Happy Monday!  I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince you or myself – but my coffee is helping, a lot! lol

A quiet week on the old home front.  The weekend brought lots of house cleaning and shopping for clothes for my oldest.  That child is growing by leaps and bounds and her clothes can’t keep up!  I’ve been trying to just buy her clothes little by little because she’s growing out of them so fast but this time I think I got her enough to make it through summer.  Fingers crossed. lol

Other than that not much going on so I’ll get down to what I read last week:

First up was Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh.  This one doesn’t come out until July 6 so I was extremely happy to be able to read it early for The Book Binge.  It was another great book in the Psy/Changeling series.  This book is the story of cop Max Shannon (Talin’s human friend) and Sophia Russo – a Justice Psy and I really, really  liked it!  I’ll let you know when my review posts. 🙂  4.5 out of 5

The One That Got Away by Rhianne Aile and Madeleine Urban was the book that was chosen for my June Pick-It For Me Challenge on the m/m group on Goodreads.  I read reviews on this one but just hadn’t gotten around to buying it so I’m glad I was “forced” to do it.  🙂  This was the story of David who broke his shoulder and his best friend Trace who moves in to take care of him.  David is gay, Trace is not.  David hadn’t had any sexual thoughts about Trace until they’re basically living together and then the lascivious thoughts begin.  Trace isn’t necessarily opposed to David but he’s not jumping in with both feet.  This was a great book in that the slow, sensual seduction and the build up of what was to come was so engaging.  I loved that David didn’t push Trace and that they deeply considered their friendship before doing anything.  A very good read. 4 out of 5

Next up was Open Season by Linda Howard.  This was my DIK Reading Challenge book for June and it was a good one.  You can read my review here. 4 out of 5

After that I read Obsessed by KZ Snow.  This is book 3 in the Jackson Spey – Adin Swift story arc and I decided to start with this one because it’s really where the m/m story begins.  The first two books, I think (please correct me if I’m wrong), cover Adin’s relationship with Celia.  This was an odd choice of a book for me because I have issues with infidelity and Adin being in a relationship with Celia but then beginning a relationship with Jackson should have hit all of my hot buttons…but it didn’t.  I think it was because of two reasons A) the two men had truly been in love with each other for about 10 years and B) Celia gave her unmitigated approval of the relationship.  I very much enjoyed seeing the two men expressing their feelings for each other and can’t wait to see what happens next in their relationship.  4 out of 5

I tried to read a Silhouette Nocture called Alpha Wolf by Linda O. Johnston for my Tracy’s TBR Challenge read.  The premise of the book – a vet finding a wounded animal and then his owner comes to get him – the owner, unbeknownst to the vet is a shapeshifter was a good one and one that caught my attention.  Unfortunately, I tried to read the whole thing but I just couldn’t get into it.  The vet was annoying me with the – this man scares me, but he’s hot so it’s all ok thing. Ug.  Couldn’t get past the first 100 pages. DNF

Next was Gemini: The Wicked Things by Pepper Espinoza (Boys of the Zodiac series).  I probably wouldn’t have found this one on my own but read a Tuesday Teaser that Tam did and the talking horse caught my eye! lol  The story follows Travis who has moved in with his mother to help her out because she’s dealing with dementia.  He meets a huge black dog that ends up being the ghost/soul of a long dead legend who can shapeshift.  John, the dog and legend, makes him see that he’s not exactly who he thinks he is and that his mother’s dementia is being caused by an evil witch.  Only Travis can save them.  Although I’m not a huge fan of witch stories I liked this one.  There was just enough of a mix of oddity, family and love that I liked it.   3.5 out of 5

The last book for the week was One Dance With A Duke by Tessa Dare.  This is book one in her new Stud Club trilogy and it was a good one.  Amelia is 26 and pretty much a wallflower.  She’s taken care of her family for years and they mean everything to her.  When she finds out that the man that the ton has dubbed The Duke of Midnight has taken her poor brother, Jack, for four hundred pounds when they have not a penny to spare, she’s more than pissed.  When the Duke shows up for his midnight dance she butts in and dances with him to give him a piece of her mind and try to make him forgive the debt.  This begins a relationship that is both loving and heartbreaking. I very much enjoyed seeing Amelia and Spencer verbally sparring.  They did it so well.  Now I can’t say I agreed with how Amelia handled things at the end of the book (and no, I’m not telling you what happened, that would spoil it) but overall I really liked the book and am going to buy book 2 in the trilogy which came out on the 22nd. 4.5 out of 5

Oh and if you haven’t seen it already, the trailer that Tessa made for this trilogy is fabulous!  You can watch it by clicking on the link to her site.

My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week: