Andi Lee

Mischief Maker is the first book in the ‘Animal Lark’ series. It stars Jamie Hewett, a breeder and rescuer of fancy rats, and Liam Donnelly, a vlogger who vlogs about his dates. This is told in third person from both Jamie and Liam’s pov.



The first thing I want to talk about is the cover. It is awesome. I love the black and white image and the playful fonts with the bright colors. They work well together and fit the story perfectly. This is probably one of the best covers I’ve seen this year.

Andi Lee is a new author to me and this book is a cute introduction to her writing. As with all books, there are things I liked about this story and things I didn’t. The blurb is accurate on what the plot is about, so I won’t rehash that, instead I’ll mention my likes and dislikes.

I don’t know if it was because the story was set in the UK, or it was the writing style, but the first couple of chapters confused me and had me wondering what I was reading. It starts with Liam’s pov and it seems he headed to a warehouse and it had something to do with zombies. It didn’t make any sense to me what was happening. He sat in a stall that was painted like zombies coming in; he ran out of the warehouse and ran into Jamie. It’s as if the reader is dumped into the middle of the event without a clue and the writing isn’t smooth and doesn’t transition well. All I could think was, ‘Uh-oh. Is the writing style going to be like this for the whole book?’ Thank goodness, it wasn’t, but the first chapters, rather than pulling me in, pushed me away. I didn’t start to figure out what was happening until Liam attended the rat show.

On to the characters. Liam was a jerk. He’s faked a personality for so long, he doesn’t know how to be real any more. At least he started that way. He used men to make comical videos of his dates to get hits on his video channel. He was attracted to Jaime when he ran into him but he has a plan to date him, which is purely selfish. Liam knows Jaime has just broken up so he decides to manipulate Jaime into trusting him enough to achieve Liam’s goal as a date. Jaime doesn’t like Liam at first and can’t believe Liam keeps pushing himself on him. There are a couple of breakups and reconciliations between the two men. The second conflict between Liam and Jaime, if you read closely, is a subtle reference to a situation that some people undergo. The apology had me misty eyed. It was how heart-felt apologies should be in stories. Too many books have instant forgiveness that aren’t convincing. The author did a good job of having the characters grow throughout this book. It’s not a whole monologue, but one-liners that slip in over time until their feelings and thoughts change.

The one thing I didn’t care for in the story, were Liam and Jaime’s names. I constantly got them confused. Even typing this review, I want to type one character and instead I use the other character’s name. Look at their names. The letters L and J are only two letters apart in the alphabet and visually could be flipped around. The letters in their names ‘a, i, m’, three same letters are in both their names and their names are short. It’s not as if their names are Liam and Joshua, or Liam and Jacob, or even Liam and James, which have enough of a difference as not to look visually the same. The names Liam and Jaime are almost twins. I dislike when authors have character names that either start with the same letters or are similar as is the case here. It interrupts the flow of my reading. I often was confused whose pov I was reading until further on, and then I had to go back and reread because I thought it was the other character’s pov. I wish authors thought more carefully about the names they chose and the editors and proofers would mention it to them.

The secondary characters are interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to them in future stories. The ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend situation was sad, but at the same time, they deserved what happened to them. They shouldn’t have crossed that line. I’m somewhat curious what happened to the ex-best friend. Did he just fade away from all future storylines?

Overall, I enjoyed this story even though I found the start of the book confusing and wasn’t able to get into it until the rat show. Mischief Maker continued to get better after that. I also didn’t care for how close in similarity the characters names were. It’s a shame no one mentioned the issue to the author when the book was looked over by the editors etc. The best parts are the story had good character growth, and the breakups and reunions were well done. I give this 4 Stars.



I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest and unbiased review.… (meer)

Risky Business is the second book in the ‘Animal Lark’ series. It stars Dane Vincent, a veterinarian, and Ben Clifford.



First, the cover. It keeps to the theme of the first book. Black and white with the pink and blue font coloring. I really like the covers on this series of books. Also, the model on the front looks like how I’d imagine Ben to look like in the story, so he was a good choice.

The blurb does a good job of explaining the plot so I’m not going to go into it again. But I do want to talk about how it was written before I get to the characters. I found this book harder to hold my interest than the first book. The plot was slow and seemed to plod along. Maybe that was because the relationship between Dane and Ben proceeded slowly because Ben was just starting to discover his sexual preference and where he fit on the LGBTQ spectrum. He seemed determined to find where he fit, while at the same time rejecting the idea of having to put a label on himself. I think the book could have been shorter. There was a lot of monologue and a lot of repetition when it came to what Ben was thinking. Both slowed down the pace of the story which caused my attention to drift. The only time the pace seemed to pick up were the scenes involving ferrets and the conflict near the end with the parents. After that the story was interesting.

I found Dane to be the more colorful and lively character, he had more personality. Dane was very caring and was willing to have their relationship proceed at Ben’s pace. Ben came across as quiet, brooding and rather bland. That’s probably why, when in his pov, his monologue was boring. The author did a great job of conveying Ben’s conflict in hiding who he was from his family and even his friends. Ben also had anxiety and I’m guessing it was caused by his parents’ criticism all through his life.

One thing I really liked that the author did, was how Ben discussed sexuality with Christian. Christian kindly explained to Ben whatever he wanted to know. He wasn’t like some LGBTQ people in real life who say, “Google it if you want to find out. It’s not our jobs to give you the information.” That is one thing I absolutely dislike when people do that. If a person is asking an honest question, it’s not necessary to be rude. Be helpful. Either saying “I’m not comfortable answering your questions”, or “I know someone who can help answer your questions,” is not difficult to say. Rude responses just shut people down and is only for making the speaker feel superior or self-righteous. If the aim is for people to learn and grow, at least help them out. Just like it’s not easy for people to come out, it may not be easy for a person to ask questions. How would someone who’s LGBTQ and afraid to come out, have felt if they approached someone who was say gay, and the person responded to them with, ‘Go Google it if you want to know.’ Besides, there’s the response that not everything on Google is fact. Googling could give a person wrong information. If LGBTQ people want others to learn and accept who they are, be kind when someone honestly asks for information. Learning doesn’t happen magically or through osmosis. It takes kind people to teach. If a person is unable or unwilling to teach, at least be quiet so as not to be unkind. Now, I shall get off my soapbox. Anyway, kudos to the author for creating a kind teacher in Christian.

In the end, I enjoyed the first book in this series more than I did this book. I think this story could have benefited from cutting down on Ben’s monologues and repetitious thoughts. My favorite parts were the scenes with the ferrets and the kindness of Christian. I give Risky Business, 3 Stars.



I received an ARC copy of this book from the author. I am giving my honest and unbiased opinion about the story.… (meer)