Once Upon a Rec Center Wish, the second book in my City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series releases on June 17th, and I thought I would share the official excerpt with you. Enjoy!

I had the strangest dream. About a beaver who looked like a man. There was a wizard. And a forest. I opened my eyes, expecting to be on the bus, as I knew I hadn’t made it home because I couldn’t feel the broken springs of my mattress. Instead, I wasn’t anywhere near the city. There really was a forest. A naked man, save for his tool belt and the red-and-black plaid trapper hat that he wore. Was he really a beaver, or had I just imagined that? 

Sitting against the trunk of a tree, he whittled away on a small log, carving out larger chunks and using a file to shape the wood. Regular tools I remembered from shop class. I watched him for a long time, not wanting to let him know that I was awake. I needed to figure out where I was. And how much of what I thought was a dream was real. The unclothed man was one hundred percent real, and a damn fine specimen, too. He had wavy, strawberry-blond hair that seemed to be kept trimmed, and a beard the same color, also neatly kept. Not a body-builder type, but his wide, firm chest and thick arms explained why I fell when I smacked into him. 

Wait! If he lived in another world, how did he have tools from my world? The wizard?

Geez, it all sounded like some fantasy tale rather than reality, but I was definitely not on a bus, at the rec center, or at home. And if I was at a park in the city, someone would have called the cops already to report the beaver guy for indecent exposure. Maybe I fell and hit my head, and I was actually unconscious in a hospital. That sounded like the most plausible explanation. I decided to enjoy my fantasy while I could. There was no point in missing out on such an attractive man who didn’t run the other direction when he saw me.

Carefully sitting up, I decided to chat with him. “My name is Falco.”

There's just under two weeks until Once Upon a Rec Center Wish releases! It’s an MM MPreg Shifter Fantasy Isekai Romance. ​ And I've already gotten some early reviews!

One that I found interesting said, "Being transported to another alternate world has got to be disquieting. Both of these series, are isekai style stories (a subgenre of fantasy in which a character is suddenly transported from their world into a new or unfamiliar one). I need more like this!!! Can't wait to see what the author has in store for us next."

Honestly, I had been trying to find a term to describe the stories in this series where one of the main characters travels from their own world to another, but couldn't think of one. After reading this review, I looked up the term isekai to confirm the definition and realized it suited my City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series perfectly. I only wish I'd heard of the term with the release of the first book.

I don’t have time for wishes… but that didn’t stop me from making one.

I need a new place to live. Due to neighborhood redevelopment, my apartment building will be demolished in a week. And I still don’t have a new home. I plan to continue my search after I get some sleep.

Then my neighbor asks for one last favor. She needs someone to take her kids to the rec center for their lessons. I can’t say no, so I’m back on the bus again with three kids in tow.
After dropping them off, I run into a strange man who hands me a card and tells me to make a wish. All I want is a place to lay my head.

That’s when everything changes.

Instead of rushing for the bus, I run smack into a brawny alpha at the edge of a meadow. Wearing only a toolbelt and a trapper’s hat, he promises me a place to stay and a mate if I agree to have shifter babies. It all seems like a dream, but what if I finally found everything I’ve ever dreamed of?

Once Upon a Rec Center Wish is the second story in the new City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series by USA Today bestselling author Jessica E. Subject. Once Upon a Rec Center Wish is a MM MPreg shifter fantasy romance that features a man in desperate need of a place to live, a shy alpha beaver shifter who takes pride in his work, the wizard who brings them together, and many other new and old fantastical creatures from the Enchanted Forest. If you like fated mates, true love, males having babies, baby beaver shifters, and a guaranteed happy ever after, read Once Upon a Rec Center Wish. While each book in the City Wishes & Enchanted Dreams series is set in the same world, they can be read as standalones.

If you are a book reviewer, Once Upon a Rec Center Wish is available in eARC from Booksprout.

Below are the books that I finished in May and my thoughts on each. 

I'm not doing any formal reading challenges this year, but I seem to be doing my own in an informal way. In May, I read books that were sci-fi. Once was a sci-fi romance, the second, a sci-fi horror, and the third, a sci-fi (techno) thriller. Between the second and third books, there were several I started, but couldn't get into.

Anyway, the books I did finish were great! This month, I am reading for Pride month, in July I will read Canadian authors again, and in September I will read books by Indigenous Authors since September 30 is Orange Shirt Day, a symbolic day in Canada that recognizes the stripping away of culture, freedom, and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children in residential schools.