S.G. Castell: Resonance Of Souls

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244808720-resonance-of-souls

Princess Aelorea (Solennea) has been raised to believe that certain emotions are sinful and need to be hidden... thinking for oneself and standing up for a woman's rights for anything is unheard of and most recently she has been told that she is to marry a stranger from Vardania... where she is basically from a religious culture anyone raised in Vardania is taught that violence/brutality is the answer to everything... unfortunately women in their culture are also subservient and expected to bend to a mans every want, truly Aelorea is in a bad spot any way you look at things.

Aelorea and Commander Rhyven must marry whether they want to or not because while there is magic in their world... they have a supply shortage and in order to keep a trade agreement between these two cultures their marriage must continue.

While Rhyven has been raised for combat he also doesn't want to be the brute that everyone thinks he is and when he meets his bride to be he is expecting a timid/meek/mild maid instead he gets a passionate woman who even when she's afraid still speaks her mind and he doesn't want her to lose that fire... he also knows that while they are still around Solennea it's dangerous for her to voice her opinions or she will end up in a chamber where women go in but when they leave they are never the same again the "cleansing" kills their souls, he doesn't want a woman whose spirit is broken... he wants her whole.

Bound to each other through a magical bond our couple learns more about each other than they ever have about anyone else and love slowly grows over time, unfortunately... there are outside forces from everywhere that want their relationship to fail and the trade agreement to be null & void.  There is so much corruption with the system that you wonder if there is anyone trustworthy in this world. 

To be honest I am just starting my romantasy journey and haven't read many... but I am so glad I found this book it has everything you would want for your epic romantasy -->  passion/love, drama, shady black market magic trades, tension, villains (who are truly unlikeable) and heroes, a unique magical system that you learn more about throughout the book, a fierce warrior prince who is brutal but tender only for her... yes please!  It has you wondering if our couple will ever have a happy ever after when so many people want to pull them apart.  

The Epilogue left me wanting the next book now... like seriously when is it coming out?  

*arranged marriage  *dark romantasy *spice  *slow burn  *enemies --> more  *strangers --> more

*Magical world  *political drama  *trigger warnings --> read your triggers  *forced proximity

*touch her and 💀 *some miscommunication/no communication *Indie Author 

Meg Riley: The Fall Line

 The Heartwood Series book 4

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244050974-the-fall-line

Poppy recently inherited her aunts café it has been her dream to continue running it and her aunts will has given her ownership of the business where she works and has an apartment above.  When the lawyer visits her to discuss transferring of the deed the worst thing happens... there is an old fashioned clause due to the café being in a historical building where if a woman is to own the building they need to be married... oh and she has like 2 months to find a husband, how is this ever going to work?  She's never even had a boyfriend and now she needs to find a husband... she might as well just give up now.

Not one to lose hope easily she is a fighter, she has been struggling with her chronic illness but doesn't let it define her as a person and doesn't like feeling defeated she joins some online dating services and looks to see who could potentially be her future husband... and how is she going to find someone willing to move so quickly?

Jett Landry had a minor setback in his competitive skiing career when he suffered a knee injury but he is back in top form... only problem is that in order to compete at the world tournament (his dream) he needs a sponsor and the only one that hasn't dumped him after a series of bad publicity is a super strict company that goes against all of his party boy/play boy ways... when the latest bad publicity has hit the news this company is willing to drop him too unless he can clean up his image... and quickly.

Jett meeting with his family around the holidays learns that his childhood friend Poppy is looking for a husband in order to save her business... giving it very little thought what could clean up his image faster than showing that he is a one woman man and has changed his womanizing ways, he agrees to marry Poppy win/win for both of them... since they have such different lifestyles no one will get hurt at the end of their relationship.

Poppy uses the opportunity to ask her "husband" for help with learning how to be in a relationship so she will have some experience to fall back on when this ends and she looks for "the right guy" at first opposed to the idea Jett quickly warms up to being her tutor.  

Only the more time they spend together lines blur between fake and real on both sides and the harder it becomes to imagine going separate ways.  When a scandal occurs will they be able to hold on to what they have or will this break the bond they have been building?  

*ARC Read  *Sports romance (skiing)  *childhood friends --> more  *fake relationship  

*Marriage of convenience  *Playboy MMC  *Virgin FMC  *small town romance  *forced proximity

*chronic illness representation  *spicy lessons *slow burn *goodgirl/badboy *opposites attract

*part of a series but can be read as a standalone  *whirlwind romance 

Thoughts:

Even though Poppy and Jett grew up together and their families were friends this couple really didn't know each other all that well and got to know each other throughout their time together after their marriage.  

Likeable lead characters and side characters even though Jett was a party boy you could see that he truly cared about his family and friends and it was sweet to see the softer side of him when he was taking care of Poppy.  

Poppy was so innocent but after even a few lessons from her hot new husband the wild cat came out. 

I liked how sweet Jett was with Poppy especially when he knew that her arthritis was flaring up he made sure that she was as comfortable as possible.  

Easy to follow even though I didn't read the first 3 books I didn't really feel lost with the story.  

I thank the author for this arc read and thought it was a cute story I will probably check out the remainder of the series at some point.  

Dislikes: 

While this was a cute cozy read with sweet moments I found myself needing breaks from the book and going to other books there were a lot of parts of the story that just dragged on many repetitive thoughts about how they were starting to feel "more" towards each other and   surrounding Poppy and her never being kissed... or anything else... yes we get that lets get our couple together! 

I felt the book could have been edited down so it wasn't over 400 pages with the story still being just as good (or better) as said before there was a lot of filler with repetitive thoughts and some scenes that didn't really push the story forward in a meaningful way for our couple, I was also not sure what our time frame was at any point due to random time jumps it could be a day or a week or so when is the competition?  I don't know.

I would have liked to have gotten to know a bit more than surface level about our couple... it really felt like maybe some of the relationship causing the "spark" between them was off the pages, because I wasn't seeing all that much of one on pages that would cause their relationship to progress so quickly especially since they didn't really seem to know each other that well.