The Charmer by Autumn Dawn

Title: The Charmer
Author: Autumn Dawn
Series: #1 In the Dark Lands Series       
Age Group: Mature Teens- Adults
Rating: 7.5
Couple: M/F

 

Synopsis: A woman named Jasmine goes to find her friend, Wiley, in the woods and runs in to a group of people that have taken Wiley and insist on bringing Jasmine to her.  Jasmine meets the exciting Keilor.  While being frightened out of her mind as she is led to a new world though a thin veil, she is ultimately intrigued as to what is going on.  After it is made clear to her that she will not be able to go home, she tries to find a place for her in the new world and someone to share her life with.  Both are not so far away.

 

Review: Now, I know that it seems that I spoiled something in the synopsis...  but I didn't.  SO much happens in this book, I felt like I had read the entire story and I was only on page 70.  By the end of the book I was like "What else could go wrong?!" While a great, great story and character and conflict I felt exhausted by the end of book.  Which is not my favorite way to end a book.  However, Keilor is an amazing hero.  Jasmine makes a frustrating but true to her own heart heroine while Wiley makes for a great best friend.  Even if things are not discussed in full detail because "being a friend for so long was a pain" that it was not needed made things difficult.  I am pleased with this book as a whole.  Details could have made it better but still an enjoyable read.

 

Cautions: Not a ton of things to be cautious of.  There was a kidnapping and drugs that would force a person to become aroused but there was never a discussion of rape.  They actually abhor it in the book for a very good reason that they explain. But other than that, a safe read.  I recommended it for mature teens simply because there is a lot of discussion of sex in the novel.  It is not very explicit but it is there and frequent.

 

Series: So I looked up this book online... and low and behold.  There is a series all about the Dark Lands.  While reading the description of the other books, I was decided to find out that it continued the story of the other secondary characters so that way they all have the HEA they deserve.

 

HEA: As of the end of the book, they had a hea.  There was no more attempts on her life, the babies were born healthy.  It was great.  However, the author left the reader with a big doubt on whether or not all of the people that  were involved with the plot were caught.  Maybe she addresses this in the continuation books, but this is where she left off The Charmer.

Time to Do by Kim Dare

  

Title: Time to Do
Author: Kim Dare
Series: Book #3 Perfect Timing (Each book is a stand alone)
Age Group: Mature Adults
Rating: 8
Couple: M/M



WHOLE ENTRY RIDDLED WITH SPOILERS.  BEWARE.

Synopsis: Best friends are attempting to clean their dorm room when Brennan stumbles across a list of things To Do Rigby has made.  Something on the list To Do is have sex with the man.  While Brennan is secretly in love with Rigby, he is shocked that Rigby has never mentioned this to him.  After confronting Rigby on the list, the friends decide that they must cross the things off the list in order to get things back to the way they were.  Things go haywire.  People get hurt.  True feelings are revealed. 

Review: I enjoyed the concept of the book in all honesty.  That's what got me to read it.  However, making it come to life was a little bit of a stretch for me. Yes, I got that Brennan always loved Rigby.  I get that Rigby has always wanted to make sure Brennan is ok.  But going to far as to have sex with him to make sure your friendship stays alive was something I don't think the author was able to accurately portray. 

All in all, this book is made up of great moments.  Finding the list.  Their first legit sexual encounter.  Brennan getting mad and telling Rigby exactly what he was thinking.  Their mutual confessions of love at the end.  These were all great moments with quite a few others in it that made it particularly enjoyable. 

Cautions: There is manlove in this book.  A lot of it.  If this is your thing, great! If not, stay away.

Series: As I mentioned above this is part of the Perfect Timing series.  Kim Dare has said that there will be 12 in all.  Each of the books seem to be a stand alone.  There is no reason to read them all in order or even all of them as each can be purchased separately.  Not all are M/M either.  There is a few M/F if that is more your thing.  I definitely reccommend this author if you love sexual encounters in your stories, be is heterosexual or homosexual.

HEA: I am almost satisfied with the way the author ended the book.  Mutual declarations of love were announced and there was talk of staying together forever.  But the list was never put away.  Rigby starts making a new list and says that if they ever run out of things to do on the list they would re evaluate their relationship.  After Brennan wants to know how long Rigby thinks that will take, Rigby says forever as he intends to keep adding to that list iondefinitely.  Ok.  Kinda cute.  But I just would have been happy for forever and left it at that.  Somehow.  The characters made it difficult to have that ending, so I am sure the author was only able to coax this out of them.  But I dunno.

Maybe the author was aware of this.  Recently she published a newsletter on her site that had an update on these characters.  After graduating they are still together and very much in love.  though Brennan still has the same doubts he had.  Rigby seems to know this and tells him reassuring things that seem to make Brennan happy and confident in their relationship. Which in turn makes Rigby happy.  I think something like this was what I was hoping for at the end of the book.