Z. Allora

In Yaoified Love, we meet Rory Lewis, a Yaoi fan and college student, and Kyle Austin, another Yaoi fan and student. The story is told in third person through Rory’s eyes.



This book was fun. The writing was playful, easy to read, and I didn’t want to put the book down. The plot was written like a ‘real life’ version of Yaoi that took place at a Yaoi convention. Rory goes to the convention with his best friend and falls head over heels in lust for Kyle. Kyle fits all of Rory’s fantasies of the perfect dominant Yaoi male. They keep running into each other, with Rory having conflicted feelings about Kyle. Kyle doesn’t have mixed feelings. He wants Rory and searches for him whenever Kyle can. However, Rory keeps running away.

Yaoified Love had me smiling throughout. The epilogue is perfectly sweet. If anyone is looking for a fluffy, quick read, I recommend this book. It was totally fun. I give this story, 4 Stars

… (mer)

The Librarian’s Rake is the typical opposites attract story. It stars Tristan Cooper, a librarian, and Phillip, a hairdresser. It’s told in third person from both characters povs.



The book is quick to read and doesn’t have any angst to it. The plot is pretty mellow and slow moving. The blurb mentions the grandfather’s meddle with matchmaking, but I didn’t find that to be true. It’s more like they met because of their grandfathers and received some advice from them, but that’s it. Not like they connived to get Tristan and Phillip together.

Tristan isn’t very sexually experienced and he’s been called boring by past boyfriends. This makes him insecure. When he meets Phillip, he’s attracted to him because Phillip is everything Tristan wants to be. Phillip is outgoing, sexually adventurous and doesn’t want more than a one-blowjob stand. Phillip also has a past ex-boyfriend who told him he’s not good for anything else, so Phillip fulfills that belief, partly because he doesn’t want to get attached and get another broken heart. Phillip is attracted to Tristan’s shyness and the fact he doesn’t demand anything from Phillip, he just wants his help. So they end up spending more time together, but despite what Tristan thinks he wants to become, his heart already wants Phillip. Which scares Phillip away, but he’s miserable. Fate brings them back together.

I didn’t like Phillip when he first showed up, he was a jerk, and he seemed more interested in manipulating Tristan to get what he wanted. However, because Tristan wasn’t the same type of guy Phillip normally had sex with, it caught him off guard and he started to behave differently. Luckily that happened, because I really didn’t like him. Tristan is restrained so he tends to be a bit on the bland side when it comes to his emotions on page. Phillip was more colorful.

This book is a good read if you want to enjoy something less stressful. I’d call it a fluffy read with a HEA or at least a strong HFN. One last thing, the cover is eye-catching. I like it. I give The Librarian’s Rake, 3 Stars.
… (mer)

Zombies Ahead is the first book in the ‘Club Zombie’ series. It stars Kai Bauer, who is turning into a zombie, and Jasper, a zombie. This is told in third person from Kai and Jasper’s pov.



Since it’s October, I wanted to read a story that would fit into the Halloween theme, but I didn’t want one that had horror or was overly spooky. This book fit those requirements perfectly, and the author gave me a free copy. A review wasn’t required, but here it is.

I enjoyed this story a lot. It had humor, sexual tension, sexy times and believe it or not, lots of romance. The gist of the story is that certain males once they reach nineteen, become zombies, not the horror movie zombies, but zombies that need ‘male essence’ in order to survive. Every zombie longs to find their mate. The zombies, who haven’t, visit Club Zombie where they interact with numerous men to drink their ‘essence’ and hope to find ‘the one’.

The story begins with Kai living in Germany with his cousin, Ulrich, and homophobic uncle. Kai believes he’s straight because of all the negativity about gays spewed by his uncle. That’s the main reason it takes him so long to accept his zombieness and to connect with his mate. One day, strangers arrive to whisk him away to America, but he doesn’t want to leave his cousin behind. However, Ulrich insists he leave, because he’s ‘seen’ that Kai is supposed to go. Ulrich has ‘the Sight’. Kai leaves and settles in at the zombie compound where he lives with Jasper, an ex-priest zombie. He’s been alone for so long, he no longer hopes he will find a mate. His past is one where being gay is a sin, so in that instance, Kai and Jasper have much in common. The story continues as Jasper introduces Kai to Club Zombie, and the two zombies navigate their growing feelings for each other while learning to overcome the negativity they grew up with.

This series once had Yaoi/manga art for the covers and now it has a person. I’m not sure why the cover was changed, but I really liked the art because it seemed to fit the feel of the story. Zombies Ahead was an easy, fast, fun read. If you’re looking for a different take on zombies, try this book. I’m going to read the rest of the series to find out how the other characters find their mates. I give this book a solid 5 Stars.


… (mer)

Zombies Suck is the second book in the ‘Club Zombie’ series. It stars four main characters: Alex Waterman, Ulrich, Cutter and Storm. The story is told in third person from each of their povs.



I read the first book in this series last Halloween so decided I’d keep up the tradition and read the second book this Halloween. As in the first book, the premise is that some males turn into zombies at a certain age. They don’t eat brains as in the horror movies, but they need to intake ‘male essence’ everyday in order to survive. They also have mates, but if they don’t find their mate by a certain age, they become impotent until they find them.

The cover on this book is the second version. The first was artwork with the four characters on it. This one shows Alex, but with red hair. He is actually a blond for most of the story, so I was confused until the explanation was given. The author sprung a surprise that explains Alex’s red hair, which I thought was rather clever.

There are four main characters and I feel like it was too many. I would have preferred the story have been only about Uri and Alex because with four MCs, there wasn’t much time given to each of them, especially when the story was mostly based on sex more than the characters. I couldn’t figure out why Storm was so angry all the time, which was tiresome, other than he had a dominating father, or why he felt unworthy of Cutter. Or why Cutter cut himself and was so insecure. Or even how Alex suddenly felt like a Dom, other than his time was coming up so he had to change. It wasn’t a realization so much as a biological happening. It was like the story was based on Alex, Storm and Cutter having issues, then throwing the four characters together and having their problems solved by becoming partners, lots of BDSM, and sex. And there was a lot of sex, more than in the first book. I liked the story behind Alex and what made him change, but I wish there was more about him and Uli, I didn’t care for Storm or Cutter and couldn’t relate to them as characters.

Overall, I liked the first book much more than this one. This was mostly about sex and delved too little into the characters and what made them tick and unfortunately, I didn’t find the story very memorable, other than Alex. Even though Zombies Suck didn’t work for me, I plan on reading the next book because the idea behind the series is good and because the hook at the end of this story was about Storm’s brother walking into the club. I just hope the next book isn’t so heavy on the sex again and it’s more about the characters instead. I give Zombies Suck, 3 Stars.

… (mer)