L J’s Comments (group member since Feb 01, 2018)

L J’s comments from the Sci-Fi Romance group.

Veronica wrote: "100+ New Releases in SciFi/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance for SEPT 18 https://veronicascottauthor.com/2024/..."

Thank you.

Veronica wrote: "Is the weekly New Releases post still of interest to people? Should I keep doing it? I mean, I'll obviously keep doing it on my blog but do readers here find it useful still? THNX!"

I do look. I don't look at everything every time because my TBR mountains sometimes overwhelm me and/or I'm busy with real life tasks but I do appreciate your efforts and the posts.

ETA: As a reader of multiple genres I especially appreciate the variety of books you list.

Alien King Crashes the Wedding
by Becca Brayden

The SF interesting, the R... no R just many long drawn out multi trope sex scenes interrupting the potentially very good SF story. Questionable consent, spanking, witnessed mating, and so on and on and on. Most conversations included little more than the equivalent of "Me alpha, you mine, get naked." I was doing audio while busy doing other things so listened to the whole thing. I'm still annoyed because this could have been great.

Guild Boss
Jayne Castle
I'm fond of lost colony books and these beyond the curtain books are among my favorites. Otis is another great dust bunny and it's always interesting when Arcane descendants are involved.

Last Guard by Nalini Singh. Lots of things connect back to earlier books and progress the story arc. Hints at things to come and possible solutions to ongoing problems are sometimes just a few sentences. Glad I did some re-listening. I might have missed the (view spoiler)[how to create human connections solution (hide spoiler)] if I hadn't.

Veronica wrote: "95+ total New Releases in #SciFi #Fantasy and Paranormal Romance for Wednesday APRIL 28 https://veronicascott.wpcomstaging.co......"

Instead of whittling away at my hoopla tbr list 7 of my 8 hoopla audios this month are from your Apr 21 or Apr 28 lists - if there are matching ku books I'll borrow those when I listen.

ETA: also added e books and audios to my cozy mystery, pnr, sfr, library, hoopla and ku tbr lists

Ruwen
by Kate Rudolph
narrated by Zachary Michael

Picked up the Kindle book free on Amazon and the audio is on Hoopla.
Character and world building were good so, while I don't know that I will try to read every book, I can see reading more.

Been reading a lot of Kindle Unlimited books, including SFR, because my 50% off membership was going to run out next month then two things happened. KU added some books with narration from authors I like and I found 40% discount membership. Now I need to go back and mark books on Goodreads as read.

@Veronica
Adding my thanks for the info you provide. I appreciate the breadth of the list and routinely find books in multiple genres and new to me authors.

Marian wrote: "L J wrote: "Claimed by Evangeline Anderson was not my thing. I doubt I'll read another book in the Brides of the Kindred series."

Hi LJ, Brides of the Kindred is one of my fav series...I would tell you to give this series a try, some of the books are fun to read, specially because they are quite imaginative...or perhaps this author is not for you (I admit it's not for everyone)...."

I usually give authors/series more than one chance but I'm not sure in this case.

The SF: Some made little or no sense and I didn't care for how the alien pet was treated/ignored or how there were live animals used as furnishings.
The Romance: Main characters were not developed enough to keep my interest.

It's a bit daunting that there are so many Kindred universe books. Which books do you suggest if I decide to give these another try?

Claimed by Evangeline Anderson was not my thing. I doubt I'll read another book in the Brides of the Kindred series.

Alpha Night became available to me at 11pm my time, midnight Eastern Time, and I had it downloaded and was listening before I received the email notification. I foresee a night of listening.

These feel like SFR to me.
Preparing for release next week of P-C Trinity #4 Alpha Night
Psy-Changeling Shield of Winter Shards of Hope
Psy-Changeling Trinity Silver Silence Ocean Light Wolf Rain

KJ wrote: "LJ, app won’t let me reply directly to your comment, but let me say I agree with you. I didn’t find this book romantic either. I forced myself to read the second book in the series thinking it was ..."

Thanks, appreciate it. This confirms my decision to move on to something else.

Cyborg Heat by Lisa Lace. I did print and audio of this. The voice of narrator Michael Pauley fit the story. "Volunteers" recruited from the ranks of injured US military lose all their rights, cyborgs are considered equipment. When they start remembering they are no longer content to be caged. The concept is not new but the characters had potential. Amanda, a scientist who escapes with and befriends the cyborgs is assaulted, including sexually, and nearly raped twice. Unlike the usual heroine in this type book she is physically fit and works out regularly. AD-214 remembers little of his life. What some of the cyborgs remembered made me wonder if they were going to be main characters in future books. I don't often say this but I think the book would have been better without most of the sex. It wasn't romantic.

Suzanne Brockmann's Fighting Destiny books are SFR. The YA books set in the same universe are more YA Dystopia. They are currently free to stream from Audible Stories: Free Audiobooks for Kids. The amount of romance is about average for YA Dystopia. While there is angst it's appropriate for the circumstances rather than over the top.
Night Sky series by Suzanne Brockmann and Melanie Brockmann. Narrated by Melanie Brockmann who has a youthful voice that fits the teenage girl first person narration.
There's world building in the Night Sky books but it is scattered through the books rather than being upfront. It helped that I've read so many SF dystopian novels and remember a bit of Fighting Destiny.
Dangerous Destiny prequel - Sky, new girl in school, meets Calvin become friends after helping each other survive danger.
Night Sky Sky and Calvin meet Dana and Milo, learn about Greater-Thans and join forces to find missing.
Wild Sky Published in 2015 this is evidently the last book set in this universe though it seems like there could have been more in both the YA Night Sky series and the adult Fighting Destiny series.

Marian wrote: "Hi!

I just bought the entire Zandian Masters series by Renee Rose free on Amazon Germany, it may be free in other countries as well."

Free on Amazon USA and so is Their Zandian Mate: An Alien Warrior Reverse Harem Romance (Zandian Brides Book 1)

Per her blog https://ilona-andrews.com/the-plague-...
Ilona Andrews has made The Innkeeper Chronicles, Volume 1 the collection of the first three books in the Innkeeper series 99cents.

edited to change link to kindle edition on sale

Space dragons come to earth seeking mates in

Dragon Guard Of Drakkaris Box Set by Terry Bolryder
This set of 6 books starts just after Awakened Sea Dragons; Box Set, the last of which takes place on Drakkaris. I find when it comes to Bolryder I tend to either like a group of books or not with little variation in how I rate the individual books. The books are part of the Bolryder world where the good shifters et al. want to help, protect, and sometimes mate humans and the villainous shifters et al. want to enslave and rule. While fated mates are a thing the courting of mates can be difficult for the shifters, often both dangerous and humorous. In this group of books the dragons of the royal guard of Drakkaris have just arrived on earth to seek mates and protect their prince and are immediately put to work rescuing women kidnapped by the villains. The dragons need to find mates because the metals that make them powerful warriors also slowly poison them until mating so it's mate or go mad and die and they found no mates among the too few females of their world. The dragons of Drakkaris and the dragons of earth are connected through ancient shared bloodlines, planet seeding.

#1 Lead Dragon Lead does not expect to find a mate but he soon finds he's wrong when the first woman they rescue turns out to be his mate.
#2 Cadmium Dragon Cadmium finds his own mate - the woman who delivers his internet orders to the dragon mansion.
#3 Arsenic Dragon Arsenic finds his mate when he rescues her from mad scientist experimenting on her only to be told she's not a potential mate but was accidentally kidnapped by those snatching potential mates.
#4 Zinc Dragon Zinc, a dragon guard and prince of Drakkaris, is captured protecting the others. Fortunately for him his mate is also a prisoner and she has a plan.
#5Cobalt Dragon Cobalt, very capable guard and librarian who spends most of his time researching, finds his mate when the dragons go to rescue a female, a trained fighter who has already managed an escape.
#6Chromium Dragon Chromium has been cooking for everyone at the mansion and he's very good at it but he can't duplicate the lasagna at his favorite restaurant. Going back again and again gives him the chance to see the restaurant who he recognizes as his mate.
Each of these is standalone for the romance but the world story arc goes from book to book. I read the earlier sets first so I'm not sure how the world story arc would work if one jumped in later. Most probably just think world is shifter but to me the world has SFR feel. There's science behind a lot of things, with dragons especially doing things decades ago, like genetic modification, that humans are just learning.

Jacqueline J wrote: "I just finished Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Wonderful sci fi and a lovely romance."

Thanks for reminder. Re-reading the series is on my list. I read them as I had the opportunity to do so and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is one I missed.

Veronica wrote: "And I post the link here in the group to the New Releases report I do on my blog, where I try to catch as many new books by SFR authors each week as I can. (Always happy to hear about other authors...I imagine many readers do track the new releases in that way, for favorite authors. "

I appreciate you taking the time to keep us informed about new books. The ones I missed knowing about were in other genres. At least I routinely use ISBN or ASIN to look for books. Those who just look at author/series lists or search by title may be a long time finding out they missed books. I also feel for the authors who may be missing out on sales.