Melissa Johnson
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Phantasma
- A dark fantasy romance (Wicked Games Book 1)
- By: Kaylie Smith
- Narrated by: Laura Horowitz
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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There are only two rules to the game. Stay alive. And don’t fall in love. When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize—a single wish. Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.
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favorite book ever
- By Anonymous User on 09-04-24
- Phantasma
- A dark fantasy romance (Wicked Games Book 1)
- By: Kaylie Smith
- Narrated by: Laura Horowitz
So good…until the awkward ending.
Reviewed: 06-08-25
Ok so going into this book I actually didn’t think I’d like it that much because I’m not super into paranormal romance. But it actually hooked me in to the point that for many many chapters, I didn’t want to put it down. The plot, world-building and character development were overall very good. The trials were exciting, it had just enough jump scares to keep me on my toes but not so much that I wanted to put it down. That being said, it was really good for most of the book, only to be horribly let down by the ending. The author builds up this world and tension and mystery for 50 chapters…only to wrap it up in a rushed, clunky and overly convenient ending that’s over in two chapters and an epilogue? She could have done so much more to close the book and wrap up loose ends but this just didn’t hit the mark. There are still a lot of unanswered questions (maybe a set-up for the next book?) and the ending just felt like a let-down after investing so much emotional energy in the rest of the book.
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Corsairs: Kaspar
- Corsair Brothers, Book 2
- By: Ruby Dixon
- Narrated by: Hollie Jackson, Mason Lloyd
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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I live for danger. For excitement. For adventure. When I end up in an escape pod with Alice, though, my world changes. She's human. Vulnerable. She does NOT love danger, or excitement. But her mind is clever, her retorts sharp, and her smile brings me to my knees. I want nothing more than to keep her safe...and keep her at my side. What does one danger-loving corsair do when he's stranded with a beautiful human female on a jungle planet? I'm about to find out.
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Jungle Love
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 07-15-23
- Corsairs: Kaspar
- Corsair Brothers, Book 2
- By: Ruby Dixon
- Narrated by: Hollie Jackson, Mason Lloyd
Narrator accent?
Reviewed: 04-07-25
I feel like I’m losing my mind because I don’t see any other reviews that mention this…but randomly at chapter 48 the male narrator switches from the semi-normal alien accent that he uses in all the other books to a super annoying Italian accent…or Greek? I don’t know but he started pronouncing words very weird with an over-the top European sounding accent. I even went back to previous chapters to make sure my ears weren’t just deceiving me but no, it definitely changes randomly at chapter 48 or 49 and it was so distracting for me. Otherwise the book was good. Follows the same general formula as the other books in the series. Overall good but maybe skip the audio version of this one.
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Prisoner
- Criminals & Captives Series, Book 1
- By: Skye Warren, Annika Martin
- Narrated by: Jacob Morgan, Lauren Sweet
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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He seethes with raw power the first time I see him - pure menace and rippling muscles in shackles. He's dangerous. He's wild. He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. So, I hide behind my prim glasses and my book like I always do, because I have secrets, too. Then, he shows up in the prison writing class I have to teach, and he blows me away with his honesty. He tells me secrets in his stories, and it's getting harder to hide mine. I shiver when he gets too close, with only the cuffs and the bars and the guards holding him back.
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WELL DONE LADIES 👏.. AN UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE STORY
- By 🔹🔸🔹🔸CAROLYN 🔹🔸🔹🔸 on 12-22-19
- Prisoner
- Criminals & Captives Series, Book 1
- By: Skye Warren, Annika Martin
- Narrated by: Jacob Morgan, Lauren Sweet
How are there so many good reviews for this book?
Reviewed: 08-08-24
I’m generally a big fan of dark romance and can handle some pretty depraved shit in my books so I wasn’t some naive flower going into this book. There are not many trigger warnings that can scare me away, but I draw the line at r@pe. I found it really disappointing that the writers chose to take it in that direction because otherwise the writing and plot were actually good. There was a decent amount of character development right from the start. There is good sexual tension between the characters and if it was actually written as CNC or dubCON, then I probably would have kept reading. But….there is no way to sugarcoat this, he straight up drugs and r@pes her. There is no redeeming him after that and the most annoying part is that it was entirely unnecessary! The writers were already building the sexual tension between the characters and could have waited for her to fall for him and then write in the sex as dubCON or CNC but they chose to make him a r@pist and I don’t really understand how the reader is supposed to not hate him at that point?
I’ll be the first to admit that I like my MMCs tall dark and a little (or sometimes a lot) fucked up. And there are plenty of ways for authors to stay in that grey area of CNC or dubCON and make it sexy and work for the plot (Haunting Adeline is a great example) but trying to romanticize straight up r@pe is more f*cked up than even I can handle. I’m honestly surprised how many women are giving this book great reviews.
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His Demands
- Billionaire Alpha, Book 1
- By: Ali Parker
- Narrated by: Joe Arden
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Bethany had one more year of school left, and once again, poverty struck hard. The only option would be to encourage her mother to marry her new boyfriend Kent, a billionaire tycoon in the world of accounting. Mom is more than happy to move the wedding date up, and Bethany's soon-to-be-stepfather is willing to pay for her schooling - on one condition: she works for his firm as an intern throughout the next year. She agrees without hesitation, but little does she know that Kent's oldest son, Damon, is the CFO.
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A HOT BUT DISAPPOINTING STORY OF LUST v LOVE
- By 🔹🔸🔹🔸CAROLYN 🔹🔸🔹🔸 on 01-16-17
- His Demands
- Billionaire Alpha, Book 1
- By: Ali Parker
- Narrated by: Joe Arden
DNF, not worth the credit!
Reviewed: 04-16-24
I downloaded this without reading the reviews first only because I love Joe Arden’s voice. But this book was so bad even his narration couldn’t salvage it. I’m all for a sexy boss/employee power dynamic but it’s very poorly thought out in this book. Instead of being sexy, Damon’s blatant advances toward his stepsister on her first day as his intern without ever having met her before just make him feel like a creepy, narcissistic sexual predator. It only continues to get worse from there. Bethany’s internal monologue is all about how badass she is and how she’s going to tell him to kick rocks but then she’s a meek little pushover in all of their interactions. It was just so unrealistic and I kept waiting for some kind of plot to develop only to realize that there basically isn’t one. Not worth wasting a credit on this one.
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A Soul to Heal
- Duskwalker Brides, Book Two
- By: Opal Reyne
- Narrated by: Wolfgang Milliken, Ruthie Bowles
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Thrown into the Veil for a crime she committed, Delora was discarded by the world. Although afraid of her oncoming demise, she accepts it as it would be a worldly escape from her problems. She didn’t expect that she would wake up from her deadly fall, nor that the person who saved her would be a Duskwalker. She’s wary about him at first, but Delora begins to realise there’s more to him than just a faceless monster.
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the journey is ROUGH and requires a LOT of patience for Dalora.
- By Harley-Payj on 06-10-24
- A Soul to Heal
- Duskwalker Brides, Book Two
- By: Opal Reyne
- Narrated by: Wolfgang Milliken, Ruthie Bowles
I like the series but this one fell flat…
Reviewed: 04-11-24
**spoiler alert**
I really liked the first book in the series but wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Maybe it’s the storyline that I couldn’t get into since I don’t usually go for the pregnancy trope but that’s only part of the reason I didn’t like it. It dragged quite a bit with not much happening during the bulk of the story. Most of the book just felt like a set up for the rest of the series. There wasn’t any real climax or tension like there was in the first book. The whole role of the child in the story just didn’t feel like it made sense to me. Maybe it’s because I have a toddler but trying to relate to a character that has a pregnancy, birth, infant, and then all of a sudden the infant is an adult that ventures out in their own all in the span of a couple months felt wrong and rushed.
Also, I’m all for body positivity in the books I read but there were a lot of times the writing did not convey that even though I think it was clearly the authors intention to be respectful of all body types. For instance, describing the characters breasts as “droopy” or referring to her “stomach rolls” or saying her “thighs stuck together before parting”….there are better ways to describe a curvy body than that.
As far as the narration, the male narrator was good but could have definitely used more inflection during the spicy scenes. It’s weird when they are saying something dirty in the exact same tone they would read everything else. I’m not really sure how to describe that but he didn’t really bring any life to any of the scenes, it was all very monotone.
The female narrator was driving me crazy by the end of the book! She was honestly pretty decent for most of it. Sometimes she was a little too whiny which was annoying but the worst part was that she kept pronouncing the child’s name two different ways every other sentence and it totally took me right out of the story every time. The child’s name is Fyodor. And sometimes she would pronounce it “fee-o-dor” and sometimes she would pronounce it “fi-o-dor” and it was so damn annoying!
Overall, I liked the first book so I’ll keep reading the series. I’m hoping this one was a one-off and the next one will be better 🤷♀️
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God of Fury
- Legacy of Gods, Book 5
- By: Rina Kent
- Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Shane East, Mackenzie Cartwright, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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I’m not attracted to men.. Or so I thought before I slammed into Nikolai Sokolov.. A mafia heir, a notorious bastard, and a violent monster.. An ill-fated meeting puts me in his path. And just like that, he has his sights set on me. A quiet artist, a golden boy, and his enemy’s twin brother. He doesn’t seem to care that the odds are stacked against us. In fact, he sets out to break my steel-like control and blur my limits. I thought my biggest worry was being noticed by Nikolai. I’m learning the hard way that being wanted by this beautiful nightmare is much worse.
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Perfection
- By Tasha Duhl on 12-06-23
- God of Fury
- Legacy of Gods, Book 5
- By: Rina Kent
- Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Shane East, Mackenzie Cartwright, Zara Hampton-Brown, Full Cast
Love Nikolai and Bran!
Reviewed: 12-14-23
I’ve been waiting for this book since the author hinted at Nikolai and Bran being a thing a few books ago and I loved it! If I was being super picky I could say that a few story points may have felt a little rushed but it was basically only when the story came back around to events that were already covered in other books so I didn’t actually mind that because it would have been tedious to rehash events that we already read about earlier on in the series. I think this was easily my favorite book of the series so far. After all the bullying from the other male MCs in the rest of the series, Nikolai’s golden retriever attitude toward Bran was a refreshing change of pace. And the male narrators are two of my favorites! They bring so much life to the characters without overacting. Definitely worth a listen!
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Butcher & Blackbird
- The Ruinous Love Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Brynne Weaver
- Narrated by: Joe Arden, Lucy Rivers
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of a like-minded, pitch-black soul. From small-town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.
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A MUST LISTEN IN AUDIO
- By TiffanyPReads on 10-18-23
- Butcher & Blackbird
- The Ruinous Love Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Brynne Weaver
- Narrated by: Joe Arden, Lucy Rivers
My favorite book of the year!
Reviewed: 10-23-23
This book was *chef’s kiss* so good! The story was entertaining, the dialogue was witty and hilarious, there were multiple times that I actually laughed out loud while listening to it. The narration was perfect. This is one of the only books I’ve read/listened to this year that I don’t have a single complaint about. If you can handle darker themes and some gore with your romance then you definitely will want to read this one!
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The Architect
- Nashville Neighborhood, Book 3
- By: Nikki Sloane
- Narrated by: Angelina Rocca, Brennan Landry
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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On the surface, my new boyfriend is a stiff, buttoned-up architect. He plans every detail of his life while carefully maintaining the walls he’s built around his heart. But when the biggest project of his career pulls him away, Clay’s solution is both temporary and unconventional. It even comes with a name—Travis. This handsome stranger is sweet and thoughtful. He’s only meant to be a stand-in, to fulfill my needs under Clay’s watchful direction, yet these two men couldn’t be more different. The one thing they share? Well, I guess that would be me.
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WOWZA THAT'S SPICY! Great Performances!
- By TiffanyPReads on 06-07-23
- The Architect
- Nashville Neighborhood, Book 3
- By: Nikki Sloane
- Narrated by: Angelina Rocca, Brennan Landry
Excellent book!
Reviewed: 08-23-23
Loved this book! I initially downloaded it just because I heard the spice was ghost pepper level hot and oh boy, it was! But I was really pleasantly surprised with the book as a whole. I’ve read/listened to A LOT of spicy books and sooo many of them rely on the sex to carry the book and make up for a poorly thought out and executed plot. This book gave me everything I want in a spicy romance book. The plot was interesting and kept me wanting to read more, the character development was great and allowed the reader to really get invested in the growth of the characters and the relationship. The sex was HOT, HOT, HOT without being cringey. And the duet narration was *chef’s kiss*! Overall 10/10, highly recommend.
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Liars Like Us
- Morally Gray, Book 1
- By: J.T. Geissinger
- Narrated by: Troy Duran, Tara Langella, Thomas Oakley, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman on the verge of bankruptcy. A mysterious billionaire with an offer that will change her life. An obsession so powerful, it could destroy them both....
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IT’S A 5 STAR LOL, OTT FANTASTICAL ROM/COM
- By 🔹🔸🔹🔸CAROLYN 🔹🔸🔹🔸 on 08-09-23
- Liars Like Us
- Morally Gray, Book 1
- By: J.T. Geissinger
- Narrated by: Troy Duran, Tara Langella, Thomas Oakley, Brooke Daniels
Entertaining but not my favorite by J.T.G.
Reviewed: 08-13-23
I enjoyed this audiobook but it wasn’t my favorite by J.T.G. I might have enjoyed reading it more than listening to it because while the narrators were very good and definitely helped bring the story to life, the female narrator sounded just like Samantha from Sex and the City. I know that’s a weird comparison but I swear she sounded just like her and I couldn’t get that out of my head the entire time. Don’t get me wrong, she is a very talented narrator but the voice didn’t fit the character for me and it totally took me out of the story. Some story bits were a bit cringy and predictable but overall it was entertaining and worth the read.
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Blindsided
- A Best Friends to Lovers Standalone
- By: Amy Daws
- Narrated by: Will Watt, Charlotte Cole
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Midfielder Maclay "Mac" Logan is a loud-mouthed, tattooed ginger content with focusing on football. But when an adorable, freckled seamstress comes barreling into his life, he finds Netflix-And-Bickering with her to be his new favorite pastime. Freya Cook is used to being the invisible woman with a needle and thread, offering cheeky punchlines as she helps dress London's finest. She's plus-sized in body and spirit, and other than her friendship with Mac, talking to the opposite sex is one skill she never mastered.
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Mac-n-Cookie!
- By rxpa on 03-01-20
- Blindsided
- A Best Friends to Lovers Standalone
- By: Amy Daws
- Narrated by: Will Watt, Charlotte Cole
Narrators are great but story is so-so
Reviewed: 06-05-23
Loved the narration but I couldn’t get on board with all the self-deprecating comments by the FMC. I felt like the author spent way more time than necessary describing the FMC’s body type and the repeated self-deprecating comments by the FMC about her own body got to be exhausting. I also hate reading books where it takes a man’s love for a woman to realize her own worth. I want to read about women who are strong and confident and love themselves without someone else’s approval. The love interest should reinforce a woman’s self-worth, not be the sole reason for it.
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