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seriously romantic: 1001 dark nights - bundle eleven

the 6 stories included in 1001 dark nights - bundle eleven span genres, from contemporary to erotic to fantasy to supernatural. there's pretty much something here for everyone.

easy for keeps is short and sweet, telling the story of bartender adam, who we met in easy melody and social worker sarah. she has just moved to new orleans and runs into adam after a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning that involved losing track of her young daughter and car trouble and work emergencies. adam has alway been a bit of a player, so it's surprising that his encounter with sarah sticks with him. and as he slowly gets to know her he realizes that the reason no one else ever stuck before was because they weren't right for him. the format doesn't allow the author to delve to deeply into the characters' psyches. but the story is emotionally satisfying, and adam is delight around sarah's young daughter.

from there the bundle shifts to ancient greece, where prometheus is still recovering from his torture at the hands of zeus and hiding away in another reality close to his daughter natasa and the argonauts who helped save him. in unchained, his newfound peace is disturbed by visits from a woman he only knows as keia. she is a witch, in truth she is circe, and she is under zeus's command. her hope in contacting prometheus is to find a way to break her own chains as she is also zeus's prisoner. but she doesn't expect the chemistry or the feelings or the guilt that come with getting close to prometheus. but even as she tries to let go in order to save him, he's in too deep and he will risk everything, even coming face-to-face with zeus to save her. this one is fantastical and sexy and a nice, quick read.

we jump back to contemporary for the third novella in the bundle, hard to serve, which i think was my favorite of the bunch. set around a bdsm club in baltimore called blasphemy, kyler vance has just been put on desk duty after being struck by a bullet and now being implicated in an internal affairs investigation run by new chief of police, comissioner breslin. when he goes to the club he has a share in to let off some steam the last thing he expects is to find the perfect submissive for him. their kinks complement each other perfectly. only he's never wanted anything long-term as he believes that serving on the police force is enough to destroy any romantic relationship he will ever have. after all, it didn't work for his grandparents or parents. but mia is perhaps even more perfect for him than he could ever realize, and also is more complicated for him than he expected, since she also happens to be the police chief's daughter. this novella was erotic and emotional and really i would have been happy to have many more pages of story between kyler and mia.

dragon fever is a contemporary but a supernatural one. journalist rachel marek is determined to expose the dragon kings for the liars they are. when her informant sam macdonald gives her intel on one of the mysterious dragon kings as well as his whereabouts, she is going to track him down and reveal everything. because rachel is convinced the dragons are doing the humans irreperable harm. but when rachel encounters asher and begins to know him, she starts to wonder if she has the complete story. because even though she's never felt attraction to any other person before, she feels things for asher. and she doesn't think she has it in her to fall for someone who is utterly evil. especially when he is so gentle and kind and super sexy. as long as everyone stays in human form during the sexy bits i am mostly okay with these kind of shifter/interspecies romances.

and then we get to the two novels in the bundle. beneath these shadows, which i've reviewed before. but here's a peek of what i said then:  bishop's thing is that he doesn't get involved. he never lets anyone get close, because he's already lost too much and the truth is his heart can't take losing more. but when eden swoops into town and keeps running into trouble and crossing his path, he can't stop himself from saving her. he can't stop himself from thinking about her. and when it comes right down to it, he can't stop himself from tasting her. the chemistry between these two leads is crazy hot. eden is sheltered and naive and unworldly, and bishop definitely sets out to help corrupt her, but there is a sweetness to their relationship that makes their story that much more emotional and deep.

and then finally there is before i fall, an emotional, angsty new adult romance. beth lamont is trapped by circumstances. her father suffered a crippling back injury that leaves him disabled, but it isn't crippling enough to get him immediate relief. years of fighting with health insurances and the va have left her exhausted and her father an addict to opiods and alcohol. when she is assigned to tutor noah warren she is wary of the ex-marine. she doesn't have a good track record with military men. but there is something about noah that keeps her coming back to him. noah is suffering from extreme ptsd and his war injuries also have him in constant pain. we are made aware as readers of his use of anti-anxiety meds, but even as he tries to manage his anxiety and pain he is only ever given more pharmaceuticals and told to go to therapy. he hides the extent of his pain from beth. knowing that she isn't really in a place to handle it. a lot is made of the fact that he is lying to her, though it was hard to necessarily see it that way, because she also doesn't really want to know. the fact remains that in order for beth and noah to move forward with their relationship, he needs to find a way to heal and she needs to be able to understand. once they open themselves up to this, then they can figure out how to live and love together. it's not an easy road for them, and noah's demons will always be there. but maybe, beth is the right person to stand by him. she just has to want it.

**1001 dark nights - bundle eleven will publish on august 29, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of inkslinger pr in exchange for my honest review.

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