Posted in #LGTBQ+

The Devil on my Chest: Rocky and Mal’s Story (Arrowtown Book 10)

“I can’t feel my wolf. I don’t know how much longer I can go on.”

Sheriff Rocky has been fighting some inner demons that seem more real than most. When he finally loses his control completely, committing a near-criminal act, it has people around him realizing he needs more help than the good folk at Arrowtown can give him.

“I’m not letting you go without a fight, you stupid wolf. Don’t you know how much I love you?”

Mal, Rocky’s closest friend, can’t imagine a life without Rocky. His journey to fight for his friend takes them to New York where a diagnosis is easy enough, but the cure for what ails Rocky could have life changing ramifications. Mal would have to claim him.

Can you save me from Mrs. Hooper? She’s got two of her boys with her and there’s probably a wooden spoon in her handbag.

Back in Arrowtown, Rocky and Mal settled into life together. In a lot of ways, it’s no different to what they enjoyed before until Mal’s wolf starts pushing for Mal to tell Rocky an impossible truth. Will they ever get their happy-ever-after, or will their lives come crumbling down in the back of a police cruiser?

Rocky and Mal’s story is the last book in the Arrowtown series, and while it could be read as a standalone, the relationships between secondary characters and more in depth knowledge of past events would be clearer if you read the other books preceding this one.

This is an MM Fated Mates story and contains mpreg. If this is not your type of story, then thank you for reading this far and have a lovely day.

Posted in Book Tours

Had Me At Howdy

Had Me At Howdy
Mary Karlik
(A Hillside * Spring Creek Novel)
Publication date: November 22nd 2025
Genres: Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Platinum credit card? Deactivated. New car? Sold. Best life ever? Canceled.

Thanks to my dad losing his job, we’ve ditched Chicago for Fumbuck, Texas—population: redneck. Now I’m living on a rundown farm, scrubbing dishes, and driving a rusty pickup. Worst of all? I’m stuck working alongside a cowboy.

But this Cinderella isn’t giving up. I’ll claw my way back to the luxe life I left behind—and no one, not even infuriatingly chill, stupidly handsome Austin McCoy is going to stop me. Even if he does make feeding the chickens weirdly… enjoyable.

She thinks she’s just passing through. I’m hoping she stays.
I kind of feel for the Quinn sisters. City girls don’t belong in Spring Creek—but Kelsey? There’s more to her than designer labels and eye rolls. When she forgets to be angry, I see it—like the way her eyes light up when she feeds the chickens.

Now all I have to do is convince her the guy she really wants is me, not some rich dude taking her to a ball in Chicago.

Content Warning: This work contains a subplot involving death, grief, and an off-page instance of date rape. While these events are not depicted directly, they are referenced and may be distressing to some readers.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

The universe had completely crapped on Kelsey Quinn’s life.

She dabbed at her eyes, blew her nose, and wadded up the tissue before dropping it to the pile on the seat next to her. Pressing her forehead against the car window, she watched the scenery fly by at seventy miles per hour. They passed Bob’s Stay and Go combination gas station—fast food restaurant—hotel, followed by some weird concrete starship-shaped pizza parlor. Next, three-foot fluorescent letters screamed about redemption across a junkyard fence surrounding rusted pieces of mangled metal. The few words of scripture painted there weren’t going change her fate. Her dad was in the driver’s seat and they were heading straight for the armpit of Texas.

With a sigh she slumped against the seat and tried not to think about the boyfriend who’d been ripped from her life, or the best friend she’d been forced to leave behind. But it wasn’t just her forced exile from Drew and Zoe. She’d lost her identity. At St. Monica’s, she knew who she was and where she fit in. It was her senior year, the year she’d looked forward to for as long as she was in school. They had taken it away with less thought than the car they’d sold one afternoon while she and Zoe were shopping. None of it was her fault. She was a victim of her dad’s incompetence on one hand and her sister’s immorality on the other.

Her dad exited onto a two-lane highway where they were greeted by a faded, Welcome to Hillside Texas, Population 5000, sign. They slowed to a crawl as they entered the town. At a four-way stop her mom screeched, “Oh my God Tom, look at the cute little diner. We’re all starving, let’s stop before we go to the house.”

“Sounds good to me. Jack’s not expecting us for another couple of hours anyway.” Dad angled the Infinity between two pickup trucks and turned off the engine.

The diner was nestled in the center of a row of dilapidated two story buildings. Early Bird Café was painted in bright blue letters across the glass. Kelsey pulled her compact mirror from her purse and studied her reflection. She’d been crying for two days, no amount of makeup magic would fix her swollen red eyes. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care about this place or these people. She sure as heck didn’t care what they thought about her. She shoved the mirror back into her purse.

Her younger sister, Ryan, looked all wide-eyed and curious. And worse, she actually looked excited to investigate this hick little town. Why not? It was her fault they were in this mess in the first place. Her parents would have been justified to ship Ryan off to some kind of school for troubled kids. But no—Quinns don’t give up on their own. Everybody had to suffer because Ryan couldn’t say no to drugs or boys.

Mackenzie, Kelsey’s youngest sister, flipped her compact gymnast’s body from the third seat to the back seat nailing Ryan in the shoulder with her foot.

“Watch it!” Ryan drew her fist back, but before she could get the hit off Mackenzie flashed a cherub smile and released a powder sugar apology. Yeah. That wasn’t an accident. Kelsey almost smiled when she saw foot impact with shoulder. Mackenzie had been fairly silent about the ruin Ryan’s exploits had done to her life. Apparently, she had her limits too.

Author Bio:

Join Mary’s newsletter: https://maryjwilson.com/contact/

Mary Karlik (also writing as Mary J. Wilson) combines her Texas roots with her Scottish heritage to write happily-ever-afters from Texas to Scotland.

Mary has five indie-published contemporary young adult romance novels and two fantasy novels.

Mary earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is currently studying Scottish Gaelic at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye, Scotland. She is also a certified, professional ski instructor and a Registered Nurse.

Mary is an active member of Contemporary Romance Writers, Romance Writers of America, and Dallas Area Romance Authors. Married to a Scott, Mary lives in both and Scotland and Texas.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Facebook / Newsletter / Bookbub


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Posted in #LGTBQ+

Ness’s Wait (Arrowtown Book 9)

There are times when being a legendary shifter is a plain pain in the butt, and this is one of those times…

Farness Duncan, more commonly known as Ness or Nessie, had lived his life quite happily for more than three thousand years. An extremely rare kind of shifter, he lives simply, helping others through his funding foundation and traveling the world whenever he needed too. But at his heart, he called Arrowtown home. However in recent months Ness had been getting increasingly restless and even Doc couldn’t help, although it was him who suggested Ness’s beastie was getting ready to mate. The problem was, to who?

This has to be the most ridiculous version of winging it I’ve ever done.

Cyrus Marinus, gangster and great white shark shifter knew who Ness was to him the moment he saw him striding through the airport in Las Vegas. Fueled by his shark, he hunts the man down in Scotland, witnessing the most amazing transformation he’d ever seen. But while the claiming part was easy, once Ness got over his shock, settling down and building a life together wasn’t without it’s problems, especially when Ness learns early on the type of life Cyrus was used to living.

Everyone can change if they have the right incentive.

While Cyrus and Ness are happy with each other, other family members are not as pleased with their mating. There was also the little issue that Ness’s beastie was aching for something more, but if Ness and Cryus gave into their instincts, then one of them was going to end up pregnant. For two accomplished businessmen with world wide interests, was that really the best idea?

Silly question, lol. Cyrus and Ness’s story involves some unusual stains on the carpet, more than a few references to killing someone, family drama, mpreg, and an HEA because with a Lisa Oliver story, that’s guaranteed.

Posted in #LGTBQ+

Hal’s Silence (Arrowtown Book 8)

Determined to do more than hide out in Arrowtown, Lion shifter Hal Lamont decides to head out on a road trip. Armed with his speech app, enough pens and papers to sink a battleship, and a deep desire to find his long lost confidence, he sets out, planning a short stay in Jackson before seeing where the open road will take him. But a random night out in the predominantly human town changes his world in a way he doesn’t imagine – and not necessarily for the better.

Blade Morgan was a shark shifter, but he didn’t see why it should stop him making a success of the casino he had been operating in Jackson. Unfortunately, the local council see things differently. One night, while doing his best to keep patrons happy, he sees the haunted yet amused eyes of a shifter as the man was heading out the door. Blade was compelled to give chase – and got more than he bargained for.

Surprisingly communication was one of the easiest hurdles in Hal’s and Blade’s new mating. But between the local council, a woman hellbent on revenge, and a shooter who missed his target, the start to their new life together wasn’t easy. Keep an eye out for a Jaws-fixated waiter, a Fae who finds Hal’s phone at just the right time, and some grumpiness from Doc among others.

Hal’s Silence is an MM Paranormal Romance story featuring Fated Mates. It was written for mature audiences. Please store your e-content responsibly. This book can be read as a standalone, but you will get more understanding of the secondary characters and more details on how Hal lost his tongue, if you read Liam’s Lament (Book 3) first.


Guardian_angel54
5.0 out of 5 stars.
Shark and lion love.
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2025.
Format: Kindle. Verified Purchase.
I think one of the things that I love most about Lisa Oliver's stories is that she tackles real life scenarios and situations in such an amazing and understanding way. She gives her characters real hurdles to overcome - just like in real life - and she shows that love, communication, family, and tenacity are all that is needed to prevail. Hal has been kind of a background character since Liam's book and I loved that he was given a chance to shine in his own story. The trauma that he went through was deeply profound yet Lisa doesn't let him fall into simply being a "rescued victim" but allows him to bloom into a determined survivor. Blake was a great mate for Hal to have been fated to, because he truly wanted to be supportive, without patronizing, and was also tough enough in his own right, to stand next to the lion shifter that the Fates determined was his. I love the veritable variety of shifters that we get to meet - in this case a Great White Shark - and all the fun idiosyncrasies that each one brings! The entire Arrowtown series is just fantastic and I highly recommend each and every one. 5/5*
Posted in #LGTBQ+

Brutus’s Surprise (Arrowtown Book 7)

Brutus had found his groove in Arrowtown. Having traveled with Ra and his friends for years, he was now content to help out Fergus at the local bakery and spend his free time as an uncle to his friend’s children. Finding a mate was one of those “it might be nice one day” scenarios, that Brutus wasn’t chasing too hard. Until he got home one day and was greeted with the alluring scent of strawberries and cream. The man coming down the stairs to greet him was exactly Brutus’s type, but the big bear shifter had never considered having a human as a mate.

Heath’s bad day had been going on for weeks. Escaping his dray was just the first step in a string of bad luck experiences that looked like they were finally turning around when he met up with some friendly shifters in Arrowtown. Being taken to a huge house and quite literally meeting his mate that same day, was amazing. Was it too much to hope that Heath’s luck had finally changed?

But Heath’s ex-alpha was not a forgiving type, and biker squirrels were no joke. Add in a squirrel desperate to shift, and a little girl Fae with a love of all things pink and purple, and Heath and Brutus’s mating seems to be one surprise after another. But even surprises can out live their usefulness and maybe the last surprise is the one that breaks Heath and Brutus both.

Brutus’s Surprise is an MM Paranormal Romance story that can be read as a standalone, although a deeper appreciation of the secondary characters and the world rules can be had, if you read the previous books in the series. As always, some bad language, a spot of violence and intimate situations between adults are included. Please store your ebooks responsibly.


Guardian_angel54
5.0 out of 5 stars.
The baker Bear and the Flying Squirrel.
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2022.
Format: Kindle Verified Purchase .
I think one of the things I like best about this series is the diversity in animal forms and human sides. Heath might be a small, twinkish squirrel shifter but he's sassy and caring and tough. Although he is being hunted by his old dray (squirrel pack), he strives to keep a positive attitude and tries to embrace finding his fated mate. Brutus may be an endangered California Grizzly, big and muscled, but inside he's just a sort marshmallow! I like how the apex shifters aren't all portrayed as walking aggressive, testosterone factories. They can be sweet and caring and vulnerable. The smaller prey shifters are allowed to be fierce in spirit and strong in character. It's a nice change from stereotypical roles and makes the characters feel more realistic. Relatable. This was a great addition to the series and I'm very excited to see who finds their fated mate next. As much as I want Nessie to get his HEA, I'm still holding out for Mal and Rocky to discover that they are actually mates - maybe they just need a third to jumpstart things! Fingers crossed! 😁