This a quick read with some fun spice! Overall, I have to admit I think this missed the mark for me. There are great bones here, but this story needs a little more attention. Overall it felt like the author sped through it. In order to give a proper review of why this is a 3 star review for me, this review CONTAINS SPOILERS.

...You have been warned. If you'd rather read and make a determination on your own I'd recommend you stop reading this review here.

Emily, the FMC, applies for a personal assistant role to Mr. Lane (one of the twins). She's admittedly a hot mess broke disaster. Something about her catches one of the brothers attention. This was the first miss for me. For a proper "instalove" story, you NEED to explain the draw. It's half heartedly implied that she is an interest to the twins because she is authentic and not fake or plastic. But that implication isn't really clear and its full expressed until halfway through book. Without even a sprinkling of theory in the beginning, the instalove for them just doesn't make sense. The story would significantly benefit from the brothers explaining why she stands out, why she's intriguing, why they think she would be willing to share them.

During the first spice scene, the two brothers are playing with her in the CEO office. We learn she is a virgin and this is another piece that without additional context just doesn't fit for me. It doesn't quite make sense to me that a virgin would be comfortable with 2 men, in an office at work, when her consent isn't explicit. I need more context for these taboo situations to make sense. Examples: Some background of fantasies she's had. Additional sexual tension building where this is a snapping point. etc.

Those were the two examples for me that stood out the most, but there were many parts of this story that would benefit from additional context and story. It felt rushed.

If you are in the mood for a cute, funny, and novella/novelette (I never remember which is which) this one checks all the boxes!

Anyone who is a fan of shifter and/or sentient object romances will love this quick read. All of us who enjoy sentient object/shifter have pictured "wouldn't it be great if this were me?"... lucky for our Beauty here SHE gets chosen by the universe (not me, I'm not jealous). Rose takes a sabbatical and ends up stumbling into a brand new rose personal toy and what better time to explore y0urself that when you're on a solo vacation.

Rose's character is the embodiment of every working female who is tired from the world. We have all wanted to take a solo vacation and just turn it all off for a bit. She is adventurous, friendly and a little sarcastic.

Rhodes, our cursed gentleman trapped in toy form, is just ready to fall in love but he really needs someone willing to take a chance. Hard to manage that when he's stuck as a toy... Thankfully he does get a little assistance. When human, his banter with Rose is LAUGH OUT LOUD. Meghan manages to make so many tongue in cheek moments and quips with her writing style.

Anyone who enjoys adventurous spice and shifter/sentient romance will love this.

Review of the narration: AMAZING. As a frequent audiobook "reader", I've heard a lot of different types of narration and Finian really masters the "voice acting". He seamlessly moves from character to character with incredible voices that match exactly what I would expect the character to sound. His soothing voice does a wonderful job bringing this story to life. HIGHLY recommend a "read and listen" to everyone.

Review of the story: I have so many thoughts I don't even know where to start if I'm honest. This book was INCREDIBLE.

World building/Magical Environment - Stacey does a beautiful job setting the scene. Her descriptions are wonderful, I feel like I am sitting in the world observing the story as its unfolding in front of me. The magical environment she created is so thorough and creative. I loved watching/reading Kye attempt to find what his affinity would be. Several different kinds of magic and each with a beautifully detailed history behind it.

The relationships - Kye and Arden have the most wonderful acolyte/master relationship. They are fiercely protective of each other. They trust each other and slowly start to open up their emotions, thoughts, and fears as their time together moves forward. Despite humans being looked down on, Kye does manage to find a few people who stick by his side. Celeste is the sweetest "mother adjacent" figure ANY of us could ever want. She's sweet and caring and her love language is food (same girl same). She and Kye have this budding friendship that is just the sweetest, and she really brings out a soft and sweet side of Kye.

Arden is powerful, sarcastic, protective, vicious when necessary, and extremely well versed in the game of politics. Though he doesn't "participate" he sure uses it to his advantage in the most brilliant ways. I loved seeing Kye bloom under Arden's "watch", you can see pieces of Arden's personality come up in Kye as the story progresses.

Saiyah is the brilliant "elf friend" we all need, she's extremely smart openly shares and challenges her peers and partners.

AND THE VILLAINS... I LOVE to hate a villain and let me tell you Umbree and Orin and the absolute worse and I want the worst to happen to them. (in the best way).

If you are a lover of adventurous fantasy stories with extremely well developed characters and magical worlds, this is for you. I'm (im)patiently waiting for book 2!

If you love clever writing, this MUST be on your TBR. The very first thing I noticed after I started reading Semester Aboard was how clever the author was. Every word choice was very clearly intentionally placed. Now having finished the book, I can remember a lot of foreshadowing and well placed words AND it makes me want to read again to see what I will catch the second time around that I missed the first time around. THAT makes an incredible author to me. If you can make me want to reread your book immediately after I finished, you've been moved to Top Tier.

In addition to the clever word play, the story was wonderful and immersive. The magic in this world was thoroughly built brick by brick making it such that you really believe this could be our reality.

I want to be Jen, the FMC. She discovers she has magical capabilities and stumbles into a group of other magics who help her train this skill and it made me want to climb into the story and join them. How I would LOVE to discover I had magic...

The group she stumbles into - Danio, Mariana, Charlie, Thomas, Tethys - are extremely well developed characters that are easy to love. The personalities are so unique and their actions and traits and even the way they speak matches their individual magical abilities. (SO CLEVER JUST GO READ IT).

Naturally, just learning how to use magic isn't exciting enough. The team gets trapped on this cruise ship with a vampire who a threat to them and the humans aboard. Insert Magical Battles HERE.

Deliciously dark shifter/paranormal romance erotica novella -check your triggers before continuing, there are many

Dropped into the tension of a marriage on the end of failure, we're introduced to Mira who is dealing with abandonment issues related to her husband Connor never being home. Meanwhile, he tasks his two friends/pack mates to keep an eye on his wife. Adrian is clearly the friend who enjoys pushing buttons and testing boundaries. Mark is the quieter protective type. When Connor sees that Adrian is toeing a line, he sends Mark over. Cue the beast in Connor. Mira crossed a line, and now his beast must punish his wife.

Despite this being a novella, these characters are shockingly well developed. Adrian tests boundaries and loose with rules, Mark is quiet and protective, Connor is the lead of the crew. An alpha type. Mira is touch starved with her husband always on the road. The story skips any meet cute because this couple is already married, but we get a sense of the relationship dynamic and the hurdles they face.

All in all, this was a quick and very enjoyable read! Reminder this is an erotica novella, heavy spice, heavy triggers...heavy beasts.

This is EVERYTHING I wanted in a contemporary romance.

1. Both characters are working adults, I love this. It makes it much more relatable for me. No hate to college romances, but academia was a long time ago for me. Though I love daydreaming like I'm back there, its much more relatable to have at least 1 main character close to my age.
2. Emotional scars. Lets be honest. We ALL have them. Its validating to read a character who responds like I would in the heat of the moment as opposed to how I wish I responded with hindsight.
3. Body image issues. AGAIN. We ALL have them. Again this is just validating.

Right from the beginning of the story we get to experience the flirting and attraction between Kennedy and Hawk. Their pairing, while quite an excellent version of "forced proximity" and "found family", is quite atypical (in the best way of course). Much of this story becomes about overcoming inner demons and the world as they each learn acceptance and love together.

Hawk has not only replaced all of my previous book boyfriends, but as a mother I ADORE how he interacted with Maisie. As a woman, I ADORE how much respect he shows all the women in his life. He is the perfect book boyfriend. As Kennedy's personality starts to come through, I found her extremely relatable. She was put in multiple difficult situations and managed to come out stronger and with a little extra stone around her heart (don't worry though, it cracks).

This romance story is heartwarming, emotional, and captivating. Packed with flirtation and swoon, sprinkled with spice throughout, a loving found family and LOTS of representation. Insecurities and emotional healing make this story tangible to any reader.

Another excellent read from this collaboration. I feel like the character development here was unbelievably SPOT ON.

Morgan’s back story explaining his need for order, schedules, control. His security company finding lost people. He’s structured, intelligent and always guarded.

Similarly Constance also thrives with structure, schedule and control. She’s a single mother of child with therapy needs who needs more structure and a finer schedule. She’s attentive to detail, extremely aware and also emotionally guarded.

These two both get to “let go”, lose control, forget structure and be free to just feel with each other. The kink in this story and the situations that arise show how each Morgan and Constance let the guards down and live in the moment, allowing a more feral side to come out.

One thing I LOVED was how Chance and Morgan’s meeting occurred. As a mother, I loved everything about how Morgan was with Chance and that’s exactly who I would want in Constance’s shoes.

If you love millionaire romance, touch her and die, single mom, neurodivergent rep, workplace romance, degradation, and kink this is for you!

What an incredible story! I loved the dynamic between all 4 main characters.

It was especially moving/emotional to read Noa's trauma breakthrough in moments. Personally, I felt like that really added a lot to Noa's character development. All the characters go a chance to navigate literal and emotional pieces from Noa's past which added a lot of depth. This book is not tremendously long and Danielle managed to work in quite a deep backstory for honestly all 4 characters.

Havoc was (not shocking if you've seen my book boyfriend type) MY FAVORITE. Big, muscular, rugged exterior...soft and sweet for her interior. Protective to his core. I also loved his backstory.

The relationship between Havoc, Silas, and Thorne was a beautiful addition. I feel like we don't see often alphas that are already bonded together and happy not actively seeking an omega. I liked Danielle's approach with how the pack wanted to approach the idea of an omega.

If you like omegaverse, why choose, emotional healing, diverse character backstories, spice, give this a try!

This was the coziest more adorable little read! I cannot wait for book two. This story a quick read but PACKED full of feel good and magical moments.

Corinna was just a sweet person wanting to survive and help people. I would love to have her trailer to live and bake in. And Chouquette was the perfect little dragon side kick.

I cannot wait to try to bake the cupcakes with the recipe included. It's too bad I don't have any faerie dust, but maybe Zinnia will come visit me too...

I had every intention of reading this alongside some other reads of mine, however once I started "The Academy of Villains" I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN.

I adored every scene that contained Cain and Aiden together, which I'll be honest is a solid 90% of the book because they are roommates. But every bit of their interactions was just a fun rollercoaster to be on. They had some playful banter, Cain's protective side came out with Aiden, Cain's working with Aiden to make sure he passes his tests, etc. Once Alyssa comes into the picture, we get a whole new set of interactions which were so swoonworthy. Book boyfriend material right here.

I'll take a Cain, please. Thank you.

In addition to the bonding we get to witness between Cain and Aiden, as well as the other villains and minions we get to dive into the secrets of Alyssa's mission and her actual purpose of being in the Academy as an undercover Hero. We get to experience a pretty incredible world of Heroes, Villains, and Minions with a plethora of supernatural abilities and power dynamics while she uncovers the secrets of The Academy.

This was a good MM workplace, age gap, romance

I found myself absolutely hating the villains of this story, Robbie. I want to climb into the book and give him a piece of my mind.

I thought Chicora and Sloane had the sweetest relationship. Sloane overall was an excellent MMC.

It was great reading Oliver starting to come into his own and building self confidence. The beginning was a little tough to read cause I was pleading with Oliver to speak up for himself. He learns his voice, I promise.

I expected a little more kink, but the spice was still enjoyable.

The part of the story keeping this from a 5 star was I felt a big part of the plot involved some secrets and the exposure and resolution of those felt a little less involved then i was hoping. I wanted the grit and grovel.

The way Abby wrapped up the story of Kane, Timber and Ollie was honestly so perfect.

I really loved watching Timber sort through his conflicting feelings. Trying to simultaneously be vulnerable and open himself up to Kane and Ollie but also protect his heart from the damage his ex wife did.

The number of times I “facepalmed” to Kanes antics lol. He’s just a lovable goof with excellent intentions and somewhat poor execution. But he’s just a sweetie.

Ollie is such a caring soul, she’s always thinking about others and worrying about those she loves. She pushes back on her omega often but her need to care for the well being and emotional health of those around her screams omega in my opinion.

Overall this part two stayed true to each of their personalities and really shined a light on the struggles and how each of them got beyond the hurdles.

What a start to the CEOs of Kink collaboration!!! This book was outstanding.

Mira is inspirational - she's smart and driven and makes the choice to push her boundaries with Mr. Sir. I love that she gets Sebastian's attention not only from her physique but he's attracted to her mind which I love. Sebastian is a perfect MMC. He's wealthy, driven, caring (only for select people) and... naturally the best part... he's kinky. As Mr. Sir, he helps open up a whole new world for Mira.

But you know what, the best part about this book isn't actually the delicious spice, the storyline of Mira discovering a hidden footnote in a contract that spurs her investigation into the security and money trails is the winner. It was the catalyst that opened the door between her and Sebastian and the mystery we all got to enjoy unfold between the blindfolds.

Dark. Fantasy. Omegaverse. NEED I SAY MORE.

This book was fascinating. Immediately I was sucked into this story, especially because the FMC I'mya doesn't seem to have any memory of how or why she ended up in the Dragorai lair. You get to learn pieces along the way, just like she does. It really makes the world building fun because its not all thrown at you all at once, you're gaining pieces along the way which makes this complex fantasy world much easier to digest.

And let me tell you, if obsessive/possessive is your kind of MMC, then you need this. He is absolutely FERAL for her. The spice is SPICING.

Be sure to check your triggers before diving into this.