Progress on Love & A Dark Romance Series to Compete with My Favorite

I’ve made great progress with my next book this week. Last week, I really didn’t get much, but I did write 800 more words than my minimum this past week.

I’m still waiting for my beta readers to finish my book, but I will be starting today on edits for those who have finished. Ten more days and I’ll be cutting off the time though, because at that point, it will have been over one month that my book has been in my beta reader’s hands, and I have to stay on track with my following edits/revisions if I still want to get my book released on time.

Edit, format, edit, different format, edit, receive proof, edit. There’s a lot to do, and that’s me explaining it the easy way. The final—absolute final—draft of my book will need to be complete by December 23rd, so that I can send out ARC copies and send my formatted PDF and book cover to the company that will be printing my book.

Reading Recommendations

I did quite a bit of reading this week, more than usual, but I’m not sure how many I would recommend, so I’ll leave it at my favorite.

Mister B Gone by Clive Barker. If you like Clive Barker and experimental writing, I highly recommend this. I will say that I didn’t care for most of the middle of the book, as it took a long time to get to the real storyline—what the blurb was actually about. But that ending… that ending was spectacular.

Pretty Dark Vows by Callie Rose, as part of the Ruthless Hearts series. This is a why choose dark romance, and when I first started reading it, this was a book to compete with my favorite dark romance series (Filthy Wicked Psychos series by Eva Ashwood, if you’ve been following me long enough, you already know that). And as much as I gave this book five stars, I will say that I’m disappointed with the ending.

It’s supposed to end with HEA (happily ever after), but I don’t see how that would happen at all with what happened with the last several pages of this book (book one of a trilogy), by means of the FMC. I know that this is fiction and dark romance, but sometimes there are just things that a character shouldn’t be able do and still gain trust and respect back. And what she did… that is one. With all the talk of loyalty, trust, and respect, there is no way I could truly see these MMCs forgive her at all. But of course, they will, because HEA.

My Current Read

I’m currently still reading Losing Lola by Jim Flynn Six, and it’s getting good. This isn’t a romance, more of a thriller/murder story set on Wall Street, but it’s really good. I’m only 90 pages in, and two people have… I won’t give anything away.

I’m also reading the second book in the Ruthless Hearts series by Callie Rose, called Pretty Wicked Secrets. After the ending of book one, I’m not excited for the rest of this book. I know I’ll still read it, but there is no way I’m going to be able to give it 5 stars, at least not unless it takes a serious, true, loyalty turn where she practically gives her life to these men, which—I suppose that isn’t out of the questions. That’s why I’m still reading this series. Also, because I really love the MMCs, all three of them are fantastic, which is why I thought this book would compete with Filthy Wicked Psychos.

Also, I can’t listen to audiobooks anymore. Mister B Gone was great, but I tried listening to another audiobook—a romance audiobook again—but I just can’t. It reminds me why I don’t like listening to audiobooks. I’ll just stick with general fiction or nonfiction with my audiobooks. I’m sure I’ll try one more time with another romance, as I’ve got one on my list that has promise, which is a dark romance, but we’ll see.

Recent Finds Unrelated to Reading

Candles. I’ve recently found myself liking the idea of candle making. This is also related to a book release I have coming up next year, specifically with book two of The Barrenmire Lights collection, which will be released in June 2025.

Recent Movies & TV Shows

Dr. Odyssey was crazy this week! They really mixed a super sad storyline with spice. I expected it, by the way, I called it! Well, maybe not, but I definitely suspected it might happen. Now, I’m hoping the spicy storyline will go in another direction.

911: Lone Star also surprised me this week, but then I remembered that this is the last season, and we’re almost at the end. I suspect a couple people will be leaving the firehouse permanently.