One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
Series: Be-Wished, Book 4
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: Novella
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Still reeling and wounded from her recent termination from the United Wish Federation after a bad decision almost cost a friend her life, former wish fairy Davina Traherne is further shocked when her grandmother sideswipes her with a dictate on Davina's future. One that includes a forced marriage and motherhood. Her grandmother is throwing a ball and has invited the male fairies she has hand-picked as acceptable candidates. If Davina doesn't choose a husband from that crowd by the end of the night, her grandmother will choose for her.

Desperate to decide her own future and find her own true love, Davina flees to the only fairy she can think of who may be able to protect her against her powerful grandmother. Cross-agency arbitrator Lazlo Urbanek.

The last thing Lazlo was expecting while he was settling down with some pizza and root beer after a long day at work was a frantic, flighty fairy banging on his door and begging for his help. Davina Traherne of all fairies. They occasionally worked together, but mostly Lazlo just considered her a pain in his backside. A gorgeous, lust-inducing, drool-worthy pain in his backside. She'd had the starring role in several of his hottest fantasies since the last case they'd worked together, but he had no illusions about her character. She may be a walking wet dream, but she's more trouble then she's worth.

For all that he knows he shouldn't, though, Lazlo can't say no to her. He hates her lack-of-plan mentality, is disgruntled at the disruption in his life, and is none too thrilled with her attitude, but damn if she isn't the prettiest and most lively female he's ever seen. Problem is, hiding her away from her grandmother and offering his protection brings up a troubling question fated to plague him forever.

As Lazlo is doing his level best to keep Davina from her grandmother's husband-procuring clutches, who, exactly, is going to save him from Davina and the hurricane-force effect she has on his libido...and his heart?


Have you ever sighed happily? Read something, saw something, did something that just made you take a breath and release softly as pleasure heated your heart and happiness curled your lips into a soft smile? That's what this novella, and this series, for that matter, has done to me time and again. What a little gem this series is, and how lovely an addition this story is to the whole.

Willoughby has done it again. In the limited length of a novella, she's managed to create two three-dimensional characters, stir them into an wonderfully satisfying romance, let them have plenty of sizzling hot sex, and surround them with several memorable secondary and ancillary characters and a plot that has surprising depth. Not really sure how she does it, exactly, as so few authors seem to manage half that, but I'm not going to argue that she does and has done for every single one of the four lovely novellas in this series.

I loved Lazlo! He's definitely more appealing as the male lead than I thought he'd be after meeting him in A Wolf at her Door. Willoughby took his character in a very nice direction, and his backstory and the implications of his issue with magic were wildly creative and generated a strong internal conflict that really defined him as a man, gave him depth, and made his character seem very real to me. I adored him. Sometimes brusque and stodgy, sometimes intense and passionate, sometimes awkward and endearing, he was a real (and yummy) delight.

Davina, who has been a cast favorite of mine for this entire series, stumbled a bit for me in her own book. I've always loved her irrepressible optimism about true love, her irreverence, and her willingness to break the rules for the greater good. I was a little disappointed in places in this book, though, because some of her reactions and emotional displays seemed more strident and abrasive than quirky and charming. In a couple of places she came across as an elitist snob, or whiny and petulant. In other places, an immature child. She wasn't the most consistent of characters.

There were also some small issues with the narrative. Minor stuff, really. A couple of scenes have a flurry of emotional extremes that didn't play quite right for me, and some of the transitions were too lightning quick to be completely believable. Despite that, by the end I was a little teary-eyed (and let's keep that between you and me) and oh-so-happy. I've said it before but it bears repeating, Kate Willoughby has a genuine gift for blending smoking hot sex with significant emotion and depth of both character and story. It's a gift that shouldn't be missed. Sorta like this series.

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
Series: Be-Wished, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 151 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author for an honest review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


If she knew then what she knows now, freelance illustrator Olivia Hammond may not be feeling quite so left behind by her two crazy-in-love friends. That's sort of the bitch about hindsight, though, isn't it? And really, who could blame her for scoffing at the possibility of a wish-granting fairy when Davina first showed up to grant her wish back when her wish bracelet had fallen off. She'd thought the little woman was touched in the head, dipping into the fairy dust or something, not an actual fairy.

In truth, Livvy was resigned to it by now. She missed out. It sucks, but so be it. Her best friends Mariah and Paige, both poster women for Happily Ever After, were of different minds on the subject. When they found out that Livvy had missed her shot, they confronted Davina.

It's not that the romance-loving Davina needs convincing, but she's already on shaky ground with the United Wish Federation (a seemingly perpetual condition). She doesn't have enough of her own magic, she can't use UWF's magic. She wishes she could, but she can't help Livvy.

Though...technically there is one other option. It's sometimes a wee bit risky but...it's for a good cause. The best cause. Love.

Famous last words.

Soon Livvy's house is turning into gingerbread, golden eggs are showing up on her property every morning (she's not too upset about that one), and her next door neighbor, an ex-military war veteran who took a bullet in his spine for our country and is now confined to a wheelchair, mysteriously appears - naked and asleep - in a glass coffin in her front yard. Which, coincidentally, is all manner of creepy and more than a little freaky, no matter how good looking he is. Plus he won't wake up until she kisses him.

Getting woken up by the sweet lips of a fine-looking woman is Joe Kimball's idea of a good time. It's been so long he's almost forgotten how much fun a kiss could be. Even one he's, apparently, having in the rain...while he's stretched out in a glass coffin...naked. Uh...okay, well, that's a little psych-eval worthy, for sure. The fact that he can feel the rain on his legs and the cold glass against his skin...and certain parts of his body were giving their own personal salute at the wake up, well...that was a whole other level of holy-shit. He was whole again. And naked. And his neighbor obviously wanted a piece of him.

Hell, if he was dreaming, he'd ride that dream...and his neighbor...all the way to the psych ward. If he wasn't, well...he'd blow up that bridge when he gets to it.

As much as it looks like Livvy is finally getting her chance at her own HEA, and as fabulous it is for Joe to be walking again...and...uh...not walking...it's clear that not all is well with the magic Davina used to grant her wish. Too many fairy tale curiosities are popping up and going a little haywire. And if Livvy remembers correctly - however belatedly - not all fairy tales ended happily...at all.


I am such a rabid fan of this series, it's almost embarrassing. I love Willoughby's writing style, and the creativity and originality of the series premise has just been awesome. It takes a special sort of talent to put forth erotic novellas/short novels with a paranormal/fantasy bent and not only find the right balance between the sex, the romance, and the story, but to execute it well enough to be felt throughout each tale. With this third installment of her Be-Wished series, Willoughby once again proves she has such a talent in spades!

The plot of this book was a little meatier than the previous two, and Davina and the UWF fairies had a slightly larger role, facts I consider nothing but awesome. Joe's character had a pretty traumatic history, and while it didn't traipse too far down the road to Angst-ville, some of the insecurities and psychological issues born from his past and his condition were very realistically represented in the book. That was a particularly nice touch.

The fairy-tales-run-amok elements in the story also added a new dimension to the tale. It was considerably more comedic than Joe's issues with his paraplegia, which is a good thing. The humorous elements inherent in a house that is suddenly gingerbread or a clutch of golden eggs hidden in the pantry balanced out the more depressing elements of Joe's recounting of his injury and recovery.

There are so many elements of this story and the series overall that Willoughby does so well. The flawless continuity and seemingly effortless flow of world building and exposition is impressive. Character reaction is at least relatively realistic in the face of some pretty wild and fantastical paradigm shifts. Even Joe's moments of being a jerk, and he does have his moments, are believable.

I can't say I was quite as fond of Livvy and Joe as I was of Paige and Adam or Mariah and Tucker. Not really sure why, but while I liked them well enough as characters, especially Livvy, they didn't thrill me as a couple quite like the others did. I also didn't feel their romance was quite as emotionally satisfying as those in the previous stories, but that might be nothing more than the lesser connection I felt for them.

The story, though, was more complex, with some legitimate threat coming from Davina's meddling. That thread of external conflict was resolved a little quickly, but its existence added to the depth of the tale. And by now I'm sure I don't need to mention that Willoughby writes some pretty smokin' hot sex scenes that are positively titillating. Yum!

Three touching, emotional, and fabulously sexual erotic novellas/short novels into the Be-Wished series, and Willoughby is still going strong. Frankly, I just can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
Series: Be-Wished, Book 2
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 151 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author for an honest review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


Paige Mahoney had been drinking. They all had. It was a whirlwind cruise vacation just over a year ago and she and her two best friends, Mariah and Livvy, were living it up on the streets of Cabo, one of their ports of call. Hell, it's not like Paige even believed in magic and wishes and werewolves! That didn't keep her for wishing for one hot night of unbridled sex with a true alpha wolf when she was tying the wish bracelet around her wrist, though. She blamed it on the paranormal romance she reads. She certainly didn't expect anything to ever come of it. I mean, seriously...werewolves?

Then Mariah's bracelet fell off and Paige's understanding of the world took a little detour through fantasy land.

It wasn't until her own wish bracelet fell off while she was dancing at the very wedding her best friend's wish had lead to that she started to really think about the repercussions of her wish. Werewolves. Werewolves? Oh, god...werewolves.

Professional nature photographer...and werewolf....Adam Jaeger wasn't sure when the Universal Wish Federation fairies had added pimping to their wish-granting services, but he had to at least credit UWF fairy Davina Traherne with one thing. Paige is a good looking woman. If it wasn't for the fact that she's human, he'd be interested in far more than the one night of wild monkey sex he'd agreed to. But she was, and Adam had no intention of getting involved in a cross-species mating. He had more than enough proof of how badly those ended.

One night of passionate fantasy sex with someone who already knew his nature, though...well...that was an irresistible opportunity.

Paige gets her wish in more ways than she ever dreamed when she meets Adam. He's everything she was too afraid to hope for when Davina finally convinced her that all of this was real. Coming in contact with his skin will start the clock on their twenty-four hours...and stir her life into a vortex of natural urges and yearnings that have nothing to do with evading a predator wolf who is all man and everything to do with making sure he runs her to ground...and bed...and wall, for that matter. As far as she's concerned, one night will never be enough.


Two books into this fun, sexy, surprisingly touching series and I'm already fairly convinced I've developed a girl crush on Kate Willoughby. She's impressed me yet again with her seamless blend of sizzling erotica and genuine, heart-felt romance, and has created a story that thoroughly satisfies. Lately I've been chronically (and vocally) grumpy over romances that feel more like lust fests than love connections. Willoughby, on the other hand, has a series here that restores a bit of my faith, and she keeps a keen eye on both the erotic and the romantic elements in her fiction.

The high points are many in this book, starting with the characters. Paige and Adam are absolutely delightful. Both are surprisingly well developed for the shorter length of the story. They are perhaps not as expansively drawn as one would expect of characters in a full length novel, but Willoughby is exceptionally good at quickly encapsulating the significant and applicable character traits that make characters seem real and believable to readers, then tosses in a few neat personality quirks and peccadilloes to further flesh them out.

There was a genuine sense of chemistry and passion between Paige and Adam that was readily apparent. And by readily apparent I mean it exploded across the page in unfettered sensual delight. I loved them as individuals for their depth of character and personalities, and I loved them even more together as friends, lovers, and hot sex aficionados. Their wish fulfillment evening never once seemed cheap or sleazy to me, as intended one night stands in romance tend to do. Instead it was seductive and tantalizing...and very hot.  Then again...they don't exactly walk away from each other after one night, either, and that's pretty much a no-brainer, what with the romance aspect of the book.

Speaking of plans, the plan of this book, the plot, was so much fun. I loved the career paths Paige and Adam had been meandering down, and I loved the epiphany-shaped idea that Paige had for them to merge those paths. There were also a few great ancillary plot threads and secondary characters that were woven together to create a truly rich and full narrative with plenty of wonderful action, adventure, romance, sex, and humor. There was even a fairly weighty relationship conflict that made those pesky "misunderstanding" conflicts in romance seem shallow and ridiculous in comparison.

In fact, the only minor issue I had in this whole story was that I wish the external conflict climax and relationship conflict climax had been more expansively developed. I don't know that they could have been within the length of the story, really, but there were some parts of the conclusion that felt a bit rushed and got a little confusing as a result. I was really craving another twenty-five pages or so to really flesh out the elements of action, fairy machinations, and danger in the external conflict, and would have loved to dig deeper into the emotions behind the issue of the relationship conflict. And I have to admit, I wish the relationship conflict resolution had gone a different route. The way it was resolved was comfortingly concrete and final, so it didn't leave me feeling in any way that there were unresolved issues, but personal preferences would have liked a slightly different resolution.

I do love these stories, though. This one was longer than its predecessor (yay!), and had a much more realistic and natural romance arc as well as a more complex overall plot, but both of them were wonderfully entertaining. I can't wait to see what delicious and sexy fun UWF fairy Davina stirs up next for the third friend to tie on a wish bracelet, Livvy.

Quotables:

"You're killing me, Laszlo. Don't you have one romantic bone in your body?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Laszlo said a little stiffly. "My incus is romantic."
"Your...?" Davina blinked. "Your incus?"
"It's a very small bone in my ear."
"You're making that up."
"Am not."

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
Series: Be-Wished, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 96 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me by the author for an honest review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.