The Dreamers Series by Adriana Herrera

Hey folks,
I have just devoured a couple of books (ebook &audio) by a new to me author, and I cannot recommend them highly enough!
The lady herself is Adriana Herrera and she is amazing! She is on twitter as @ladrianaherrera and has her author website at adrianaherreraromance.com
I started out with American Fairytale in audio (narrated by Sean Crisden who is so brilliant with this book) which turned out to be book two in a series. Obviously I went right back for book one - American Dreamer and read and listened to both books. This lead to me several times having to go back and re-read, since many of the characters are in both books (and I am apparently easily confused) but I just adored both books and have pre-ordered the third book (American Love Story).
Both books are sweet, sexy, sassy, have excellent own-voices representation and have brilliant positive rep of carribean/Latinx immigrants making it in the USA, with strong family and chosen-family vibe.
Most importantly, the books are well written, have great dialogue, relatively low angst and I really did laugh and cry with the characters. There is also a guaranteed quality HEA and lots of gorgeous food references.
Do yourself a favour and get these books!

Jericho Candelario's Gay Debut

Jerry Candelario, known as Potts to almost everyone, has spent his entire adult life focused on raising his siblings and his niece. But the home he fought hard to make feels empty since everyone has grown up and moved out, and his precious baby niece is now a teen with a life of her own. With fewer people at the dinner table every night, Jerry suddenly has all the time in the world to think about what he wants. 

For years, Jerry has kept to himself, never going to college, never dating or doing anything with his evenings except getting lost in a book. But although he pushed aside his longing for community and romance, he never stopped imagining the freedom he might have in a distant someday. 

Then kind, clever, and out Lincoln Lee opened a bakery in Jerry’s small town. Jerry told himself he was lucky when they became friends. He was too busy to try for a relationship, and someone like Lincoln would never want someone like him anyway. But now that Jerry’s nights are free, all he wants to do is spend them with Lincoln. Jerry knows nothing about gay culture, or dating, or being in love. With Lincoln, he wants to try, but is he making a fool of himself or is his someday finally here? 

….

1.    It’s R. Cooper so you know its good.

2.    It’s a buck on the ‘Zon right now.

3.    It’s perfect imperfect people.

4.    A baker who is this kind beautiful middle aged man

5.    A handyman who you want to hug from word one to the last.

6.    Family that are working thru ISSUES

7.    And a love story. Just this beautiful elegant friendship that turns into something more.

My book loving people I picked this up, and read it in one go. Plan some zero interrupting read time. A bath, a hidden room, a driftwood fort on a beach away from the world and just read this book.

R. Cooper is a flipping genius and every single thing she has ever written has been awesome and this book is no exception.  It isn’t a goofy happy wild book. Its this incredible look into a lonely man who is in love with this best friend. It’s a story about a man who has always taken care of everyone else and doesn’t really know what to do about his heart.

And Lincoln is great because he is so loving and open and fierce but with this sweetness for Jerry. 

This will become one of those stories you will come back to time and again.

https://www.riscooper.com/my-work.html

The Mercenary's Mate

Welcome to the mercenary ship, The Blue Solace:

Leti Ando needs off planet and fast. He has a best friend and a new half-sister to rescue, and he needs to be sneaky about it. Unfortunately sneaky isn't really his thing. With the help of a friend, Leti and his menagerie, along with his two companions, stow away aboard a mystery ship. Little does he know that The Blue Solace belongs to the infamous mercenary, Captain Will Hackett, a man he'll come to love with everything inside him.

Will has been in a bitchy ass mood for the past six months. He's restless and grumpy, but doesn't know why. He knows he needs something and he can't find it, but his crew are out of patience and insist on some R &R back home at Charybdis Station. 

Then Hack finds a stow away angel and everything changes. Leti is his mate and he'll do anything to keep him safe and happy, even smile.

The galaxy's not a safe place, though, and The Blue Solace has a job to do: pick up a renowned scientist and his mysterious artifact. Then get them safely back to Charybdis Station. Hack and Leti don't realize their romance story is about to get hijacked by Concord mercenaries. Their love is easy, it happens just like that. Staying alive and keeping the galaxy safe? That's a little harder.

....

I love a good space opera. I also love a good no angst mpreg. I ALSO love a stowaway story.

This has them all.

I really needed to escape my real life this last week. (Three teens doing teen things) I picked this up hoping I could snuggle in and read about alien romance and that is exactly what I got.

I also laughed at space chickens being set up in the ship chow hall, fell for a snarky badass best friend who pushes you to be your most amazing self, and read the greatest keep it real sex talk I have ever read in a romance novel.  (I know I was like wait what? This is…writing it down if I ever need to give a keep it real sex talk)

Leti is adorable, fun, quirky, not really shy even if they say he is shy, has great fashion, and falls quickly for his mate, ship captain Will.

Will to his friends is tough but loyal. Family even if he is grumpy. But Leti just enchants him from the first moment and we don’t see that grumpy side we only see his affection for Leti.

They are a great team inside a great team. The ship is full of very fun secondary characters, family, a new home full of hope, and lots of animals wondering around. Oh and Princess the best pet a space ship at war can ever have. (no spoilers!)

I’m on book three right now my friends and downloading four this afternoon.

Rach

Jon’s Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case by AJ Sherwood.

A psychic without an anchor. A student in trouble. A shooter on the loose.

I’m Jonathan Bane, a licensed psychic who consults for the police. I routinely help the police put the bad guys away and, for that reason, the criminal world doesn’t like me much. People like to take a swing at me, or go stabbity, or try for a gun. It makes for interesting times. My psychic ability prevents me from handling anything electronic—and I do mean ANYTHING, I fry it in seconds—so calling for help isn’t always a possibility.

I need an anchor, a partner, but I’m resigned: it’s just wishful thinking.

At least, I thought so until he walked through the door.

Donovan Havili looks like a thug and has the soul of a superhero. He shines so bright in my vision it’s like watching a supernova. He definitely has the right mindset and skills for this crazy job. But asking anyone to take me on long-term is a bit much. And now we’ve got multiple cases to handle, a Chinese exchange student falsely accused who needs our help, and someone taking random shots at me. It’s a bit much for any new guy to handle and I’m half-afraid that my new partner will run for the door.

But in Donovan Havili, the criminal world has met its match. And maybe, just maybe, I have as well.


.....

Raise your hand if you guys all love a physic police mystery romance! *raises hand* The great thing is there are quite a few to pick from. This one is now my favorite.

Meet Jonathan Bane psychic and wrecker of all electronics. Smart, witty, a great head on his shoulders, and most of all kind. The problem with being a bad ass psychic who can’t use a smart phone and is constantly putting criminals in jail, it makes for a sad social life and you attract the crazies. 

Then he sees someone awesome.

Guys. I love this part. He sees the most amazing guy (with his third eye sight) and then sees that he is large and intimidating and just BOOM. A smile, a kind word, and he now has a partner to deflect all those bad guys and a good friend.

Donovan Havili is big, scarred, and trained to serve and protect. He is also a great person, but all people see is scary dude. UNTIL JON! Jon sees him and then he shows the world what an incredible man Don is.

And people, the mystery is super good too! The crime fighting team have to get their brains on to solve this and I loved it. You fall for the other members of Jon and Don’s team. You want to google Hawaiian comfort food. And most of all you want to go out and buy book two. (Which is just as super).

Confession, I bought this book because of the title and cool cover. I have zero regrets and will now glom everything this author has ever written. 

Not Dead Yet by Jenn Burke

Hello everyone,
So this is going to be a learning experience in how to do this, what to include and what the hell am I doing :-)
My first book recommendation is one that I recently read and reviewed from a new to me author and it's a paranormal romance but different to anything I've read before. 

Not Dead Yet by Jenn Burke 
Dying isn’t what it used to be. 
Wes Cooper was dead. Then he wasn’t—though he’s not exactly alive, either. As an immortal not-ghost, he can transition between this world and the otherplane, which makes him the perfect thief for hire. For seventy years he’s made a “living” returning items to their rightful owners, seeing his fair share of the bizarre in the process. But he’s never witnessed murder. Until now. His latest mission brings him more than he bargained for: a very-dead actor who is definitely going to stay that way. It’s just Wes’s luck that his ex-boyfriend, Detective Hudson Rojas, is assigned to the case. Hudson broke Wes’s heart years ago—and could again, given he’s rocking a hot silver-fox look that shouldn’t be legal.As they work together to track down the murderer before anyone else gets hurt, it becomes clear Wes and Hudson have unfinished business. And when a secret Hudson’s been keeping threatens more than just their happiness, it might mean the end of their not-life together—permanently.
***

This is such a great story!! Really enjoyed everything about it. There is a well thought out and interesting plot with a bit of mystery and paranormal elements to it. Then there are the characters - our MC's; Wes and Hudson. Not seen each other for many years after a bad break up and meet again when Wes has information on witnessing a murder and Hudson happens to be the detective. There are also several secondary characters that bring a lot to the party in friendship, support, make the MC's think about themselves and things going on. Right from the first meeting, I could sense the connection between Wes and Hudson, even if things are quite bumpy in the beginning. More murders and more time spent together brings up memories and history along with a new surprise that Wes would never have imagined. I was fully invested in this story right to the end, loved the writing and how the author gives enough for the reader to feel involved and there with the characters but it's not over filled with unnecessary words. There's a variety of experiences for the characters in the book, highs and lows filled with a lot of emotion. We do only get the story from Wes' POV but it gave enough to feel informed about everything going on. Highly recommend and excited for book 2!