My Partner the Wolf by Hollis Shiloh

Here's the summary from Goodreads:

Tom Langley and Sean Goods work together in a human-and-wolf shifter partnership, assisting the police, rushing in to solve crimes wherever their bosses send them. They're a great team, and they have fun together, too: joking and enjoying each other's company in a way that doesn't happen every day.

Tom is also a married man. And his husband hates the wolf shifter with a passion. Tom tries to balance the sides of his life—one minute on a high-pressure chase with Sean, the next placating his husband Lowell.

Then the unthinkable happens: his marriage ends. Heartbroken, he's not expecting to ever get over Lowell's betrayal or to be able to love again.

Sean offers a solution: sex as friends. They have chemistry, and they trust each other.

But can they change their partnership that much? And is Sean secretly harboring feelings for him—expecting more than just sex?

Sean is a loveable, funny, strong, and protective. He's the best buddy a guy could have. But Tom might not be able to keep from breaking his heart—if Sean is in love with him, and Tom can't love him back.

This book is definitely emotionally heavy, but entertaining all the same. Tom finds it VERY hard to deal with the fact that his marriage is over, and that makes him hesitate a lot over pretty much everything. Sean, however, is pretty much the dream  partner anyone would want. Cute, hot, attentive, he kind of is everything Tom needs and wants, even though he doesn't know it. It is very obvious to everyone but him. 

The book is good, but the fact that Tom takes over two thirds of the book and half a year or more without being able to pick up his slack makes it a bit tiring.  It is part of a VERY long series, and I'm not so sure that I want to invest myself on it. If there's standalones, then I might think about it, as I really liked how Hollis Shiloh writes. But 13 books is a lot, and my to-read pile (both the physical and the digital one) is big enough as it is. 

Dissent (Echoes of Earth #2) by Katy Haye

This book is the continuation of Discord, and I honestly have no idea how to summarize this book without spoiling the first book, but if you're desperate enough to know, here's the link to Goodreads.

This book has a different narrator than the previous one, and his name is Hiran. He has a less upbeat tone than Beth does, but given what he's been through, that's definitely understandable. He's been given a very hard life, and is currently in love with a girl who doesn't really love him back. Beth and Toby appear in this book, but they aren't the main focus of it. In fact, Ivo and Oshi appear more than they do, and as they're my favorite couple from Steptoe house, that makes me really happy.

As much as I'd love to gush about my love for Hiran and Roisin and how exciting this book is, it would definitely involve spoilers if you haven't read Discord, so you should take my word and believe that this book and it's predecessor are definitely a worthy read. And it's a good sequel, which is always a plus in my books.

Brooke: Wagers Gone Awry (Conundrums of the Misses Culpepper #1) by Collette Cameron

Here's the summary from Goodreads

Brooke Culpepper resigned herself to spinsterhood when she turned down the only marriage proposal she’d likely ever receive to care for her sister and cousins. After her father dies, a distant cousin inherits the estate, becoming their guardian, but he permits Brooke to act in his stead.

Heath, Earl of Ravensdale detests the countryside and is none too pleased to discover five young women call the dairy farm he won, and intends to sell, their home. 

Desperate, pauper poor, and with nowhere to go, Brooke proposes a wager. Heath's stakes? The farm. Hers? Her virtue. The land holds no interest for Heath, but Brooke definitely does, and he accepts her challenge. Will they both live to regret their impulsiveness? 

This book has a headstrong, powerful lady as a lead: Brooke Culpepper. She has spent years looking after her sister and cousins (all female), doing everything in her power to keep her beloved farm going and providing enough money to feed the girls and the loyal staff members that still remain with her.  Yet life decides to slap her in the face, as her careless cousin lost the deed of their property on a wager to the Earl of Ravensdale. 

He, however, doesn't know who lives on the house and under what condition, so he goes to the farm to evict those who live there and sell the property. He arrives almost at the same time as the news of the new ownership reach the girls, and under many miscommunications, chaos ensues.

I found the book engaging, fun and interesting, and this book left me happy enough that I already purchased the next two books that follow it. I found the "falling in love" part a bit too hurried for my liking, but this book probably wouldn't have worked well without the reduced timeframe. As a first impression to Collette Cameron, this definitely did a good job. I'll be writing more reviews of her books in the future, starting with more of the Culpepper girls. 

Given the reasons stated above, the rating shouldn't be a surprise. Wait a bit for more Collette Cameron books!

A Bride for the Betrayed Earl by Bridget Barton

Here's the summary from Goodreads

When Hunter Bentley, the Earl of Addison, returns from Scotland, it is to find that the love of his life has married another. On a mission of mercy to see his beloved father through his final days in the country he loved, Hunter is unaware that the woman he was set to marry, feeling neglected by his absence, has accepted a proposal of marriage from the Duke of Galcross. Still, Lady Felicity Morgan was always a little spoiled and a little ambitious.

Weeks later, Emmeline Fitzgerald suffers the worst humiliation of her life. Just months after the death of her beloved father, the man she is set to marry publicly announces his engagement to another. Feeling all eyes on her, Emmeline almost turns to run, but her dignity is saved by none other than the Earl of Addison. Within days the Earl, a man she barely knows, makes her a most unusual proposal; a marriage of convenience. He is looking for a wife so that he might produce an heir to his title and estate. She needs a husband of means to save her, her mother, and sister from financial ruin when her second cousin, Kent Fitzgerald, finally inherits her father’s estate some months after his passing.

Finding they have more in common than they could have imagined, can Hunter and Emmeline find the path to true love? Or will the constant interference from Felicity and Kent Fitzgerald drive a wedge between them?

So, I wasn't very excited about reading this book at first because of how horrid A Lady for the Brazen Earl was for me, but I was pleasantly surprised. This book is good, simple, if a bit predictable, but certainly enjoyable. Both Emmeline and Hunter have been betrayed, are hurting, and find the solution for their individual problems in each other. The thing is, they promise each other to not involve feelings in their deal. Also, there's people that aren't happy with their arrangement and would rather see them apart. And, as the author promises, there's a guaranteed happy ever after, so you kinda know where the book is headed but that doesn't make it bad.

The characters (all of them!) have dimensions, which is one of the things that annoyed me the most with A Lady For The Brazen Earl, as most of the characters were flat and one dimenional. It still seems a bit like the lords do nothing but socialize all year round, which it can (kind of) be forgiven as a little annoyance, but not a turn off from this book. 

It won't win any prizes, but it was certainly enjoyable and WAY better than the previous read by Barton. More of a book for relaxation than excitement, but if that's what you're looking for, go ahead and get it.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book

Man & Beast (The Savage Land, #1) by Michael Jensen

For this book, there's no summary on Goodreads and the one in Michael Jensen's web page is kind of spoiler-filled, so I'll try to write my own!

It all starts in the year 1797, when gay man John Chapman has to flee from Canada after he's discovered as a gay man. His hopes in life is a paper where they claim free land and supplies for a settlement in the unconquered frontier. Midwinter, lost cold and half starved, he stumbles into the cabin of a man called Daniel, whom John believes can be love and hope he was searching for. But is he the man he hoped, or a beast to be feared?

This book is quite interesting, as it throws a queer man in a time in which being queer was punished by death (as it is shown in chapter 1). And, even if he doesn't want to, he's forced to confront his views on his sexuality and the realities he lives in. The book is a bit slow, but interesting nonetheless. You also get  to see a curious variety of characters with plenty of layers to keep you entertained, main character included.

I actually read the summary in Michael's page, so I kind of spoiled myself about half the book, so there were things that I'd have found more exciting if I hadn't read it beforehand, and that affects my overall score for the book. For some reason I spent about half the book believing there was going to be some supernatural element to the book, but that was me being misguided by the summary of this book and the sequel, which I haven't read yet. It is historical and realistic, without any added element of magic. Meaning, the beast of a title is a real one.

It was good, a bit slow (which isn't bad), with good character development and a good plot, but I lost a lot of excitement by knowing what was going to happen. If you want to read it, Michael Jensen sends this book to you by subscribing to his newsletter (that's how I got mine). Just be wary of the summary in the page!

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer

Here's the summary from Goodreads

She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn’t even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning.

Now, she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They’ve killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon.

When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it’s her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous.

Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of.

I really like the way Stephenie Meyer writes, and I've liked both the Twilight saga and The Host (sue me). So, of course I had to read her newest book. And this suspense book deviates from her previous dabs with the supernatural because there is no supernatural. In this book we have a regular girl with a nondescript appearance (as told by herself) who happens to be a genius. She was part of a hush hush part of the government, who decided to eliminate her and her mentor because they know something someone doesn't want them to know. 
She's been on the run for years, taking many preventions from being killed and living in total paranoia. Then she receives an email from a member of the department where she worked, where he claims they need her, because only she can stop a massive world-scale crisis from happening. And one of the causes is a common school teacher, called Daniel, whom she has to interrogate. And things happen, I'm not spoiling anything, but it's really exciting. 
First, I love that the lead is an ethnically ambiguous girl with no physical prowess, whose ultimate weapon is her brain. And that the romantic interest is like "Okay, she's leagues smarter than I am, and that's really cool". I could do with more of that. Also, her general self doesn't change when she falls in love. If anything, I find her panic upon the idea of love and feelings to be quite refreshing, and that the romantic interest is the one who gushes the poetic romantic stuff. Yes, the guy is the romantic one, and I love that. Also, he cooks. Give him a medal, please. 
Added to a refreshing couple you have conspiracies, the general mystery of not knowing what's going on but the nagging need of finding out, general adventure and fear, and guns and fire and poisons. 

In conclusion, this book successfully managed to keep me awake making theories of what happens next, and that level of attachment with a story is what I look for in a book to make it a 5 star read. I really recommend this book, you'll likely not regret it.