Reading Fanatic Reviews
All Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Paranormal Reviews
Spring’s Dragons: Withered Rose by Eva Brandt
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Spring's Dragons: Withered Rose*
Complexities in The Realm of Eternal Youth . . . and Beyond
In this first book of the Spring’s Vampire portion of the newly renamed Soulmates of the Seasons series, we first meet Queen Eiar—Eranthe (private name), Lady of Spring, and ruler of The Realm of Eternal Youth. This is a land that has unicorns and leprechauns; there is a dreamlike quality to Eranthe’s descriptions. Vampires are forbidden in the Land of Time, which encompasses all the realms of the seasons, because of some past wrong actions by their predecessors. So the queen is surprised to find three show up in her realm. What are there vampires doing there? What are their plans?
This queen comes across as more naïve than her sister Cassia, though—I have to say—the kitten does have some claws. She lives in a charmed world very different from The Realm of Eternal Ice. As in the Winter’s Dragons portion of this series, this book is narrated by both the queen and the men. Eranthe’s sections have a childlike quality to them, which is very different from Cassia’s in the earlier part of the series. The vampires come across much more forcefully and aren’t quite as distinct as I would have hoped. The dragon shifters in the Winter’s Dragons books definitely each had their own voice. We get to meet the queens’ mother for the first time in this book.
Even though I read all previous books in the series, I found this book to be confusing. There are lots of names of places and worlds (and most places and important people have two names), and these don’t use variants of common English spellings; they are unusual names, so they can be a little hard to wrap your mind around. There also seems to be a complicated history between these different worlds that isn’t fully spelled out, so you have a lot to keep straight in your head as you reading this. An added complexity is that many of the magical beings in this book actually come from the myths of different cultures, some of which are familiar and some of which are not. It’s a little taxing to keep track of and detracts from the enjoyment of the story. The author does have a small guide to the realms in the back of the book, listing the queens and the other essential characters and beings in each realm.
I enjoyed the Winter’s Dragon’s portion of the series more than I enjoyed this installment of the new next part of the series. I will still check out the next book and hope that I will get and keep my bearings better in it than I did in this one.
Wolf Blessed by Laura Greenwood
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
Wolf Blessed*
Fae Princess in Post-Apocalyptic World
Wolf Blessed follows the adventures of a fae princess who ran away from the fae realm only to wind up in a post-apocalyptic world where the fae are blamed for the disaster! A wolf shifter honor guard sent by her mother, the queen, finally tracked her down, but Rhianna does not want their help. Soon, she’s captured by people who believe that having a full-blood Fae like her will help them restore balance and order to the world. Her wolf honor guard retrieves her a few weeks later, but they find something else dark and mysterious going on where she was held.
Will Rhianna stay with her wolves this time and let them protect her? Does the fae have something to do with causing the apocalypse? Will Rhianna and the wolves get back to the fae realm? What strange experiment are the bad guys doing with the witches?
Goodness, this book had a lot going on in it! It’s a relatively short book, so with so much going on, there wasn’t as much space as I would have liked for characterization. I liked the wolf honor guard; they were all that that name suggests. I would have loved to have seen her have more time with the wolves.
If you like fast-paced shifter novels and don’t mind that there’s not much characterization, you might enjoy this relatively quick read.
Easter with Her Bunny by Josie Walker
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Easter with Her Bunny*
Rabbit Shifter Romance? LOL!
Hard-driving Latina marketing whiz Lily is taking time off to participate in her friend’s wedding in Scotland. As the wedding party mingles before the big day, she has an instant attraction to the tall, dark, and handsome best man. She’s not interested in a man, marriage, or a family; it’s all about the career for her. Harry, the best man, feels this instant attraction as well, and because he is a shifter, her pheromones are telling his inner animal that she is interested even though she is denying it.
Will Lilly take a chance on Harry? Will she be surprised that he’s a shifter? How will she react to his sister animal?
Oh, my gosh! What a hilarious book! If you’ve read shifter romance before, you are familiar with the sometimes very serious tropes that are common to the genre. This book is a total send-up of the shifter romance. I might go so far as to say it’s a parody of it, which makes the reading a lot of fun. So long as you don’t go into it thinking that it’s a serious shifter romance and you have a good sense of humor, you will appreciate the funny moments that keep coming in this book. Even the way that they describe each other seems to be lampooning the overblown way in which heroes and heroines in romance describe each other. One of the first bits of parody happens when we learn what Harry’s shifter animal is. He’s a bunny shifter! He’s a little envious of the polar bear and unicorn shifters that he knows. LOL!
I don’t want to give too much away because this book is just fun and funny to read. If you got a sense of humor about shifter romance oh, you will love this send-up of the genre.
Studying Her Vikings by Skye MacKinnon
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Scribd, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
Studying Her Vikings*
First Days at Time Travel School
We meet Lainie as she says goodbye to her mother for the last time. Now accepted into the Time Travel Academy, she can have no contact with her mother from this point on. Transported away, she only feels slight effects from the journey, and so her education is fast-tracked because that means she will most likely be able to travel back further in time without ill effect. In this episode of the serial, Lainie goes deep into learning about Vikings and runology from a hunky professor.
What a fun concept to serialize a book like this! The author intends to put out an episode every two weeks until it’s complete. This harkens back to the days in the 1840s and 1850s when novels by people like Gaskell and Dickens were serialized in magazines. The concept completely works in the modern day, where we can just grab a little piece of a story—say over lunch or waiting at the doctor’s office—and whet our appetite for the next installment.
At the beginning of this episode, the author discusses that she herself has been studying Old Norse and runology as a part of her master’s degree. This made me wonder if some of what Lainie is learning is what the author has been learning in her own classes. She gives us a nice set of resources at the end if we want to learn more about Old Norse, Vikings, and runology.
Looking forward to the next installment!
Tonic Chords by Mary Kit Caelsto
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Tonic Chords*
More Magic and Music
I was intrigued by a book that combined music and magic; I don’t think I’ve seen that before. This is the second book in the series, and Tory wants to teach Alamar saxophone since she accidentally wiped his mind of knowing how to play it. She is introduced to more and more magical elements in this world as she immerses herself in the knowledge of Musimagia. Magical attacks increase.
Will Tory become better at following the rules of Musimagia? Will Alamar regain his ability to play the saxophone? Why are magical attacks increasing?
The book is written in the first-person past. One of the dangers of this point of view is that the author can stay too much in the narrator’s head, which translates into a lot of narrative prose and exposition. Unfortunately, that was the case in this book. This book has a fresh concept that would have come more to life if there had been more dialogue and action and not so much thought.
Blood & Holy Water by Joynell Schultz
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Blood & Holy Water*
Delightful Tale of Angel Trying to Earn Her Wings
Ava is a fourth order angel who is trying to get her wings by being part of a miracle which she believes requires a vampire ER doctor name Fin. She angel-stalks him, and he can see her, which he isn’t supposed to be able to do. He doesn’t believe he is worthy of a miracle. He murdered his wife twenty years ago and has been repenting by trying to save human lives as a doctor; he has even distanced himself from other vampires. But Ava believes that the miracle that will get her her wings involves him. She slowly starts to break down his walls, and they get to know each other. Then strange things begin to happen with murdered angels and murdered vampires.
Will Ava get her miracle and her wings? What sort of miracle might Fin need? What is happening with the murders of angels and vampires?
What a fast-paced, immersive read! Ava is such a sweetheart and a little naïve, but she has good intentions. Fin is complex with his challenging past and his desire to do good now; he cannot appreciate his own kindness and compassion. I enjoyed what went on in this story between Ava and Fin as well as within the greater paranormal community of vampires and the angels. I love the romantic aspect of this as well, as Ava and Fin would seem at the surface to be such different entities that they couldn’t have such an attachment. The love story aspect of this is sweet, with just a little cuddling but no explicit sex.
If you enjoy stories about angels and vampires with a romantic twist, you might enjoy this book.
An Untouched Witch by Liza Mitchell
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
An Untouched Witch*
Wolf Pack RH with Possessive Alpha
I usually like to start my reviews with a brief, partial plot recap. The plot for this book is secondary; it seems to be just a framework for the erotic scenes. Beyond the erotica portions, the story is about Grace, who is a witch who was attacked. She’s wanting to know who is harming witches in her town. But for safety, she retreats to the woods to live under the protection of the Wildwood wolf shifter pack. Let’s just say that most of the wolves there don’t mind sharing…everything.
Will Grace figure out who she is in danger from? Will she and the wolf pack be able to do anything about it? Will she choose polyamory or the Alpha, as he wants?
If you like short steamy shifter erotica, this book could be up your alley.
Tesla by Jason Walker
Available at Amazon, Kobo, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
Tesla*
Would There Be Danger If What Was Hidden Was Found
Starting with an interesting scene where are Tesla, Edison, and Mark Twain meet with a secret group high up in the relatively new Eiffel Tower, having been invited by Monsieur Eiffel himself. The Tesla story is juxtaposed with a more modern one based around a spy named Darren and his wife who work for a secret arm of the CIA, operating as agents for the shadow government. Darren comes across some old original notes of Tesla’s. What will he do with his findings? Will they put him and his family in danger?
This book is written in the present tense, and in general, I think that is an awkward way to write fiction. And unfortunately, in this case, sometimes the other tenses required to show proper sequence of time weren’t chosen correctly around the ubiquitous present tense; this is one of the pitfalls of using the present tense. That said, this was still an interesting read, making the reader of ponder what unknown knowledge might be hiding out there, who are keeping it secret, and what it could mean if it was known.
In just a total aside . . . Since Mark Twain was the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, I think it would have made an ironic twist to have the members of the secret committee him as Sam instead of Mark.
The Minotaur’s Kiss by Erin St. Charles
Available at Amazon, Kobo, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
The Minotaur's Kiss*
Gods, Shifters, Latents, Magical Creatures … Oh, My!
In this complex world, alien gods use human concubines to procreate as the god’s genetic lines have been tainted by inbreeding. This has also given rise to a vigorous sex trade. The world is also inhabited by shifters, who may not understand their lineage until puberty. Because of the danger inherent in the sex trade, an army of social workers seeks to protect the industry’s workers. Diana is one of them. At an office event, she hooks up with a minotaur shifter she doesn’t know for a one-night stand. Unfortunately for her, he soon turns out to be her evaluating supervisor during a case that could make her career, smoothing the handover of a concubine. During what should be a routine inspection at one of the brothels, they find a sex worker whose missing. Soon, both she and Mac, the minotaur, are drawn into dangerous unforeseen circumstances, and Diana finds herself relying on him for protection.
Max is having a hard time dealing with Diana. He is usually a one-night-stand kind of guy, but their interactions have him rethinking his stance and even pondering a longer-term relationship. Thrown together on the job, he has a hard time keeping it professional. He’s never had such a sustained attraction to a female, and he’s not quite sure what to do about it.
By the way, this is a very steamy read. Within the first few chapters, we’re giving details about their one-night stand. The author has done a very good job at setting up the complexities of this world of gods, shifters, latents, other magical characters, and humans. She did a good job of creating tension-filled action scenes. Diana is a black woman, and I found it interesting that the author had her question racism as it applied to minotaurs, which was a sneaky way to get readers to think about the harshness of racism in our own world.
If you enjoy steamy stories about gods and shifters in a fast-paced read, this book might be for you.
Coven at Collington by Shereen Vedam
Coven at Callington*
Witch Wars, Intrigue, and Romance in Fantastical Regency England
Fresh from fending off an attack by hellhounds, Guard of the Green Cross–a secret arm of the Anglican Church meant to handle evil forces and entities if they rise from darkness–the Earl of Braden gets new orders from the Archbishop that are directly opposed to a central tenet of the guard’s code: do not interfere in disputes between witches and warlocks. Centuries ago witch hunts blackened the name of guards (then known as knights), so meddling is now forbidden. Braden has been tasked with retrieving the son of a warlock, who was supposedly taken by a demon, as well as destroy the coven in the area. More is happening at Callington than Braden imagined, and he is more than tempted to enlist the aid of the coven protectress, Merryn, to help figure it all out. Merryn believes that the same warlock who killed her younger brother has taken the boy.
Will Braden succeed in rescuing the boy? What exactly is going on between the warlocks and witches in Callington? Will Braden risk his position to follow what he knows is right? Will he fall for the coven protectress?
The author has done a fantastic job of creating a magical version of Regency England. I love how the first scene in Regency times a flame in a streetlight is talking! I literally did a double take to see if I was reading correctly! There are other magical elements as well, some of which are not truly explained until later. I thought the idea of having this secret group of guards under direct orders of the Archbishop of Canterbury was inspired. Braden is a complicated, fascinating hero to watch wrestle with right and wrong, on both personal and professional levels.
With elements of fantasy, the paranormal, intrigue, and romance . . . what’s not to like!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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