Author Spotlight: R.A. Smyth

Hello, lovelies! I’m starting something new this week. I’m sure this has been done before but I want to do my own take. So once a week (ideally, but we’ll see lol) I plan to feature a different author. Most likely it will be an author I have recently read or one of my favorites. I’ll be talking about their books, especially the ones I have read and loved the most, as well as my general impression of their writing. Please feel free to steal the general idea of this post if you want, and if you do please let me know so I can check it out! Now here we go!

This week I will be fangirling over R.A. Smyth, one of my absolute favorite authors. She is a dark romance and reverse harem author living in the UK. She has released 9 books so far (I’m pretty sure lol) with one currently ongoing series and another without a projected release date but already has a lot of hype and excitement surrounding it.

Books

Crescentwood – Three Divisions, Two Forces, One Family

I have not read this series yet but just from the little teasers and quotes I’ve seen shared, I have no doubt I’m going to love it when I get to it. This is a dark bully romance and a reverse harem. There are also trigger warnings for emotional/physical bullying and abuse, violent scenes, reference to suicide and mature content/swearing,

Pacific Prep – Broken Trust, Brutal Lies, Beyond Vengeance, Break Free

This series. I just cannot fully express how much I love it. This was the first of R.A. Smyth’s books I read, and I was lucky enough to be a part of the team reading and reviewing advance copies as this series was released. I’m obsessed with it. This is also a dark bully romance and reverse harem. It is super dark with the same trigger warning as the series before it. It also has some of the most amazing relationships I’ve ever read, both romantic and platonic.

Blurred Lines

Now this is a standalone but it takes place during the events of the last Pacific Prep book and follows a few of the major characters of that series. It is also a prequel of sorts for a future series that I am SUPER excited for. I highly recommend reading Pacific Prep before this and definitely only read this if you’re interested in reading the series it leads into. It has a very bittersweet open kind of ending.

Black Creek – Rebels & Rejects, TBA

Rebels & Rejects releases tomorrow, April 1st, and is the first in a new series. It does connect to both Crescentwood and Pacific Prep but it can be read on it’s own. My review of the first book can be found here. This was such a badass and fun read. Dark, but not too dark (though I’m waiting for it to get darker further into the series). This one is not a bully romance, but it will be a reverse harem, and it has a bit of enemies to lovers vibes.

Writing Style

R.A. Smyth has a way with words I only wish I could emulate. Her writing can be very witty and even crass at times (in the BEST, most satisfying way), but she also hits those deep moments with just the right amount of gut wrenching and angst. Not to mention, her characters always feel so real and raw. And she portrays non romantic bonds with the same level of depth and intensity as her romantic ones.

You can learn more about R.A. Smyth and her books here:

Goodreads

Facebook

Amazon (most of her book are available through Kindle Unlimited)

TikTok

Instagram

Thanks for reading ❤ See y’all next time!

XO Kerry

Rebels & Rejects by R.A. Smyth

I work in the darkness that is Black Creek.

If there’s a secret to uncover, a package to deliver, or a story to be told, I’m your girl. I make my money however I can.

Once upon a time, The Feral Beasts ruled Black Creek with an iron fist, but they’re long gone now. The Antonelli family stepped in, only caring about their family and their money.

I’ve heard the whispers…The Reaper Rejects are growing and they want control of Black Creek. But this town isn’t big enough for the both of them. Blood will be shed, lives will be lost, retribution will be dealt.

A war is coming and this town has never been more deadly.

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Rebels & Rejects is the first book in the Black Creek series that connects to R.A. Smyth’s other two series: Pacific Prep and Crescentwood. Though it seems that it can be read on its own without reading the other two.

Black Creek is a gang infested town where every citizen is just trying their bests to survive. Sawyer has three sources of income in her struggles to support herself and her fifteen year old brother. She gathers intel for a man she knows nothing about, performs as a stripper at the local strip club, and takes on jobs to kill abusive asshole men. It’s this last job that garnered her a reputation and the nickname “Reaper”, though no one knows who she really is.

When the Reaper Rejects (total coincidence in that name similarity lol) go after the same mark as Sawyer, she finds herself getting involved in their gang war against the Antonelli family in spite of how hard she tries to stay out of it all. It doesn’t help that she has a volatile chemistry with the Rejects’ leader, Cain, and an undeniable connection with his best friend/second in command, Oliver. Sawyer also has a connection of sorts with the son of the Antonelli family don, though neither of them really know it yet.

I love mafia/gang romances a lot. I’ve read so many. But this one? This one takes the cake. This isn’t just a war for power and control. This is a story of revenge, but more than that a story of the broken and the beaten fighting their way to a better future for themselves and those who can’t join the fight.

There is so much mystery and intrigue in this story. So many little pieces of information that either we the readers or just a character or two do not know. And so much that was left unanswered or unexplored by the end of the book. This was a great set up for what is undoubtedly going to be an epic series. I cant wait to see what R.A. Smyth has in store for these characters.

Rebels & Rejects will be available on April 1, 2022. Check it out on Goodreads here!

Forget-Me-Not Bombshell by Peckham and Valenti

Okay, this one needs no preamble, I’m just gonna jump in, but be aware there may be an excessive amount of profanity in this review.

THIS WAS AMAZING! I mean, I’m not surprised at all, Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti are an absolutely genius, unstoppable dream team. I have loved this whole series so far, and I’ve loved getting to discover new to me authors, but I just knew before this one came out that it was going to be a tier all its own. And I was not disappointed.

Forget-Me-Not Bombshell is the penultimate book in the Mafia Wars world and follows Anya Volkov, the Russian mafia princess from Las Vegas, as she is shipped off to London to marry Danny Butcher, leader of the Firm.

Now, this isn’t really a spoiler considering the sisters promoted the shit out of this book for so long, but Anya does NOT marry Danny Butcher, she marries his twin brother Benny who just got out of prison. But, no one except Benny’s best friend Church knows the truth at the beginning. Well, Church and Danny, but considering he’s being held captive, he doesn’t really count. At first.

This story was a fucking ride. The plot was precise and well thought out and executed but still wild. There are multiple enemies, multiple roadblocks, and a LOT of really amazing relationship growth between Anya and her three guys: Benny, Church, and Frank.

As far as I know this is the first book the sisters have written that’s based in their home country, so it feels like they had an extra dose of fun writing it. The level of British-ness was amazing. The vernacular of the characters was delightful. And as per usual, the whole story was rife with angst, smut, and hilarity. I laughed so much through this, maybe even more than the amount of times I was practically shaking with anxiety and panic over what was going to happen. I fucking cried a handful of times, too. It was an emotional rollercoaster to be sure.

I’m pretty sure this was the longest book in the series so far, too. And the sisters split it into three parts, which according to their TikToks was done so they could slip in some of their patented gut wrenching cliff hangers. Thankfully we got to just keep reading, though, as opposed to the agonizing waiting we have to do for all their ongoing series.

A few of the books before this one were my favorite during their time, but now I can honestly say this one was my favorite. They’re all amazing in their own ways. Each book is it’s own beautiful work of art. But damn, these sisters are a breed of wordsmith unparalleled by any other.

5 stars are NOT enough

Wilted Orchid by Loxley Savage

Mafia Wars book 4 time! I’m loving that as we get further into this series, more and more characters become familiar before their individual book. Wilted Orchid follows Valentina, the younger sister of Lucien, Raphael, and Gabriel Rossi who were the love interests in book 3. Valentina is taken to Chicago to be married into the Moretti family, whose little sister Lily we met in book 2.

Valentina has spent most of her life basically hidden away. She’s fully aware of the true nature of her father and brother’s work, but she is removed from it. And she has no idea that the day she turns 18 she’s going to be practically kidnapped from her school and shipped off to be married to one of her family’s worst enemies.

Sal, Fausto, and Armani each have a different way of handling this situation. Sal is a total douche bag who treats Val with an upsetting level of contempt and disrespect, while the twins warm up to and eventually fall for Val fairly quickly. Things definitely progress, especially between her and Sal. The way their dynamic shifts was honestly so sweet.

This was probably one of my absolute favorites from this series so far. There were a couple of things left kind of unanswered, but nothing too crucial to the plot so I can overlook it given how amazing the story was in general.

Bonded and Betrothed by Rachel Callahan

A murder, a betrothal, four mates desperate to claim me… and a war that might end us all.

Bonded and Betrothed follows Skylar Draven, a wolf shifter whose father was just murdered. Skylar returns home for the first time in years to become the new Alpha of their pack. Not only does she come home to find herself feeling out of place and out of touch with her pack, she is also thrust into a war between the wolves and a group of bear shifters intent on destroying them. Skylar must solidify a partnership with another wolf pack that her father had initiated, and in doing so Skylar’s whole world changes when she finds her fated mates where she least expected them.

This was a fantastic shifter romance with a murder mystery element and a lot of questions that led to some fun theories on my part. I second guessed nearly every character that was introduced, just waiting for them all to be the traitor Skylar is on the look out for. The revelation of that traitor was honestly not surprising, but damn was it satisfying. The revelation of who killed Skylar’s father, on the other hand, I should have seen coming and I loved the shock of it right at the end of the book. I’m dying for book 2 already.

I loved the progression of some of Skylar’s relationships, and I’m excited to see how the rest of them grow through the rest of the series.

Bonded and Betrothed is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Check it out on Goodreads here!