone in this family. They meant and still mean so much to him. No matter what happened he cannot leave them again. He's here to stay.

nest by Anyta Sunday

Starting this book with a narration of a 6 years old have been, well, DIFFERENT. It made me question Anyta for a brief moment there. The pages continued with a growing Lenny from the little kid being tormented by his bigger sister Carolyn and cousin Julian to a talented teen-aged boy in love with the wrong person. Though it was strange at first, this kind of perspective, at times immature and silly, other times mature and tormented, yet in the end it gave this story a genuine feeling. I KNOW a lot of people aren't even going to give this one a try because Lenny and Julian ARE in fact cousins but put your prejudice aside and LISTEN to Lenny. I believed him and accepted him, I rooted for him even if social perception calls it wrong.

I think the best advise (as always) comes from Oma: "These two boys are happy together and they have been in love for a long time. There is no changing that. No changing them. The only thing that can change here is your attitude".

Lenny Krause is (almost) our sole POV in this one. We go with him from early childhood till hid mid twenties, his struggles with his sexuality, love interest but also being raised by his loving (and a bit crazy) grandmother (Oma) after both his parents were killed. We get to know his sister Carolyn and even though she can have her wicked temper she is a good sister. His best friend Ben and of course his cousin Julian Thomas (and his HIGHLY disapproving mother). We also get to know a few more people in Waldau and with every year that passes I felt more connected to the people of this small town and mostly to Lenny.

Shrewd Angel (The Christmas Angel #6) [Pax & Cliff] by Anyta Sunday

How are you with slow burn? If you're like me and you LOVE IT, this book, YEAH THIS BOOK. There isn't even a real "romance" in this book until somewhere around the middle, it's just us getting to know Pax and Cliff but also Bianca (Cliff's sister), Luca (Pax's roommate) and Henry (the neighbor on the other side). This book is about the romance but for me it's more about friendship. TRUE friendship and how it changes everything in the inside. You don't have to hang out with your friends all the time, but knowing they will be THERE when you need them is what truly allows you not to feel alone even when you are (at the moment).

Patrick "Pax" Polo is on a mission! He's going to make his band-mates take him back! The fallout he had with Blake won't change that. The others are his friends, they have been together for many years, they just need a little bit of time to figure some things out.. So in the meanwhile he finds a place to stay with the young Luca who doesn't have a care in the world, except for the beautiful teenager next door he is too shy to talk to (even if her brother wouldn't slay him for trying..). Pax decides to help him as well as Henry (who lives in the other side of Bianca and Cliff's house) - both pining over the beautiful sweet Bianca. Especially when Henry offers to help him out get an AMAZING gig for the band - if only he would distract Cliff...

Delay, Don't Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle by Gin Stephens

I went through this book in a BREEZE. Started this morning and kept listening to it all day. I already knew I'm going to enjoy listening to Gin herself reading this book to me as I LOVE listening to her on "The Intermittent Fasting Podcast" which I'm totally HOOKED on. I don't even know how I got to it, or why I looked for intermittent fasting in the first place, though I know for sure it had to do with IF (that's Intermittent Fasting) having many gut health benefits which is my THING the past year.

So I've started listening to the IF Podcast, learned about Gin (and her Co-Host Melanie Avalon) then continued to Gin's own podcast "Intermittent Fasting Stories" which I absolutely LOVE, so I KNEW it was about time I read her book. As so many people consider "The Obesity Code" as some sort of a "bible" for the IF lifestyle I started with it, but Gin's book was destined to be next.

The IF Podcast taught me SO MUCH, most of what I know about IF and how to implement it into my life. I've listened to about 100 episodes in less than two months (I'm actually really bummed getting just an hour a week now that I caught on..) but getting this book was certainly a TREAT as it covers almost ANYTHING and EVERYTHING anyone needs to know about actually DOING Intermittent Fasting.
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