Book Review: A Dom Is Forever by Lexi Blake

Author: Lexi Blake
Series: Masters and Mercenaries #3
Audience: +18
Genre: Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance
Publisher: DLZ Entertainment, LLC
Release Date: November 10th 2012
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: InkSlinger PR
Blurb (from Goodreads):

A Man with a Past…

Liam O’Donnell fled his native Ireland years ago after one of his missions ended in tragedy and he is accused of killing several of his fellow agents. Shrouded in mystery, Liam can’t remember that fateful night. He came to the United States in disgrace, seeking redemption for crimes he may or may not have committed. But the hunt for an international terrorist leads him to London and right back into the world he left behind.

A Woman Looking for a Future…

Avery Charles followed her boss to London, eager to help the philanthropist with his many charities. When she meets a mysterious man who promises to show her London’s fetish scene, she can’t help but indulge in her darkest fantasies. Liam becomes her Dom, her protector, her lover. She opens her heart and her home to him, only to discover he’s a man on a mission and she’s just a means to an end.

When Avery’s boss leads them to the traitorous Mr. Black, Liam must put together the puzzle of his past or Avery might not have a future…

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of the book in any way.

The third installment in the Masters and Mercenaries series is probably my favorite so far. I love how it seems that this book and the first book in the series sort of help complete a puzzle, a puzzle that isn't entirely focused on Liam and Avery.

I enjoyed reading about Liam falling in love, especially since he was the most likely to make fun of his male friends for doing that exact thing. But I also liked reading about his back story, and figure out why he got to be the one used for this mission. He was an interesting choice of hero, so discovering why he was the guy for this particular job was really intriguing.

I loved Avery. I really respected her, because even though she went through what she did, she's trying to keep living and to live a normal life, which is honestly my favorite thing about her. She has a bad relationship with her in-laws, and when I learned why, I wanted to punch a wall, because she does not deserve the hate, man. She just doesn't.

One of the interesting aspects of this book was the villain. I have to hand it to Lexi Blake, she knows just how to write a good villain. They're not just bad, or scary evil, but they're also really deranged. The thing I love most about her villains though is that you can slowly see how their minds are deteriorating, if it makes sense. Like, the more they give in to their evilness, the more they lose sanity, and I love that. Mr. Black makes an appearance, and I keep wondering what his endgame is, when will he lose his mind, but he seems just as cold and calculating and sane as he was in the beginning.

Another really cool aspect of this book is that we get to learn more about Ian. Ian is Sean's older brother, and the boss of everyone, basically. We learn more about Ian, but I still have so many questions. I saw that he got his story told, so I'm super excited to read it, because I need to find out exactly how he got started with all of this, how he put the team together.

The ending of the book revealed that the next in line to get their HEA are Alex and Eve, and I couldn't be happier for them. I will definitely check it out, as well as the other books in the series. If you guys haven't checked this series out yet, you definitely should.

Comic Book Tuesday #17: Monstress #6 by Marjorie M. Liu

Author: Marjorie M. Liu
Series: Monstress (Single Issues) #6
Genre: Comic Book, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 25th 2016
My Rating: 5 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Maika and her friends face betrayal and death, and only the monster inside — and her growing relationship with it — can save them. MONSTRESS will return in August.

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Netgalley and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion or my rating of the book in any way.


This might be my favorite installments out of the first 6 of this story.

We get to see Maika in a very different position here. She's forced to work with the monster inside her to get away from certain people, and I love that. I also loved seeing how this ancient monster, that is trying to escape, starts to look less scary than I initially saw it. The monster also sheds some light into what it is, what it wants.

Again, we get to see a little bit more of Maika's past, in a different way than the past issue, with this monstrous creature exploring her memories. Very interesting way of learning what Maika actually knows, especially concerning some of the revelations about her and her family from the previous issue.

I'm still not sure what Lord Corvin, a.k.a "the stranger", wants. It seems that he's changing his mind about what to do quite a lot. I'm also not sure is he can be trusted.

The ending, although I kind of expected it, was still rather surprising. It was foreshadowed from the fifth issue, but I still wanted it to be just my imagination. I feel like this changes the rules of the game a little bit for Maika, especially because in that case I'm not sure if some other characters can be trusted as well, or if they're also hiding stuff.

I cannot wait for the next issue, to see what happens next with Maika, Kippa, Ren and the rest of the characters.

Top Ten Tuesday #10: Books On My Fall TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Fall is here, and I am going to be honest with you, I am confused. Should I be happy? Should I be sad? I'm happy because all of the bugs are slowly going away, but I'm sad because that means no more lazy days at the beach. Unless I want to become a human popsicle, and I am so not in the mood for that! I'm still recovering from my first cold of the season. Yep, I'm that pathetic, guys, that the first hint of colder weather did me in. *long sigh*

Anyway, this also means I get to be my old lazy self on weekends and surround myself with fluffy pillows, a cozy blanket, a hot cup of tea and read. And since I'm starting to get to the bottom of my ARC TBR (never thought I'd see the day, honestly), I've decided to start reading some of the books I have lying around on my shelves. Here are 10 books I can't wait to read this fall:

• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - The more people talk about this book and the TV show, the more excited I am to read it. Which is weird, considering I'm not a fan of time travel stories, but I am hoping this one is as good as people make it to be. Plus, the Romanian cover is super gorgeous:

I absolutely adore this cover of Outlander, the Romanian edition. And I recently saw the cover for the second book, and it is just as gorgeous. I just hope the publishing house keeps this theme for the rest of the series <3 #outlander #coverlove #covergasm #bookstagram #booknerd #bookworm

A photo posted by Ruby Jo (@rubys.books) on May 13, 2016 at 11:31am PDT

• Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella - I'm a huge fan of Kinsella's stand alone books, and I'm curious to see what funny adventures she's writing about in this book.
• Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien - Every time there's a new book full of stories about Middle Earth, I get all giddy and excited. I'm super excited about reading this one.
• Legacy by Hannah Fielding - I just got this book in the mail and I'm so excited about it. Although it's the third book in the series, and I haven't yet read the previous two books, I will definitely be reading this one pretty soon.
• The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein - A book about vampires, by an author I haven't heard of before. I'm in the mood for more vampires.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• Unrivaled by Alyson Noel
• Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo - I want to know if any of my crazy theories that have Meredith (Pandora's Books) laughing like a loon are true of it they're complete nonsense.
• The Pelican Brief by John Grisham - One of my favorite movie thrillers ever is based on this book. And everyone seems to love his books, so I'm curious. I also borrowed The Firm and A Time To Kill from my grandmother, and I plan on reading them too, soon.

What about you guys? What are you planning on reading this fall?