In late March, Jeaniene Frost sent me an email. It said, “You’re going to get an email from Amazon. It’s not spam or one of their promos. I sent you a book.”
I thanked her and meant to read the gifted book, but life got in the way. Fast forward 2 weeks, and here I am on the couch, 24 hours post surgery and in desperate need of a distraction. I cracked open my kindle, and there it was.
::imitates the soccer announcers as the ball flies into the net:: It is gooooood! I now share it with you.
Love Bites (Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery Book 1)
A girl’s gotta eat—and so do her three cats. Recently divorced art history grad student Hanna Harvey has just fibbed her way into a job as the assistant to dangerously drool-worthy art gallery owner Mark Abernathy. For Hanna, working in the field she desperately loves provides the perfect opportunity to begin putting her life back together. Soon her cheese budget is in the black and her feline life partners are no longer eyeing her like a six-foot can of Fancy Feast.
But when her boss’s lady friends start turning up dead, Hanna finds herself in the cross hairs of a murder investigation. Even worse, hunky homicide detective James Morrison fears hers might be the next body he discovers.
With the “help” of the gallery’s quirky cast of resident artists, Hanna will have to hunt down the truth about Abernathy’s dark secret—before it hunts her.
What is it? It’s a funny, light paranormal romantic comedy. The prologue is kind of misleading in that it makes you think this is a hardcore urban fantasy mystery/police procedural. It’s not. It’s an honest to goodness PNR, a chocolate eclair of a book.
There is a cast of quirky characters, there are hot dudes who may or may not be more than they appear, and there are one liners. So many great one liners.
“I trust you won’t dishonor the cow by cooking the steak anything more than medium rare.” Abernathy leaned back in his chair, turning a pen end over end on his blotter.
“Are you kidding me? I grew up in Texas. Mostly I just trot the cow past the grill to scare it, then lead it to my plate.”
St. Aubin, Cynthia. Love Bites (Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery Book 1) (pp. 153-154). Oliver Heber Books. Kindle Edition.
The story in a nutshell: Hanna is divorced. The divorce left her penniless and responsible for 3 cats, two of whom are on medication. She is holed up in a tiny studio apartment with said cats and a PhD in Fine Art. The plan was to lick her wounds and land an awesome job. Except the awesome job failed to materialize, it’s been months, and Hanna is scraping the bottom of a deep hole, when she applies to the position of an admin assistant at a local art gallery.
Enter the gallery owner.
I turned on my heel to flee.
“Trying to sneak away?”
And there he was. Leaning in the doorway. Six feet and five inches—or so my ovaries estimated—of chocolate-haired, dark-eyed, expensive suit-wearing sex on a stick.
Mark Abernathy, gallery owner, in the skin.
A strange little smile lit his features as he crossed the distance between us and stepped down to the stair directly in front of mine. I resisted the urge to back away and preserve my bubble of personal space.
“You must be Hanna,” he said. “You look like you sound.”
Pathetic? Nerdy? Depressed? Hungry?
“Mark Abernathy?”
“Most days.”
I might have peed a little when he shook my hand.
“Pleasure to meet you, Hanna.” He gestured toward the door and I saw his office.
If someone detonated five pounds of C4 in the Library of Congress, I imagined this is about what it would look like. Drawers spilling their contents onto the floor in colorful piles. The shelves choking with books, folios, and folders—some dangling precariously in space, held in place by a thick layer of dust. Random objects, presumably overflow from the antiques side of the business, hidden among the debris. Abernathy kicked a path through the carpet of papers, pausing to indicate a waist-high pile of dirty laundry opposite his cluttered desk.
“Won’t you sit down?”
Clutter-blindness. Turns out: totally a thing.
St. Aubin, Cynthia. Love Bites (Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery Book 1) (pp. 12-13). Oliver Heber Books. Kindle Edition.
The gallery has 4 weird artists, there are murders, there are unexpectedly good looking detectives, there is international travel with unusual circumstances, and so on. It is a light paranormal romance with medium heat and very little angst. There is no romantic HEA or HFN, not because it ends badly but because things aren’t quite sorted. There are romantic decisions to be made. It’s a kind of book you read on a weekend on your couch, sipping tea and giggling to yourself.
Love Bites is available on Kindle Unlimited. As always, your mileage will vary, so read a sample first. I haven’t read the second one, so no idea if it’s as good as the first one. There is an audiobook available, but I haven’t listened to it.
Please do not recommend other authors in the comments. This post is for Cynthia’s work.
I’ll give it a try. Just because of the cow quote 😀
My first boyfriend’s mother used to say the same trotting by the fire comment, but without the Texas reference. 😁
I use to say to my mom. who liked really rare steak, “from the moo to you”. She just gave me a look when I started laughing. 😁
It’s Included FREE on Audible with your subscription, right now, if you
like to listen.
Thanks Chris, just added this to my Audible library — something more to listen to while crocheting
+1
Thanks for the info. Went right to Audible and got it. Have just read the kindle version thanks to Ilona and now can listen, too. Love the bdh.
I like her Townsend Harbor series that she writes with Kerrigan Byrne
+1👍🏽
Sometimes (usually when the majority of your life has gone suckworthy sideways) you just need a lighthearted, funny but respectably readable book to smooth out the gnarled brainwaves. A book can be an escape pod and this sounds like it’s a perfect mental vacation.
I love the phrase “respectably readable”. Just because I want something lighthearted doesn’t mean I want it to be ridiculous or poorly written.
Yes, frothy fun doesn’t have to be semi- or even barely literate, I suspect it may be harder to write literate frothy fun and I appreciate it when I find it.
Yes to all of the above.
I started reading the sample. She drives a ’67 Mustang. Sold, says the owner of a ’69 Mustang.
If she’d driven a ‘72 Mustang, I would have had to DNF… Inherited one of those and it almost killed me many times.
Thanks! New reading material is always needed. I hope you are feeling better. I need to finish a surprise baby quilt before I can read. I’m using a blue Busy Town fabric, a 6.5 inch square with 4 strips of 3.5 by 9.5 inch fabric spiraling around it. I used a white with multicolored stars and a goldish yellow with a stylized lion head print that looks like suns. The finished top can look sort of like a lattice or pinwheels depending on how you rotate the blocks. Sorry if that’s too much information. I hope all of your own crafting projects go well!
sounds amazing!
Thank you! I’m always on a look out for writers who can make me giggle.
Hope your recouperation is going well. Just take it easy.
It’s the first of six, five of which are already out. At least half of your recommendations have worked out to be exactly to my taste, so I do plan to try this one.
Thanks for the recommendation! Sometimes a nice cozy and fun read is just the ticket!
Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery! 🤗
Second one is good, too. After meeting Cynthia at Coastal Magic Con in February, I blew through her Kindle Unlimited selection in its entirety. Fun reads!
Was she warned about the BDH? Because it might be slightly alarming to see the amount downloads and purchases all at once!
So true and I had to explain to my boyfriend why I was laughing!!!
The Audiobook on Audible is available with your subscription as well… added to my library
Sounds fun! I gave myself motion sickness scrolling thru Netflix last night looking for just the right amount of humor, fluffiness, paranormal but not a thriller… him: ITS BEEN 40 minutes!! Me: ok. I give up.
Went to bed and read Hugh for my bed time story bc I love when the divine elephant is saved.
Happy to check out this recommendation!
I luv the part where they save the elephant.
+1
I love the part where the elephant accepts the flower tribute, tries to save his worshippers by rebelling and then is saved.squee!!
Thanks. It sounds like my type of book, especially these days. (Lots of rereads happening these days.)
There are some series I am buying but not reading because I can’t stand the darkness just now. Later maybe, so I will have them when I want them. And the authors deserve the support…
Heh. My SO says much the same thing about steak: “I just let it look at the grill in terror and scamper to safety on my plate…” 😂
Thanks for the rec, will check it out, totally in the mood for something fluffy!
Me: runs to Amazon for book
Amazon: OMG, you bought this in 2021. Do we need to have another conversation?
That happened twice to me last week! I decided it cancels out 2 of the times Amazon has recommended a book that I already have. I’m still way ahead of them on that count, which is just sad, since their database has got to be smarter than me.
I especially like when Amazon recommends the book I literally just finished!
Is this Amazon’s way to ask you “do you wish to discuss?” 😂😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
This comment has murdered me. LMAO
That sounds fun. I will pick it up when I, too, need a sweet treat of a book. I hope you are feeling better!
Why not? My TBR pile is only two pages-ish (ok, three) long. What’s one more to the list?
Just out of curiosity… would that be three handwritten pages?
Or are we talking more along the lines of typed, single line spacing, font size 6, three columns, extra narrow margins, and printed on both sides of the paper?…
I mean, I can’t be the only one with a list like that, right?… Right?…
Legal paper? Or letter?
*ducks head and raises hand* 😁
Read this series and really enjoyed them
I added to my list to read since I need a funny book to offset the dark one I’m reading for review.
Thank you. I’ve been looking for something along those lines!
For anyone with access to the plus catalogue at Audible, this first book in the series is available for a free listen!
I like supporting midlist authors though and sent the kindle version to my bestie a la Jeaniene and Ilona. 🙂
It is not in the Audible Plus list (freebie!) here in Canada. But it is available for purchase.
The cow line made me smile. The pee line made me snort. I’ll give it a try, sounds fun.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’m always looking to collect low-angst stories for when I’m not in the mood for angst.
Thanks. I’ve been reading a lot of cotton candy stuff… fluff, no depth. I’ve been looking for something between a Bruce Schneier tome and an Archie Comic.
Darn it. My library has the first 4 in this series but only the audio books, no print or ebooks 🙁
Oh my gosh, I get so sick of that! It seems like more and more when I look up a new book in my library’s app, it only is available in audio book format. I see this mostly with recent and upcoming books. Are audio books more popular than just ebooks now? I cannot explain it.
I’ve switched mostly to audio books because of my commute. I still like to read but save favorite authors for that and try new authors and non-romance through audio.
Same:) reading has become a true honor and is usually reserved for beloved favorites or desperate curiosity when the audiobook isn’t available. But even the beloved favorites sometimes are only being read in pieces since I know all my favorite parts. Haha though I have stayed up late re reading because I forgot to skip 😛 I guess it’s confirmation that they are favorites for a reason.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve been burning through books lately to cope with well (spreads hands wide and waves them) all of this. Take care and long live good books and fabulous tea. Take care.
Going to order it now
Love this series. Glad other can now discover it.
Thanks! I was looking for something light and fun to read!
wow the cover looks very chick lit, I would have not taken it for fantasy at all… (even with the wolf, could be symbolic)
“very little angst” is great, unresolved romantic decisions not so much.
thanks for a great rec post – very helpful info!
Always ready for a good book! Thanks for sharing.
And to quote my best friend about a rare steak: I want it to moo when I poke it with a fork. 😁
Always nice when a series is Kindle Unlimited – makes binge reading so easy…
My husband and I just are getting over a rather nasty bout of Covid (nasty on today’s scale, though, not on the scale of early Covid), even though up-to-date on vaccines 🙁
So I’m thankful for the recommendation, since I’m not going to be partying for a while yet! And the possibility of binge-reading the rest if I like the first one is a big plus…
Just bought the audio book.
Go Jeaneanine for distracting Ilona!
Rest well and drink tea or whatever you warm climate people drink in the summer to feel comforted. ❤️
“I might have peed a little when he shook my hand.” Ha!!! I’ve got to read this book!
Thanks for the information on the book. I’ll be looking for it.
Sold on the basis of the cow quote! We say wipe it’s ears and nose and stick on a plate or a bad vet could resuscitate it 😁
Hope your menu is a bit more exciting now. My husband has gall stones and is now borderline diabetic so been reading the BDH’s comments on food suggestions with great interest.
“…trot the cow past the grill to scare it, then lead it to my plate.””THAT’S A Person Who UNDERSTANDS “Moo Rare”!!
How kind of you to appear with a book rec just as I was fruitlessly searching my Kindle for something new to read!Thank you.
Thank you for the recommendation. I may look at it when in between other book reads.
This author won’t know what hit her when the BDH gets our hands on her books. 😉
Thanks, I’ll be airports a lot the next few weeks and fun reads are always a nice counterpoints to airport/airline crazy!
FYI – the audiobook format of the series is available from Hoopla, a digital library service available at many US libraries.
Just knock the horns off and walk it through a warm room.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Ok
I bit
I’m not even thru chapter 1 and I’m cracking up
🤣
Trust me, they just get better from there!
I loved that book (and the rest of the series). Very good writing!
I already own it. Who knew? Lol.
Thank you! I’m always looking for a new book/author…just waiting for House Andrews
Oh, good. I need a new read…and HA usually gives good recs!
Zirraella stole my reason for trying it 😀 Got a doctor appointment tomorrow and this will make the wait MUCH more fun than watching whatever is on the TV in the waiting room!!!
It’s free on KU.
Yes!!! Literary potato chips.
😁 I read this over summer & enjoyed! I think I read the full series, but it was a blur & I couldn’t say if they all lived up to their potential, or if I was just in such a mood.
Bought it. Good timing. I have re-read all of my favorite authors and nothing new is due out until June.
I got them all, including the pre-order for the one dropping tomorrow because I am a completist, but mainly because this sounds like something up my alley that may break a reader block I’ve got going where I am having a problem reading anything new, doubly so when it’s a new-to-me author.
My mum had a boss back in the day who owned a steak house. He came in one evening with a lovely sirloin. He dropped it on the grill, flipped it over, and took it off. She told him to let it stop mooing first!
Confused: I thought that Ilona had her surgery on April 12 but here’s a post on the 22nd saying that she is 24 hours out of surgery?
Another surgery?
Just the one surgery 🙂. The article is describing a flashback to when Ilona was 24 hours out of the surgery and needed something fun.
All 6 are free with kindle unlimited in Australia 😁
Thank you for the recommendation! Glad to hear that you had a book to distract you. Hope the recovery is going smoothly.
Thanks for the recommendation; it sounds as if it could be right up my wheelhouse.
I just downloaded it onto my Kindle. I look forward to reading it next…perhaps it will hold ke over until your next book is released.
Thank you for sharing!
I could use some light entertainment 😁
I hope you are feeling better, Ilona 🤗
Clutter-blindness! Thank you for giving me this term so I can explain it to my husband. Well, I might have a very slight case of this myself. The book looks fun. I’ll take it out for a spin.!
I love when good friends send you a book. now that is friendship! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. Sounds like something I would enjoy. I hope that you are recuperating well and feeling much better! Wishing you a speedy recovery!!
She has shown up in my recs a couple of times, and those excerpts look promising. That is exactly what I’ve been hunting for lately. Thank you for the push I needed!
Interesting??🤔
FREE ❣️ FREE ❣️ FREE ❣️
On Audible it is a freebie “Included” audiobook right now!
Thanks Ilona! Can’t wait to listen!!
Thanks for the book recommendation. I have read this author before, but it has been some years and it was a different series. I love the one liners.
You may also enjoy her series The Complete Case Files of Dr Mathilda Schmidt.
Be well Ilona 😊
Oh my!!!!! I did it too, Amazon told me I bought it in 2022 😳
I love this series and other works of Cynthia St Aubin. This series is a fun well written read!
I woke up today miserable with Spring Allergies. Sounds like just the right kind of read while the antihistamines kick in.
Thank you!
You had me at “cheese budget” 😀
I love getting recommendations for a “new to me” author because it’s not just a book, it’s a series. Witty one-liners and paranormal romance, what’s not to like. Thanks Ilona, hope you’re on the mend.
+1! Couldn’t say it better
I can always use another giggle in my life. Thanks!!
And I hope you are mending well!!
I’ve been looking for something new to read. What’s this, a book recommendation from Ilona and Jeaniene AND it comes with funny one-liners? Yes please!
Thank you for the great recommendation Ilona…I hope you are continuing your event-free recovery and are back to 100% soon! 😁
I highly recommend the audiobooks. I could read the 2 most recent books, but I’m waiting since the narrator did such a fantastic job! I binged through the first 4 books in a couple weeks last year. I did listen to them on Hoopla, so hopefully they’re still there for those that have librarys that subscribe!
Thanks for the recommendation, Kindle Unlimited is so hit or miss, I’ve gotten frustrated. I’ve moved from paranormal to far future science fiction military books lately, but I’m missing the paranormal/fantasy and look forward to checking this out for a fun read!
Sounds like fun! Will take it with me to read on the airplane next week! Thanks! Was looking for something new
I will check it out. This come at a good time as I feel that I have NOTHING to read and I am looking for someone new.
Thanks for the heads up.
Have to check it out! Any plans for Arabella in Hidden Legacy? Dying to hear her story!
The Hidden Legacy series is finished for now. The authors feel at peace that they left it in a very happy place and do not intend to continue it in the near future. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a Arabella sequel, just that one is not guaranteed 🙂.
Read it and loved it. It’s funny, twisty, and was just what I needed right now. A big thank you to you and Jeaniene for the suggestion. Am now starting on the second one in the series.
I just started this book because of your blog. Thank you for recommending! This is a fun story, and I will definitely work through the whole series. It is always a good idea to at least check out books recommended by one of my favorite authors – so again, thank you!
Due to space and budget constraints I’m a dedicated library user. Libby found books 2 thru 6 of this series in the Los Angeles county library system. Now I’m on the hunt for book 1, Love Bites. 😁
I love how you call it a Chocolate Eclair book, I call them Milky Way reads…. Light and Fluffy that don’t fill you up! (emotionally)… I don’t read a lot of new to me authors anymore… I like my old faithful’s and do a lot of re-reading…. I usually only grab new releases from fave authors (like yourselves) nowadays…. but I might sample this and see how we go…
Turns out… I purchased this book in 2020!!! and never read it… hahahaha!
Bought it, reading it, enjoying it
Thanks for the recommendation
Sold! Buying it now… or did I pre order?? I’m looking it up
Thank you and Jeaniene so much for that recommendation! That dorky narrative voice is (what I assume feels like) crack. Am on book 2 right now. 😉
Saw your rec at lunch yesterday, started it, adored it, devoured it last night in proper BDH form, reading the 2nd one now lol. Which is also awesome and so clever w the artists!! Thank you for the rec, I needed something light and intelligently snarky!!! 🤩🙏🏼🩷🤓
The first book cracked me up, I love the humor. I flew through the first two books. I don’t think I’m going to be able to obsessively binge read through the whole series like I usually do, but I’m definitely adding this author to my reading list when I need a pick me up.
I strongly recommend you keep on reading the rest of the series, Ilona. There might or might not be a talking, pervert unicorn throwing multispecies sex parties involved in book 3. I laughed to tears.
I just want to say thank you for the recommendation. I really enjoyed this book.
On the second volume. Thanks for the rec. I too feel absolutely bombarded by huge hail stones aimed only at me and too fast to dodge. Nursing cranky husband whose forearm was shattered by a bloody airbag….But, got put back together. Grumpy convalescent is the worse….
downloaded. Good solid opening. I’m willing to take the plunge, you guys haven’t steered me wrong yet.
I just finished reading it. Love, love, love the author’s writing style. The metaphors, the similes, the incredibly descriptive style of expressing herself. Story was cute and fun. After writing this comment the next thing I’m doing is hunting up more of Cynthia St. Aubin’s books. Many thanks to you and Janine both for spreading the news about this delightful book.
You absolutely made my day with your kind words!! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
I can’t even with these books. The list of quotables is too long for practicality.
Here’s one from book two:
“I may be older’n Nefertiti’s tits, but I’m a keen bitch for business.” He winked.
Me grinning like a dork over here!! Thank you so much!!
Almost done with the series. It’s great. There’s a lot more sex scenes in the later books.
It’s always interesting to see how different authors envision the various paranormal species. It’s also good to see how some author’s are emphasizing that the whole “alpha” hierarchy is a human, or at least a primate thing, and not a wolf thing
Thanks for recommending this, I’m really enjoying the whole audio series!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!
I was looking for my next read, (the bar is set impossibly high as I always compare all other authors to you), and having a confirmed recommendation from the SOURCE OF EXCELLENCE made my choice effortless.
*hustles over to Kindle Unlimited, downloads, will not be interacting with anyone the rest of the day*
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!
I was looking for my next read, (the bar is set impossibly high as I always compare all other authors to you), and having a confirmed recommendation from the SOURCE OF EXCELLENCE made my choice effortless.
*hustles over to Kindle Unlimited, downloads, will not be interacting with anyone the rest of the day*
The books were delightful. They could have used better copy editing, though, to root out homonyms (a heavy-footed gate isn’t the same as a heavy-footed gait!). But that quibble aside, I’m looking forward to more witty, engaging prose from this author.