Review: Muscles & Monsters by Ashley Bennett

Muscles & Monsters by Ashley Bennett
Series: Leviathan Fitness, Book 1
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Monster Romance 

ISBN: 9780593956977
Release Date: February 10, 2026
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

After a wedding cake catastrophe on the street, local baker Tegan lands in the most unexpected place—a solid wall of fur and fangs named Atlas. She’s never met anyone like him and finds herself enamored by his wolfish charm. After their sweet encounter, Atlas invites her to his gym anytime she needs his cake-lifting services.

However, Tegan is through with being a damsel in distress. She signs up for a membership with Leviathan Fitness, determined to build her strength…and if she sees the handsome wolven again, it’s a win-win scenario.

Atlas can’t believe his eyes when Tegan walks through the doors of his gym, and nearly goes snout-over-paw to offer her personal training. Shared glances over the barbell and accidental touches at the water fountain set Atlas’s heart racing in a way he swore it couldn’t again.

Primal desires emerge as Atlas and Tegan test just how much their new love can lift. Could Tegan be the unexpected mate of Atlas’s dreams?

Muscles & Monsters is a fast-paced and fluffy monster romcom. Ashley Bennett first Leviathan Fitness story is an instalove romance between a human baker and a wolven gym owner.

Let’s start with the positive: I liked that curvy Tegan was confident in her body and decided to join the gym to get stronger not lose weight. Atlas is the one with body image issues thanks to his toxic, abusive ex. My heart broke a bit for Atlas and I liked that Tegan helped him heal his relationship with food over the course of the story. Although their romance was incredibly speedy they did have potential to fit each other well.

I wanted to like this story and there was promise to the premise. However, the book overall was a little too silly for my taste. Atlas and Tegan behaved more like teens than thirty-somethings and so many things in this book made me cringe from the texts to the dialogue to some of Atlas’s behavior that was more puppy than adult wolven. I like light and fluffy stories but oof, Muscles & Monsters was just too much tooth-aching sweetness mixed with awkward sex scenes for me. The overall result was an awkward story I don’t plan on revisiting. That being said, I was interested enough in Atlas’s friend Cyrus that I will be giving Tentacles & Triathlons a try to see if the series improves.



Disclosure: I received the revised and expanded version of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Stolen in Death by J.D. Robb

Stolen in Death by J.D. Robb
Series: In Death, Book 62
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Futuristic/Mystery/Suspense 

ISBN: 9781250414526
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible
J.D. Robb Reading Order

A blow to the head with a block of amethyst has left multibillionaire Nathan Barrister dead—while nearby, a vault, its door ajar, sits filled with priceless paintings, jewelry, and other treasures. Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s husband, Roarke—who misspent his youth in Ireland as a scrappy thief—recognizes at least two stolen pieces among the hoard. The crime scene suggests a burglar caught in the act. But only one item seems to be missing.

Then it’s revealed that the vault had actually belonged to the victim’s late father—and no one in the household knew it was there until a recent remodeling project exposed it. To protect the family name and business, they explain to Eve, they’d been looking for a way to return the ill-gotten gains anonymously and avoid the police. But now the police are all over their elegant house, and have a bigger, bloodier mystery to solve.

By all accounts, Nathan Barrister was a good man, a generous employer, a devoted husband and father. As for his father—he clearly had secrets. Now it’s up to Eve and her team to find out if those secrets got Nathan killed—and if it was a crime of passion or revenge.

To the media, a murder pales in comparison to the theft of famously stolen missing jewels, but not to Lieutenant Eve Dallas. In Stolen in Death Eve finds herself hunting a killer amid the rich and covetous. It’s a world her husband, Roarke, is intimately familiar with which is both helpful and causes some concern for Eve.

Sixty-two full-length novels into the In Death series and I never get tired of reading about Eve and Roarke. While Stolen in Death started out a bit slow for me, things picked up in the latter half of the story as the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. I like it best when Eve’s personal life is affected by the case at hand, which happens in this book. It’s not a spoiler to say that the original thief of the missing gems all those years ago was Roarke – he was, after all, the best in the business. What I liked is seeing how Eve handled it, how she balanced her love and loyalty to Roarke with her duty and commitment to justice. This story takes her into the world of thieves, private auctions, and more. I enjoyed seeing so much of the squad come together on this one. While it did take a bit for the story to pick up steam, when it did it was absolutely engaging.

J.D. Robb doesn’t miss and this latest entry in the In Death series will be wonderfully satisfying to Eve and Roarke fans. The case is interesting, the personal stakes even more so, and the characters I enjoy so much continue to entertain.



Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Review: Get Over It, April Evans by Ashley Herring Blake

Get Over It, April Evans by Ashley Herring Blake
Series: Clover Lake, Book 2
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Female/Female Contemporary Romance 

ISBN: 9780593816011
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

April Evans’ life is in shambles. She’s had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake and she’s subletting her house to cover her mortgage. And her love life? Nonexistent ever since Elena, her ex-fiancée, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the town’s new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. She’s sure that this is the silver lining she needs…until she meets her cabinmate: Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancée. And even worse, it’s clear Daphne has no idea who April is.

Daphne Love is cursed in, well, love. She thought she’d found the unconditional love she craved in her girlfriend, Elena, but now she’s single again and utterly brokenhearted. When her friend hooks her up with a summer gig as an art instructor at a swanky resort in New Hampshire, Daphne feels optimistic for once. If only she had a roommate and coworker who didn’t seem to hate her on sight.

Their already-tense relationship gets even shakier when April and Daphne find themselves competing for a rare opportunity to showcase their art in a London museum. But slowly, barriers begin to fall, and an inexplicable allure keeps drawing them closer, leaving them to wonder if the perfect picture they’re looking for can only be made with each other.

April Evans hasn’t been having the best few years. She had to close her shop, she can’t afford her mortgage, and the last long relationship she was in ended when her fiancée dumped her for someone else. Teaching at Cloverwild, the brand new resort in Clover Lake, at least provides her with room and board for the summer. There’s just one problem: her new roommate and co-teacher is none other than Daphne Love, the woman her fiancée left her for. Getting stuck spending the summer with your ex’s ex is one thing. Falling in love with her? That’s just unimaginable…right?

Prickly Scorpio April Evans finds love in Get Over It, April Evans. And how could she not with a love interest like Daphne Love? I was immediately charmed by the sweet artist who is finding herself over the course of this book. Daphne is a preacher’s daughter and grew up in a very religious, extremely strict family. She went from that to trying to find herself in college to falling in love with Elena, a woman who molded her into what she wanted her to be. Daphne has never had the chance to be herself, learn about herself, and own her true self. I absolutely loved seeing her grow over the course of the story. She’s kind and funny and utterly charming. It’s easy to see how she breaks past April’s defenses.

I admit, I wasn’t too keen on April in the first Clover Lake book, but Ashley Herring Blake made me like her in this one. April has a tough exterior she uses to mask her vulnerable insides. Even though I liked her in this book and I adored April and Daphne together, April for me was the weakest part of the book. She felt somewhat underdrawn in comparison to Daphne or other Herring Blake characters, even by the end. And as much as I loved Daphne, it was a bit hard to fully fall into the story when I didn’t feel the other half of the couple was as well-formed. That being said, I did enjoy their romance overall and was rooting for them every step of the way. The third act test of their relationship was incredibly well done and made the happily ever after all the more satisfying. All in all, I was charmed by Get Over It, April Evans and even though I had some issues with April’s character I found the story entertaining overall.



Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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