Below are the books that I read in September and my thoughts on each. 

I'm trying to do the Fold Reading Challenge to diversify my reading. In September, I was to read fiction by a neurodivergent author. And I read two! In October, I'm to read non-fiction by a nonbinary and/or transgender author. And I've already started reading a book for that. Though it's not non-fiction. I really don't read a lot of non-fiction.

I'm super excited to have another book release this year, and a new series at that. I wasn't sure if I was going to write more mpreg, but after the popularity of Fox Trapped, my imagination kept filling me with new ideas for new mpreg stories. Thus, how my City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series was born. I had ideas for four stories before I started writing the first, though I've written this series so that it's open to so many stories if I want to write them. 

And Nelson got his story first, the poor guy is so down on his luck after losing his boyfriend, place to live, and job in less than a month. And he just wants to find real love. Here's more about his story, Once Upon a Dance Club Wish...

Wishes don’t come true… but that didn’t stop me from making one.

I’m not a one-night stand kind of omega and going to nightclubs? So not my thing. I’m a homebody and would love nothing more than to find someone to fall in love with and eventually marry. And kids? Sign me up. So when my friends decide to drag out for some “fun”, I do what any guy would do, I wish for what I truly want. 

That’s when everything changes.

Now I’m standing in a meadow where the city streets should be, meeting a smexy alpha promising me my deepest desires as long as I follow him. I do, unwilling to leave his presence. And that’s when my life is turned upside down in the very best of ways… or so I hope.

Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is the first book in the new MM Mpreg City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series by USA Today bestselling author Jessica E. Subject. Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is a MM shifter fantasy romance that features a man down on his luck who doesn’t know shifters exist, a turtle shifter who longs for a mate but doesn’t think he’ll ever find one, the wizard who brings them together, and many other fantastical creatures from the Enchanted Forest. If you like fated mates, true love, meggs, baby turtle shifters, and a guaranteed happy ever after, Once Upon a Dance Club Wish is for you! While each book in the City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series is set in the same world, they can be read as standalones.

Chapter One
Regroup
 
He floated, weightless and naked, surrounded by a reddish light and suspended in fluid. Something connected to his mouth and wrapped around his head, like a lover’s embrace.

He used to have a name. He searched his mind for some clue to his identity. I exist, so I must be someone. Or something.

That made sense, but got him no closer to an answer. He blinked. Who am I?

There was no immediate reply.

He lifted his hand. It was encased in metal. The gauntlet. That much he remembered, though it meant nothing to him. Except… it seemed different, somehow. Thinner.

He moved his arms in the liquid, and it sparkled around him where his shifting disturbed it. The metal extended down his wrist and along his forearm, like before, but now it went farther, around his elbow and up his bicep. He touched it with his free hand.

I can feel it. It was as if the metal had become a part of him, his nerves growing through it. He held out his metallic hand and flexed his fingers. What is it?

We call it uurcaa. It’s a sacred metal—it will protect you, and if your host dies, it will collect and save your soul. He could feel the emotions she held back from him. It is the last of its kind from our homeworld. Like us.

He blinked. Then what am I?

You are my son, Iihil. The progenitor, the one who has come before and the first of many more like you. The voice was deep and comforting.

Mother. Warmth infused him at her voice, and an eagerness to please her.

Still, something wasn’t right. He was more than that. He searched his mind, running up against that stubborn blankness. Somewhere beyond it were the answers he needed.

He’d been someone else. Before.

Who was I? Memories of a face—dark hair, intense eyes that nevertheless twinkled at him. Raven.

It came flooding back to him. His mother. His life in Gullton. Training to be a guard and meeting Raven for the first time. My name is Aik.

He reached for the mask that covered his face. It was suffocating. Something was stuck in his throat, and he coughed hard, trying to force it out, whipping around and causing the liquid around him to flash red in alarm.

Calm yourself. The voice was as thick and heavy as an ix hide, and just as soft and warm.

Aik pushed back. What are you doing to me? I don’t want this! Let me out! He thrashed about, trying to force his way through the suffocating liquid. The metal crept up his shoulder. If it covered all of him, he would be lost.

Calm yourself! It was more insistent this time.

Aik stiffened as an enforced lethargy settled over him. He lost control of his limbs, falling still in his floating prison. The voice pressed against his mind. You’re safe. Be calm, my little one.

​He closed his eyes and thought of Raven, trying to stay fixed on that face. I can’t let myself forget again.
Then the world around him dissolved, and he was swept up in a torrent of memories that weren’t his own.