Two novellas

Terrell Hubbard, decorated Marine sergeant, proudly serves as Beta wolf to his True Alpha and Dominant. During a mission, he meets Staff Sergeant Kai Thayer, Pack Leader of the Camp Fallujah sippe. Terrell is thrown completely off balance by the strength of their mutual attraction and the intensity of their passion. His entire world felt perfect though, each time they came together to mark and claim one another.
In the chaos of a surprise attack Kai shows poor judgement, driving a wedge between Terrell and him, and landing Kai on the True Alpha's bad side. Terrell is torn between his ferocious loyalty to his True Alpha, and his new but powerful feelings for Kai. In the battle's aftermath, Terrell and Kai are drawn together in passion, hoping it's not the final chance to mark their claims.


What could a humble peasant offer a lofty, but dour, crown prince?
Many years ago, in a kingdom far away, there lived a young prince. This prince was very handsome,

and everybody in the kingdom loved him. His father, the king, doted on the young man, and did everything he could to make the boy happy. His mother, the queen, adored her prince, and devised new and special gifts for him every day. The subjects of the kingdom brought offerings to the prince, and served at his pleasure, without a single complaint. The prince, being a good man, responded in kind and treated everybody fairly and with respect. But, much to his father’s confusion and his mother’s disappointment, there was one thing the prince never did...
He never smiled.
Finally, unable to tolerate his son’s dour expression any longer, the king sent out a decree. He dispatched messengers to every corner of his country, and runners to all the neighboring kingdoms. The first person to make his hard-faced child smile would earn the right to marry him.
Unfortunately for the king, things did not go as planned... 

Comment: These two short stories were some of the most recent reads I've had. I'm going to give the same grading to both, different reasons, but in the end it's the same.

Short stories are great ways to move series along or to just write about specific things or themes without much (boring) development but often, the concept is much better than the execution...

Heart of a Warrior is a novella in the Tameness of the Wolf series by author Kendall Mckenna. the author has gone through some issues because of a broken leg and some of her deadlines have not been met. This was supposed to be a full length story, which many readers were waiting for but now the novella is finally out. I'm very glad for that but I didn't realize it would be a novella. I can understand the problems but I thought it would be the book. Will there be a book, I wonder. Anyway, this was a good enough story, the usual trademark we expect from the author, it was great to see the characters again but I feel too much time was spent with the main couple's sexuality and nor developing the plot, which felt rushed and underdeveloped. I only hope a full length story is too come! 

Grade: 5/10

The prince Who Never Smiled is a story by Pepper Espinoza that has been in the pile for a long time. It's an interesting twist on a fairytale and it was interesting to read, it's a very quick read. The idea that there's only one special person that can change someone's else is quite interesting and the author did it well enough but I think because this is a short story, the emphasis isn't always on the right themes. It was great to see all things happening but then nothing can really be developed and it feels like all things were rushed. I liked how we got to know the main characters well, despite all this, but the writing isn't always engaging.

The cover isn't very appealing either...

Grade: 5/10