Winter Chill - Aria Grace Ok for starters I had some issues with the begining of this story. I get the whole "gay4U" premise. But let's face it any guy who allows another guy to climb into bed with him while he is JOing to any kind of porn has got to be either gay or at the very least bisexual. I mean even with the whole "freezing to death" scenario he would of at least asked Andrew to wait till after he came or stopped JOing before Andrew climbed into bed with him. Now that I've said that, once past that point I loved this book. Their whole relationship totally worked from the start, mainly due to the fact that they were best friend already. I thought the whole "Stepmother" storyline was creepy as heck. Personally rather than promoting this as "Gay4U" I think it should have been touted as a "Best Friends 2 Lovers" story. That said the writing for this was awesome, I loved both of the main characters as well. Interestingly, I found their respective families reactions quite believable since it is much more likely to happen that way today than back when I told mine. I really felt like Andrew and Daniel's relationship by the end was exactly what it should have been and totally believeable. Over all I really like this story and definitley will be reading more of these authors works.

Toby and Dalton - Aria Grace,Chris McHar... 1.5 stars

If you have never read mpreg and want to try, I suggest this novel not be your first one into the subgenre. Please note that there are a lot of spoilers in this review. I usually love mpreg novels and this one has a lot of potential to be an amazing novel but it just didn’t work for me.

As it is now, it was really confusing because the timeline of the story is vague and other lacking details caused further confusion thus prevented this from being an outstanding mpreg [or even non-mpreg] novel. It was like a well written mix of different disjointed arcs and the storyline tying all the awesome ideas together was forgotten so the reader is just lost and trying to figure what the world is going on with the story. This could be an amazing mpreg novel with a great plot if the storyline and events were more cohesive and elaborated.

In the beginning, we find out Toby is a bobcat shifter and an omega, but what is Dalton? It seemed lacking when Dalton suddenly develops erectile issues and then goes into Truly Yours claiming he’s ready to end his membership because of this medical condition. This could’ve been better utilized as his lack of emotional involvement with his dates is impacting his ability to maintain an erection and maybe it was a pivotal moment in his life and sign something needs to change so ergo enter Toby.

They fall into bed on the first date which is somewhat in line with the whole mates-cannot-resist-each-other and the authors does a great job summarizing them growing closer over several dates. I would’ve liked to read more about what they did for a living, if they were part of the same pack or different pack as these would’ve been vital facts to help carry us through the suspense portion of suddenly finding out about omega shifters being murdered. Were these omega shifters part of the same pack? Were they all cat shifters? A little clarity would’ve made it a lot easier to figure out where the story was taking us.

Due to a sudden mention of omegas being murdered, Toby, Dalton and his best friend try to attend a pack meeting and Toby and his best friend are sent away. How are the other omegas being protected? We find out randomly at this point that his best friend either works in the tech field or as a hacker – regardless he has enough skills to be a hacker. I feel like random vital facts are randomly dropped throughout the novel and it’s a struggle to enjoy the novel for all its surprisingly twists and revelations.

Toby get impatient and decides to come back after an unspecified amount of time with a slight baby bum and nausea that conveniently occurs when he is back with Dalton. Upon his return, we read about being under attack by panthers. We find out that omegas can only get impregnated if they are a true mate coupling. How can we get to nearly the halfway point and our couple didn’t even have an inkling they could be mates, nor have the readers learned anything to make them love these two main characters!?

They are back together – yay. Our story isn’t much of a story if they aren’t together... Again, an indeterminate amount of time passes and we read about Dalton withholding sex for fear of hurting Toby and their baby. HOW MUCH TIME has passed since we found out about the panthers!? How much time has passed since Toby returned to Dalton? Why did the panthers attack? The continuation of panthers’ possible attack could be the cohesion into a sequel about his best friend, Jason and his love interest. This withholding of sex situation obviously resolves itself happily.
Chapter 15 is the ONLY chapter in which an amount of time is mentioned – 2 month later and Toby and Dalton has moved to “the compound”. What is the compound? We readers of shifter novels clearly know what a compound could be, but it is very hard to understand without any prior mention of Toby and Dalton being part of the same pack, without any mention of what type of shifter Dalton shifts into, without any mention of what types of shifters the organization Truly Yours caters to. Based on this sudden mention of their compound, a reader can draw the illogical conclusion that Truly Yours caters ONLY to one shifter pack and the shifter pack is huge as neither Toby nor Dalton have ever met, and the compound is like a freaking prison since it was never mentioned before. We do find out that Dalton works with wood because he is working on building the bassinet.

Another thing that bothered me was that the authors wrote “Toby has been so sweet and docile since becoming pregnant.” They slept together on day one. Toby filled out his Truly Yours profile as “passive.” I felt that their sudden mention of his personality like he is usually more assertive was unfounded during his aggressive kneading of dough scene – even if it was supposedly from Dalton’s perspective because hello! They slept together and possibility conceived form their first time. There is NO basis for this sentence and totally ruined an otherwise good scene for me. The scene was awesome but the mention of his sweet docile personality as if it is an effect of his pregnancy was contradicted by their Truly Yours agency sign up scene where Toby didn’t have a clue but to describe himself as “passive”. There were no other scenes endearing us to Toby having an assertive personality outside of “pregnancy hormones.” This seriously could be such an awesome story, but unbelievable how disjointed the plot was.

The ending probably gave the most descriptive mpreg C-section delivery I’ve ever read. Most times the childbirth scene is more about the emotions and not about the room details/ setting up for the surgery. Baby Stella is born and thankfully I no longer have to pull my hair out trying to understand the special plot behind boy meet boy, boy gets pregnant, boy gives birth – special plot and character elaboration/development which would make readers come back for Truly Yours 2, or Truly Yours 3, etc.

A free copy was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

When I'm Lost - Aria Grace A free copy of this title was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

At the start of the book readers meet Michael (Mike) who is nervously pacing outside someone's house getting up the nerves to finally knock on the door so he can make an apology to the last person on his list. Finally working up the courage he does manage to make amends and finds help in the least likely place.

Sebastian (Seb) arrives home to find his roommate and stranger in his kitchen. He knows all about Mike and how he's wronged his roommate, Jamie. But seeing Jamie has forgiven Mike, Seb doesn't try to hold a grudge.

The two are attracted to each other at first sight but don't immediately get together. I liked that some trust was built before they actually got intimate. The two of them had their own issues and it was interesting to see the solutions they found for themselves.

The abuse of Seb's ex with his new beau wasn't dealt with in this story and that kind of bugged me. Kyle really seemed like he needed the help but was just too messed up to ask for it. The ending felt pretty abrupt to me. I turned the page expecting more but ended up with the a list of the author's backlist and the upcoming release of Kyle's story.

The really like the cover and I could stare at it all day.

- 3 Stars -

This was a really cute freebie about two young guys still trying to find themselves. And what do you know? They also stumble over each other and with each other during the process.

I liked it, especially because both MCs were unique, but so adorable. I did struggle a little with the high intensity of their emotions - good and bad - after only a couple of days. But that happens to me quote often when I read somewhat ambitious short stories. It was still a good interpretation of a great prompt and I really enjoyed it.

Meh...


This one wasn't really for me. I'm not a fan of present tense, and while I don't despise it, it made for some akward sentences, phrases and dialogue here. Couldn't really get into it.

The beginning of the story however, was very promising. I liked both Shane and Alex. The blossoming relationship was nice to watch and kept me going. The end, however, was sooo not my thing. The whole past drama seemed forced and artifical to me. I didn't buy the "original" drama in the first place, because all I could think, was: "Really?! Seriously? What the heck?! No!". Something along that line kept playing in my head the whole time right until the end and made it impossible for me to enjoy it. The present drama was even more surreal to me. Absolutely not my thing.

Two stars for the beginning, because that was nice - but all the rest was absolutely not for me.