Beached by Ros Baxter

Title:  Beached

Series:  Aegira Chronicles #2

Author:  Ros Baxter

Published:  April 1st 2014 by Escape Publishing

Length:  237pgs

Format:  ARC ecopy

Genre:  paranormal romance

Shelf:  review

Rating:  ★★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

How far will a gentle sea princess go to save the home she loves?

When the clerk at a burger joint is assaulted for trying to sell a fish burger to a hot blonde, it’s just the beginning of a clash between Land and Sea. The world is going mad, and Princess Lecanora is on a special mission to stop it. There are just a few complications…

First, life on the land is a bit harder to adjust to than expected, what with the wearing of clothing and the consuming of delicious (but pointless) calories. Second, the most evil magician the world has ever seen wants her as his bride — consensually or otherwise. Finally, a completely inappropriate gun-toting mercenary who goes against every one of her pacifist principles keeps rocking her world.

As the forces of darkness gather, Lecanora must come to terms with the lengths she will go to in order to save the sea home she has always known, and the land she has come to love.

My Review:

I didn’t think it was possible but this novel is even better than the first in the series. This novel is vividly real and extremely realistic. Baxter draws you all the way into this world, with no chance of escape. It’s also excitingly suspenseful. The story line grabs you and doesn’t let go, not even at the end. I found myself so drawn in that I didn’t want it to end. Baxter works action, suspense, and love in without ever sacrificing parts of the vivid and immaculately presented world that she has created for the audience.

I found myself falling further and further in love with this cast throughout this novel. Characters who seemed aloof and unapproachable in the first novel of the series took a more prominent role in this story. They didn’t all of a sudden become approachable, likeable characters but as a reader you really got to understand how they became who they were. I found myself feeling for them throughout, and becoming closer to them. And don’t even get me started on the main characters. They are absolutely phenomenal. As individuals they are far from flawless, yet they are ideal individuals. So real and captivating. And Baxter has nailed character growth without changing who those characters are on a fundamental level. Not only does it make it easy to identify with the characters, but you also get to know them without losing the fantastic storyline in the midst. Yup, that’s right. The cast of this fantastic novel becomes your friends and family, making it next to impossible to let them go at the end.

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Lingerie For Felons by Ros Baxter

Title:  Lingerie for Felons

Author:  Ros Baxter

Published:  March 1st 2014 by Escape Publishing

Length:  222pgs

Format:  ARC ecopy

Genre:  contemporary romance

Shelf:  review

Rating:  ★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

If there’s one universal truth, it’s this: You’re always wearing your worst underwear when you land in trouble.

Lola’s parents told her that everyone can make a difference. And she believed them. She’s been fighting the good fights since she was eleven years old. But at 23, Lola falls hard for an Australian stockbroker who thinks Doctors Without Borders is a porno and Joni Mitchell sounds like a harp seal being battered to death. She cuts him loose, but over the next fifteen years, through protests, misunderstandings, humiliating predicaments, and a number of poor underwear choices, their lives and paths continue to converge.

Along the way, Lola learns a few important life lessons: Never wear a red lace thong to a strip search. Make sure you take motion sickness pills if you’re going to the Southern Ocean to save the whales. And sometimes, Mr Right can be all wrong, and Mr Wrong just needs time to find the right path.

Funny, touching, emotional and political, Lingerie for Felons is Bridget Jones meets An Inconvenient Truth, about doing the right thing, finding the right person, and always thinking through your underwear choices.

Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages.

My Review:

This novel was absolutely hilarious at times. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much. At the same time, Baxter tells a heartfelt and poignant tale of love, loss, and changing the world. The novel does jump around quite a bit at the beginning getting to know the characters and their stories while leading to a feeling of perpetual forward motion. Baxter’s entertaining, lively writing style brought everything together in a very approachable manner.

Baxter fills this novel with approachable, well developed characters that the reader can identify with. I love how full of life the characters were. I also appreciate how they stuck to their ideals while (eventually) learning to compromise for those they care about.

As a whole I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was unique and well written, poignant read. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to step outside the box, as this author does so brilliantly.

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Fish out of Water by Ros Baxter

Title:  Fish out of Water

Author: Ros Baxter

Series:  Aegirian Trilogy #1

Published:  April 1st 2013 by Escape Publishing

Page Count:  169

Genre:  Fantasy Romance

Shelf:  Review Copy

Rating:  ★★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum meets Splash in a sexy, smart-talking debut about a mermaid in a desert, a city under water, and the secret that no one is supposed to uncover.

Dirtwater's straight-talking Deputy Sheriff Rania Aqualina has a lot on her plate: a nicotine addiction that's a serious liability for a mermaid, a soldier-of-fortune ex who's hooked on her Mum's brownies, a gorgeous, naked stranger in her shower, and a mysterious dead blonde with a fish tattoo on Main Street.

Heading home to Aegira for a family wedding, Rania has a sinking feeling that's got nothing to do with hydroporting seven miles under the sea and everything to do with the crazy situation. Now, if she can just steal a corpse, get a crazy Aegiran priest off her case, work out who the hell's trying to kill her, and stop sleeping with the fishes, she might be able to unravel the mysteries. And maybe even save her own ass while she's at it.

Fish out of Water is Stephanie Plum meets Splash, and the first book in a trilogy about Aegira, an underwater kingdom based on the historical Norse legend of Aegir.

My Review:

Baxter has a down to earth, in your face writing style that really puts you in the psyche of the main character. Her short sentence structure adds to the aura of reality and the hard pressing necessity to move forward with every tick tock of the clock, even if you want to stall and move backwards. I found myself completely immersed in the story and the very unique world that the author has created. I could barely put this book down.

I absolutely love the names that Baxter comes up with for places and things. They’re short, to the point, and memorable. They also make you giggle, drawing you further into the web that she weaves. She also uses similes and metaphors to make her beautiful descriptions more intricate. Baxter’s prologue also does a good job of setting up the mythology for the story as well as giving her readers the necessary background information for events that occur further on in the story.

The characters that Baxter has presented in this novel were amazing. By the end of the novel I was wishing that I had the sequel in my hand. I am so in love with these characters that I didn’t want to let them go, even for a second. You get to know the main characters are real people and you find yourself irrevocably enmeshed in their lives.

With this novel Baxter kept me rooting for the main characters, hoping against hope. Baxter made me hope, she made me dream, made me want to fight for what’s right, and she brought tears to my eyes. And above all, Baxter definitely kept me intrigued, captivated, and guessing throughout this unique tale.

Buy your copy online here today!

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