The Ghost in the Pole Barn by Hailey Edwards [Review]

The Ghost in the Pole Barn (Groom & Doom #5) by Hailey Edwards
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: June 24, 2026

Groom & Doom
1. The Vampire in the Potting Shed
2. The Goblin in the Sink Drain
3. The Mermaid in the Shot Glass
4. The Pixie in the Pickle Jar
5. The Ghost in the Pole Barn - Kindle

Hailey Edwards
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Ana Sartori has her hands (claws?) full stepping into the role of magna of the Walsh clan. She’s got a double agent to babysit, a girl boss empire to supervise, and a slippery witch to subdue. Add to that Mercer’s determination to take her down at any cost, and Ana can’t catch her breath.

With enemies on all sides, Ana must protect her people. From dragonsbane. From other shifters. And from ambitious little girls armed with acrylic nails and cuticle nippers. As the battle for Brentwood heats up, so does Ana’s inner dragon. Flames will erupt and fur will fly in the fifth and final installment of the Groom & Doom series.

Thoughts on The Ghost in the Pole Barn: Ana has dealt with a lot since the Walsh clan blew into her life and there are still a few things that need to be finished off. Like dealing with the new alpha of her old pack. And, you know, manifesting her dragon. Oh, and keeping her new friends safe.

Yeah. Just a few little things.

Fortunately for her, the Walshes are willing to give her the time and space to come to terms with this new reality she's been dragged into. Rian trusts her implicitly and has her back every step of the way. When their enemies strike at them, he follows her lead. He's also head over heels for Ana and isn't endearingly sweet in all the ways he shows it.

Endings, beginnings, one business-minded girl who will probably amass a massive hoard before long, found family, a dragon who trusts his lady to make the choices she can live with, and a lady who is finding out what it means to belong to people who adore her. *thumbs up* all around.

Never and Always by Anna Hackett [Review]

Never and Always (Langston Hotels #3) by Anna Hackett
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: May 28, 2026

Langston Hotels
1. Night and Day
2. Before and After
3. Never and Always - Paperback | Kindle
4. Bitter and Sweet

Related Series:
(find all the books in the series on the 1st book review)
Fury Brothers
1. Fury

Unsanctioned
1. Burn the World Down

Anna Hackett
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

She’s a driven city girl who’s not staying long.

He’s a laid-back mountain man who’s never leaving.

Sparks are flying, and its high heels versus flannel shirts.

Piper
As the COO for Langston Hotels, I travel the world, but for the moment, I’m stuck in Windward, Colorado.

The town is small, has snow (shudder), and did I mention small? Once I finish renovations to our latest acquisition, I’m gone.

One man has become the bane of my existence: head of hotel maintenance, Everett Murray.

Does the man wear his uniform? No. He wears awful flannel shirts and jeans. So maybe the denim fits his long body like a glove, and the flannel stretches over wide shoulders, but that’s beside the point.

I need the hotel to meet Langston standards, I need this job done so I can move on, and I won’t let Everett slow me down.

Everett
It took a tragedy for me to realize Windward was home. I love my job. No endless hours, no stress, no missing out on what’s important.

Then Piper Ellis struts into the hotel in her tight skirts and high heels. The woman is a high-maintenance headache I don’t need.

But when her troublemaker brother blows into town, I see another side of Piper. The softer side she keeps hidden. When his troubles make her a target, I’m there to keep her safe.

She might be a city girl, and I’m a mountain man to the bone, but neither of us can fight the force of our attraction.

Still, I know that one day she’ll pack her designer suitcase and leave, because everyone knows opposites might attract, but they don’t stay together.

Thoughts on Never and Always: Yesssss. Piper and Everett have been sparking off each other since they first met and THEIR TIME HAS COME! City lady meets a mountain man and I AM HERE FOR IT!

After watching Ro and Caden find their special someones in Windward, Piper is determined to ignore any fluttering feelings she might have for a certain flannel-wearing maintenance man. She refuses to get distracted by his great forearms and intense looks. Absolutely refuses. She's not planning on staying in this small town and Everett has roots here.

Everett has the same mindset. Piper's nice to look at, has just the right amount of sass to get him going, and she knows how to get things done on the job. But she's not staying and he's walked the big city, career driven path and doesn't plan to do it again.

Then Piper's brother blows into town and his presence puts a target on her back. Piper has to learn how to lean on the people around her (and trust that they'll catch her if she falls) and Everett is finding out that high maintenance might just be for him.

A big renovation, a little danger, a remote cabin getaway, and two people who have a whole lot of chemistry for being such opposites. GOOD TIMES!

Under the Milky Way by Jess K. Hardy [Review]

Under the Milky Way (Bluebird Basin #4) by Jess K. Hardy
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: April 15, 2026

Bluebird Basin
1. Come As You Are
2. Lips Like Sugar
3. Wish You Were Here
4. Under the Milky Way - Paperback | Kindle

Jess K. Hardy
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

They came for solitude and found each other instead.

After her son leaves for college and her empty nest feels more like an abandoned tomb, single mom Hannah James escapes to a remote cabin in Balsam Ridge, Montana, hoping solitude, stargazing, and small-town quiet will help her learn how to be alone again. What she doesn’t expect? A gorgeous stranger at her cabin door wearing only a towel.

Single dad Darryn Madigan has been retreating to Balsam Ridge every Labor Day weekend for years after visiting his brother Matthew in Red Falls. He’s there to unplug, reset, and enjoy the peace of an off-grid mountain town. But everything changes when Hannah shows up with heartbreak in her honey-brown eyes, claiming the cabin is supposed to be hers.

When Darryn gives Hannah a very good reason to stay, a vacation gone wrong turns into a steamy, serendipitous connection neither of them planned. But when real life comes calling, they’ll discover that making one perfect weekend last forever takes more than chemistry. It takes courage, honesty, and a little long-distance help all the way from Bluebird Basin.

Thoughts on Under the Milky Way: There's something about those Madigan men, isn't there? Darryn is a complete sweetheart who tries to rein himself in just so he doesn't scare away the best thing that ever broke down in tears on his porch. Hannah is...well, she's a little bit of an emotional mess (understandably so) and Darryn is just the thing she doesn't know she was looking for.

No lie, that Balsam Ridge magic sure knew what it was doing when it tangled these two together.

So. Darryn is on his annual Balsam Ridge retreat. He's not looking forward to the quiet and solitude maybe as much as he usually is, but a double booked cabin takes care of that. Hannah is everything he ever dreamed of in a woman. She fits him in ways he wasn't expecting. She's heartbroken about her son moving away for college and Darryn is able to help her through that since he's had his own experience with an empty nest.

As for Hannah, she did NOT expect to find a hot man who ticks off all her boxes in the cabin she rented. He's genuine and caring and he REALLY knows how to show a lady a good time. While she thoroughly enjoyed their time together, Hannah tries to be realistic and not get too attached because all great weekend cabin romances must come to an end. Right?

As a romance-adjacent aside: KEV! That man sure knows how to distill relationship problems down to their bare bones and relate it back to those sexy, sexy books he reads. The speakerphone roundtable with him and the other couples was EVERYTHING. *thumbs up*

Platform Decay by Martha Wells [Review]

Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries #8) by Martha Wells
Format: hardcover
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: May 7, 2026

The Murderbot Diaries
1. All Systems Red
2. Artificial Condition
2.5. Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
3. Rogue Protocol
4. Exit Strategy
4.5. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
5. Network Effect
6. Fugitive Telemetry
7. System Collapse
8. Platform Decay - Hardcover | Kindle

Martha Wells
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for... eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

Thoughts on Platform Decay: For a construct who doesn't really like spending time around people, Murderbot sure ends up spending a lot of time around people. Saving them, specifically. This time around, it's some of Mensah's extended family who've been caught up in the corporate politics stemming from when Murderbot and its people thwarted Barish-Estranza's almost-subjugation of an entire planet of people into indentured servitude. Yeah, Murderbot really messed up their plans and they are NOT happy about it.

(To be fair, ART and various others were also involved in stopping BE, but Mensah's family seemed like an easy target, I guess. Which is ridiculous when you consider they have a SecUnit willing to go to EXTREMES to keep Mensah and her family safe.)

Murderbot and Three have a plan in motion to rescue one of Mensah's marital partners, one of Mensah's offspring, and Nanna Naja (who might actually be related to one of Mensah's marital partners, but is (regardless) considered to be like a grandmother to the brood) from a nightmarishly large space station. Let's just say this is a high priority extraction with a lot of moving parts and leave it at that.

No, I can't leave it. Because when things go sideways, Murderbot has to make an agreement to help some others off the station. As the rescue group gets larger, things get exponentially more complicated. Murderbot has to come up with plans on the fly, deal with any potential fallout from making sure its people survive, and do whatever needs to be done to keep it and its charges safe.

GOOD TIMES. (As as aside, with so many SecUnits now able to code break their governor modules, what does that mean for the future? TIME WILL TELL, I GUESS!)

Alien Tower by Honey Phillips [Review]

Alien Tower (Alien Wolf Tales #8) by Honey Phillips
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: April 14, 2026

Alien Wolf Tales
1. Big, Bad Alien
2. Alien Huntsman
3. Alien Charming
4. Cursed Alien
5. Alien Song
6. Alien's Bargain
7. Alien Awakening
8. Alien Tower - Paperback | Kindle

Related Series:
(find all the books in the series on the 1st book review)
How the Aliens Were Won
1. Borgaz

Seven Brides for Seven Alien Brothers
1. Artek

Honey Phillips
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

The tower was never meant to keep her safe.
It was meant to keep her hidden.

Locked in a lonely tower where the jungle meets the sea, Liora has spent her entire life under the protection of a watchful AI guardian. She has never left the tower. Never met another person.

Until a massive Vultor warrior appears at her door.

Baylin came south to investigate an almost forgotten structure mentioned in an old colony record. He never expected to find a beautiful female living inside.

Curious, brave, and far too trusting, Liora is fascinated by the dangerous warrior who has suddenly entered her carefully controlled world.

But when Baylin discovers she carries a powerful secret, he must decide if he can break the tower’s hold before the world discovers she exists.

Because the moment Liora steps outside the walls… everything will change.

Thoughts on Alien Tower: Restless Vultor warrior Baylin is up and he's on a mission to find a distant tower and the mysteries it holds. As it turns out the mystery is a sweet human woman who's curious and brilliant and who's never set foot outside her tower. A woman who calls to Baylin in ways he never expected.

Liora is caught in a cage she can't see. The tower is a prison, the AI threaded through it controls every aspect of her life. She longs to see the outside world and experience life, but she's been told it's too dangerous and she's safest within the tower walls. Baylin's arrival at her tower cracks open her understanding of everything she's ever believed. His very presence has her asking questions and pushing the boundaries the AI has set for her.

Together, they begin to unravel why she's been confined to the tower and how to dismantle the walls of her prison. Which is harder than it seems because the tower is impregnable and almost indestructible and the AI keeping the doors locked is sunk into every part of the building.

A mysterious structure, an AI that is determined to carry out what it's been programmed to do, a warrior who was looking for a purpose, and a gifted woman who finds joy in everything she encounters. *thumbs up*

RtP's Week in Review (08/23/26)

Reading the Paranormal's Week in Review

• Cottonmouth by Naomi Lucas [Review] - Naga love!
• I Punched an Alien and Now We're in Couples Therapy by Kimberly Lemming [Review] -
• Titanoboa by Naomi Lucas [Review] - More naga love!
• Copperhead by Naomi Lucas [Review] - Even MORE naga love!
• The Pixie in the Pickle Jar by Hailey Edwards [Review] - Ana and Rian!
• Stuffed by my Dryad Stepbrother by Zoe Krave [Review] - Monster love!

Bookish Delights

• Books added to the pile
• None!
• Currently reading
• C is for Captive by Honey Phillips

Stuffed by the Dryad Stepbrother by Zoe Krave [Review]

Stuffed by the Dryad Stepbrother (Green World Monster Stepbrothers #4) by Zoe Krave
Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: April 5, 2026

Green World Monster Stepbrothers
1. Claimed by the Orc Stepbrother
2. Knotted by the Werewolf Stepbrother
3. Taken by the Minotaur Stepbrother
4. Stuffed by the Dryad Stepbrother - Kindle
5. Caught by the Drider Stepbrother

Related Series:
(find all the books in the series on the 1st book review)
Primal Monster Stepbrothers
1. Stepbrothers of the Green World

Zoe Krave
| Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Escaping from the dying Earth through the portals was only the beginning. To find us a safe place in the Green World, my mother married the Dryad High Elder.

My stepbrother, Thorne, is a force of nature. He is seven feet of muscle and living wood, with glowing emerald eyes that strip me bare. While other dryads are the calm of the forest, he is the storm. He watches me with a hunger that has nothing to do with family. He looks at me like a rare flower he intends to transplant into his own private garden. I tried to keep my distance, but when he decides it is time to claim what is his, escape becomes impossible. He is determined to root himself deep inside me.

Thoughts on Stuffed by the Dryad Stepbrother: Reading these out of order (because the spidery dude caught my eye first) and Thorne is a little...huh. I don't actually know how to put this. Lily very much initially wanted to escape from Thorne and everything he represented where Hallie was VERY into Arans and could freely admit it to herself before things progressed. I guess I'm trying to say that Thorne had to use the stick (*snerk*) before Lily would admit to both herself and him that she wanted exactly what he wanted.

Anywho. Lily is trying to escape the forest and her Dryad stepbrother's influence. She's convinced herself she'd be better off in a rumored human enclave, but before she reaches the borders of the Dryad land, Thorne catches up to her. And he uses her desires against her to get her to admit that she really didn't want to escape after all.

Things get physical, Lily learns just how creative Thorne can get with his ability to control the environment around him, and Lily has to come to terms with all the pent up feelings she has for her very dominant step.