Elisa Rolle's Blog, page 139

Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Noble Heart by Jody Klaire

Noble Heart (The Above and Beyond Series Book 5)[image error]

"Fast paced action packed story that covers most of the genres. Awesome plot line and writing style. Page turner. Enjoyed the interactions between all of the characters in this story."

Some things are worth more than they appear. Aeron Lorelei finds herself thrust back undercover once more. This time it's to secure the freedom and safety of three generations of one family. Frei, Renee, and Aeron have to pull off their most difficult challenge yet. Infiltrating Frei's hostile past means maintaining a cover, protecting the POIs, and revealing the truth before it's concealed for good. Only then do they have a shot at ensuring the POI's freedom. All Aeron has to do is help save a family, stay true to her cover identity, wrestle the feelings of everyone around her, and wipe a family history from file . . . In other words, business as usual. True gold lies within noble hearts.


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Witchblood by Lissa Kasey

Witchblood: A Kitsune Chronicle Story (Kitsune Chronicles Book 1)[image error]

"This book was an engrossing read. Lisa Kasey has created a well-paced story with a carefully crafted plot and believable romance. The cast of characters are well fleshed out and I really liked the way the MC's emotional development grows throughout the story as they learn more about each other. I would love to read a sequel to this book with these characters."

What if you spent a year running from werewolves only to step into the path of an alpha who proclaims you're his fated mate?

Sebastian is an omega who has never even dreamed of finding his alpha. A fox raised among werewolves, Seb has spent his entire life fighting to survive, until Liam rescues him from a demon from his past.

As an alpha werewolf, Liam is everything Sebastian has spent the last year, and his entire life, avoiding. Except that when they are together everything makes sense, the stars align, and fated mates becomes Seb’s reality rather than fiction.

When Seb’s past catches up with them, he and Liam will need to accept the bond or die fighting the darkness that is determined to tear them apart.


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Ithani by J. Scott Coatsworth

Ithani (The Oberon Cycle Book 3)[image error]

"The world J. Scott Coatsworth has created for his characters to interact in is complex and vivid, so much so that I had to read the first 2 books to be able to fully understand Ithani. I was completely immersed in the customs, politics and different locations - superb world-building and a unique concept made this book a joy to read. The plot is intricate, a real page-turner with several surprises along the way. I am certainly looking forward to reading more from this author."

The Oberon Cycle: Book Three

Time is running out.

After saving the world twice, Xander, Jameson, and friends plunge headlong into a new crisis. The ithani—the aliens who broke the world—have reawakened from their hundred millennia-long slumber. When Xander and Jameson disappear in a flash, an already fractured world is thrown into chaos.

The ithani plans, laid a hundred thousand years before, are finally coming to pass, and they threaten all life on Erro. Venin and Alix go on a desperate search for their missing friend and find more than they bargained for. And Quince, Robin, and Jessa discover a secret as old as the skythane themselves.

Will alien technology, unexpected help from the distant past, destiny, and some good old-fashioned firepower be enough to defeat an enemy with the ability to split a world? The final battle of the epic science fiction adventure that began in Skythane will decide the fate of lander and skythane alike. And in the north, the ithani rise….


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Mine to Keep by Wendy Hudson

Mine to Keep[image error]

"Great read. Great writing. Great Characters. From the first page I was hooked. Ended a little quickly as I like a little more at the endpoint but can be easily passed over by the “ whole” story telling."

Erin Carter is alone. Plagued by childhood nightmares since the loss of her mother, she embarks on a journey to trace her father, hoping to find some semblance of family and put the darkness to rest. A tentative thread leads her to Hopetoun, in rural Scotland, and the welcoming Cornfield Castle. There she meets Abigail Miller, the castle chef, who quickly becomes her tour guide and search partner. Along with Abigail’s brother, George, they decipher village gossip from truth, fact from folklore, and offer Erin sanctuary within the castle walls. But when Erin’s nightmares start to close in, can she defeat them and learn to live again?


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Meant to be Me by Wendy Hudson

Meant to Be Me[image error]

"Well written suspenseful romantic page turning story. All of the characters are well written and intense. Highly recommended."

A compelling, slow-burning, romantic suspense that will keep you guessing right to the end.

Trying to find “The One” is never easy and engineer Darcy Harris is finding it tougher than most. It doesn’t help she’s also dealing with a shadowy stalker trying to make trouble for her. But Darcy’s determined not to let anyone ruin her life.
Her loyal best friend and boss, Anja Olsen, is stuck in a strange conundrum, forced to question who she has become and who she wants to be.
Meanwhile, stranger Eilidh Grey’s first instinct is to run fearlessly toward chaos and love. But this time she’s on a collision course with fate.

A chance meeting on a snowy bridge in Inverness, Scotland, binds all three women together, creating an unexpected, tangled, love triangle. What happens when it all unravels?


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Under The Microscope by Kim Finney

Under The Microscope[image error]

"The true mark of an historical novel of this calibre is that it always stays in 'character' and allows no 21st Century 'isms' to creep in. Nor does it reduce the complexity of the language and culture of the times into something more palatable to our politically and socially 'correct' mores. This story is a thing of beauty, and I enjoyed it immensely."

When the observer becomes the observed a woman stands to lose everything.

Ezzabell Chetwood the scholar, is invisible. To her society and in history she does not exist. Only Ezzabell the dutiful wife, is appreciable. Ignoring conventions is dangerous and following her heart has consequences. Is she willing to pay the price extracted for her transgressions?

It is England in 1677. Public writing is a male pursuit. Science is a pastime of the privileged and religion dominates the culture. The use of microscopes has begun to reveal previously unknown worlds of miniature life. Ambrose Chetwood, an eccentric natural philosopher and his wife – Ezzabell, a gifted botanical illustrator, are on the brink of important scientific discoveries. The crucial role Ezzabell plays in her husband’s work is a silent one and Ambrose is guilt-ridden at treating her as if a colleague. When Ambrose forces Ezzabell to take on a lady’s companion – Thomasin Dansby, his unwanted action impacts upon their lives in unanticipated ways. In a society that considers women to be without intellect and non-conformity can mark a woman as a witch, a naive Ezzabell is ultimately confronted with the ugly outcomes of the choices that she makes.

Thomasin, a younger woman with frivolous fancies, sees her removal from London to rural Chelsea an indignity. She has no desire to live amongst bumpkins, denied of easy access to the attractions of a burgeoning Restoration City. It does not take her long to connect with the village’s noble residents. But she finds something unexpected in Chelsea that although disorienting anchors her to the Chetwood Estate.


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart by R. Zamora Linmark

The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart[image error]

"I have never read a story written quite like The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart. Part haiku, part list, part prose, part conversations with Oscar Wilde... loved it. The setting and characters were natural, realistic, and the story was poignantly relatable. A work of art!"

Readers of Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End) and Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X) will pull out the tissues for this tender, quirky story of one seventeen-year-old boy's journey through first love and first heartbreak, guided by his personal hero, Oscar Wilde.

Words have always been more than enough for Ken Z, but when he meets Ran at the mall food court, everything changes. Beautiful, mysterious Ran opens the door to a number of firsts for Ken: first kiss, first love. But as quickly as he enters Ken's life, Ran disappears, and Ken Z is left wondering: Why love at all, if this is where it leads?

Letting it end there would be tragic. So, with the help of his best friends, the comfort of his haikus and lists, and even strange, surreal appearances by his hero, Oscar Wilde, Ken will find that love is worth more than the price of heartbreak.


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Too Damn Dumb to Think by Diana Wright and Bernie DeCoke

Too Damn Dumb to Think[image error]

"I loved this book. As a memoir it managed to gracefully combine the components of creative non-fiction with the structure of plot, making it a inspiring and pleasurable read without compromising the factual elements themselves. These authors managed to take a segment of a life, identifying the story within and staying true to that story."

Just a tiny flap of pig tissue, but such an influence in Diana’s life. She began by sewing the tissue into heart valves, moved on to engineering a new concept modifying the orifice of the valve, and finally founded a medical device manufacturing company. Her childhood on a farm, with its exposure to incessant hard work and the pain of childhood sexual abuse, instilled in her the strength and determination necessary to conquer a mystifying and debilitating illness, her husband’s attempt to take over her company, and her desires so forceful they pose threats to her very identity. Join Diana as she strives to maintain her audacious grasp on life and learns that wallowing in the mud may be necessary for a time, but staying there is not allowed.


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Who'd Have Thought by G. Benson

Who'd Have Thought[image error]

"Who'd Have Thought was a very smooth read, with characters who I easily came to care about."

Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs to get married fast and is tightlipped as to why. And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Pérez isn’t about to demand answers.
The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden’s going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they’re madly in love and that racing down the aisle together is all they’ve ever wanted. What could possibly go wrong?


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Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Keeping House by Jeanne G’Fellers

Keeping House (Appalachian Eleementals)[image error]

"Darker and bigger than the first book, this is perhaps an even more significant modern American queer fantasy about family, spirit, magic, and connections. Memories have a huge role to play here, with how/if/when we explore them having the potential to shape entire lives. I loved what G'Fellers did with the characters here, providing not only more depth but more context, allowing us to understand them and see some of them in an entirely different light."

Centenary Rhodes is caught in a deal she didn't make. Thanks to her eternal lover, Stowne's, quick thinking, she'll live forever, but there's a hitch. Cent's now fey, and three months out of the year she'll live on the other side of Embreeville Mountain among the Hunter Fey, serving their king, Dane Gow.

As Cent begins wading through the anachronisms that come with being a Hunter, she learns that nothing is what it initially seems. Cent shares several past lives with Dane, who wants her back, and Stowne's lied to Cent so many times that she's having doubts about their marriage. To make matters worse, the past Hunter Kings are influencing Dane's behavior, and the youngest Hunter, Brinn, might well be the most dangerous of them all.

It's going to be a cold, dark spring, and Cent needs to unite both sides of Embreeville mountain before her eternal life, her relationship with Dane, and her marriage to Stowne come permanently undone.


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