Series: The MacGregors: Highland Heirs, #7
Historical Romance
Grade: A

Whenever I get a hankering for a beautifully written historical romance, I look no further than Paula Quinn. She just has a knack for creating these beautiful worlds with rich characters all against the picturesque Scottish highlands, I’m always, already mid swoon as soon as I crack (click?) it open.  Book 7 is about Lachlin Mackenzie, a (scarred!! swoon level +1000) widower and father to a wife and daughter who were killed- or so he thought.  He skulks about his castle, uninterested in life beyond providing for his clan and existing. However, suspicions that his beloved daughter yet lives are stoked when he receives word of a proposition by an unsavory lord, to kidnap a lass and deliver her to his clutches.  Lachlin is  skeptical and does not feel right about the task, but he is a desperate man and if kidnapping a woman he doesn’t know and delivering her to a man he doesn’t trust will get him closer to his child, he is willing to take up the dark deed.  The dark and dangerous deed because who but a mad, desperate man would dare abduct a beloved daughter of the clan McGregor!  Driven as he is, Lachlin forges ahead, set on his course- until he actually meets the young woman- and can’t take his eyes off her or convince himself that trading her life for that of his child is what he has to do.  Needless to say, said lass, Allie MacGregor concurs and is just as determined to escape to the safety of her fierce family as Lachlin is to be reunited with his child.  Adversaries, to cohorts and partners to lovers, Lachlin and Allie have a journey that is equal parts tantalizingly sexy (the tension! the tension!!) and exciting adventure. This was one of the most fun of McGregor novels to delve into. The plot tugged at your heart-strings, I loved watching Lachlin and Allie match wits, catch one another unawares and ultimately HEA so freaking hard! Laird of the Black Isle is a gem!

Nasty by Callie Hart
Series: Dirty Nasty Freaks, #2
Contemporary Romance
Grade: B+

Nasty is the second novel in Callie Hart’s Dirty, Nasty Freaks series and it is one. wild. ride. Book one, Dirty, introduced us to Fix and Sera, he a hot-as-hell hit man, she an unlikely hellion on wheels with the claws and grit to match. They are thrown together by happenstance (or so Sera thinks) and their chemistry is undeniable. He has secrets, she has secrets. He’s dangerous, she’s a survivor and before it’s all over, they would both be laid bare and forced to reconcile what they thought with what they now know and boy are they both in for some pretty significant challenges to their core beliefs.  Fix has lived his life in transactions for so long, he can’t help but plot and plan a way out for them both.  Only, love is blinding and a beat that can kick self-preservations ass any day of the week.  Sera is both his linchpin and his grenade pin.  Can a hit man really fall in love, or is it just the sex? Can Sera trust Fix not to (literally) stab her in the back? Nasty is full of uncertainty and adventure and true to Callie Hart’s penchant for the WTF, Nasty ends in true, splashy OMG fashion.  If you are looking for a fun, dirty, thrilling read and don’t mind a cliffie, check. this. out. But it shouldn’t be a stand alone, give Dirty a read first for the proper pearl clutching foundation. Seriously folks, I read it with my heart in my throat! Both are free on Kindle Unlimited.

One Night to be His
Novella
Contemporary Romance
Grade: C

This little vignette, features “in love/lust with your sibling’s friend” trope, in this case, Stella has the hots for her brothers best friend, Aiden and wants him to take her virginity- only she is only sixteen and too young for Aiden to help her pop anything other than bubble wrap. Aiden throws her a bone and strikes a bargain with her, if she remains a good girl, he will help divest Stella of her virginity when she turns a non pervy nineteen. He can’t be sure she’ll do it, but she surprises him – she’s approaching nineteen, still a virgin and Stella wants her pound of flesh! If you don’t take this novella too seriously, it’s enjoyable enough as a short virgin-fantasyish story. If you take it too seriously, it could probably be the taboo novella that launched a thousand think pieces. I didn’t look too closely at their age difference and the blink and you missed the insta-hook up.  Aiden was Mr. Successful with a control streak and Stella craved being submissive to  him.  Not exactly BDSM, but there are brief elements of Aiden giving commands/demands.  There isn’t much here, no plot to speak of, but what is here is okay…if you squint a little.