Tag: Paranormal Romance

E. J. Frost-Capricorn

Okay, so yeah, I said that I would update once a week at least, but I didn’t last week. That’s because I was doing special projects for work, and that took up all of my puny brain power. On the other hand, it meant I made more money, so you know, priorities. Then we had three storms in 6 days, which meant 20 plus inches of snow in those six days, and now we’re gearing up for some really cold weather for Friday and Saturday. Now, I live in the Great White North of the US, so I am used to cold weather, but my house is heated by a heat pump, which it doesn’t work as well when you get down to 10°, and we’re looking at -20 Fahrenheit which for you civilized people is -28. That’s not counting the wind chill, which is supposed to get down into the negative 50s, which again for civilized people, is- 45. So yeah, it’s going to be cold and I have chili that I’ll be making in the Crock-Pot and ham and beans that will be making in the other Crock-Pot, and stew at some point. But none of that is really pertinent to today’s book.

Today’s book is Capricorn, by E. J. Frost. Now this book has an interesting position. It is part of the Masters of the Zodiac series, which is a shared world series. It is also a spin-off/continuation/sequel/something, to the Teddy’s Boys books. I am not 100% sure on how to classify it. It does contain all the the main characters from the Teddy books, but they aren’t the main focus. The Mr Black, Evan Lord, from the book is, along with his baby girl Rachel. But, you know how Teddy and her boys are, they do push their way in quite well. There will be some possible spoilers for Teddy’s books in this, so be aware.

Capricorn starts 7 years after Quaternion. Evan is in wizarding jail, for something he may or may not have done. Evan was Rachel’s Daddy, but he released her when he was in prison. However, that hasn’t stopped her from writing him letters. On this particular day, Evan gets called into the warden’s office where a Fae prince is waiting for him. It turns out that Evan is now being released.

When Evan gets released, he ends up going to the Capricorns. It is a special club for those people who were born in the Capricorn star sign. The Capricorns are in charge of protecting the ley lines. Problem is, several members of the Capricorn have been murdered. When Evan gets there, it turns out he is now the leader of the Capricorns, and has to figure out who did the killing. So yeah he’s going to be busy. He ends up staying in fairy with Teddy, her three husbands, their children, and Rachel. And oh yeah, the king occasionally shows up, and for occasionally understand all the time. Evan tries to either forget that he was Rachel’s Daddy or try and become her Daddy again. While Rachel wants it, she is also now a fairy Knight, with a sword and all. She has also become a bit bratty.

So, Evan and Rachel go out to figure out what the problem is. They, of course, run into a lot of issues. And Evan gets to watch Rachel fight and enjoy how good she is at that. They also manage to work through their issues and get their relationship back on track.

This is as far as I’m going to go and describing the book, because if I go much further I will be getting into the meat of everything. There are so many things I like about this book though.

I like the place where Rachel is. She has undergone a lot of stuff since we met her at Bevington, and most of that she did, not quite on her own, but without the rock that Evan had become for her. She always had Teddy, they have become really sisters. But that is different from having her Daddy with her. But she has really grown, and become stronger, physically, emotionally, and mentally. She knows exactly what she wants and she will go out and get it.

I think that Evan starts out on the back foot. As far as I can tell the book takes place in current year. So he’s gone from let’s say 2015 to all of a sudden 2022. Imagine how much difference we’ve seen in 7 years, and all of a sudden he gets all of that. There are a few lines in the book about people wearing masks all the time, so you know, plague. But even without the plague, there have been a lot of changes going on, including Rachel transitioning from a young woman to a fully fledged and realized adult. It takes him a minute to figure out everything. And he’s got this new leadership of the Capricorns and all these murders that he has to figure out all at once. So, it’s no wonder why he’s a little confused sometimes.

But, even with saying all of that, he catches up to everything fairly quickly, and figures out what he needs to do. Of course, it does take some help from everyone, but he is more than willing to take that help.

The climax of the book really got to me. I was impressed with what happened, and saddened by it. And I think that I will carry parts of that along with me for a while.

Okay, that is all for this one. I recommend that you go check it out. You can probably enjoy it without having read Teddy’s Boys, but you will enjoy it better if you have. Happy reading!

E. J. Frost-Quaternion

Okay, I know I said I would be back on Wednesday. You know what helps to be able to come back on Wednesday? Knowing what day it is. The holidays have thrown me off quite badly, and this week I haven’t been sure what day is which. But, I’m back now, and I have E J Frost’s last book from Teddy’s Boys. Quaternion picks up from right where the last one left off, so there are going to be spoilers. I will try to not spoil as much as possible, but we all know that’s just the nature of the Beast. Everything is on Amazon, so you can go read it before you read this blog post if you want. You have been warned.

When we last saw Teddy, she and her boys were drawing a lot of magic through her. While this may have seemed like a good idea, it really wasn’t. It threw Teddy forward in time to the timeline she’s been visiting. Not only that, it appears to have burned out her magic, so she’s stuck. She may be stuck in the future with her husbands, but she still trying to get back to the past to her own time and to her boys there. She is doing a lot of studying and research and gets to see a lot of old friends, but she still is having issues. When she finally manages to make it back, thinking that she’s going to see Charlie, Gabe, and Darwin, it doesn’t turn out that way.

The only person there when Teddy gets back is Charlie. Gabe should be there, but isn’t. And Darwin isn’t quite bonded into their quaternion yet. Teddy gets really angry because the one thing she asked is that if something happened to her that Gabe not abandoned Charlie, but he appears to have done that. Especially since he’s currently in Darwin’s room. Which earns Darwin a black eye. Let’s just say that there is a lot of pain and anguish on everybody’s part right now.

Eventually, as the title suggests, the four of them get together and seal their bond. That’s pretty cool, and it gives them a lot of power. All that power is useful for trying to figure out who committed the murder. That looks like it’s going to be harder and harder, especially when Fate gets in the way.

I like Teddy. I just do. I have liked her throughout this whole series. Of course, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have her faults, because she does. She jumps to conclusions quickly and doesn’t always get all the information before she acts. Some of that is just the fact that she is still fairly young, and she still needs time to mature. I think she’s like 19 or 20 in this. But, Teddy does have a very definite sense of what is right and wrong, and she is determined to make things right. She is also very loving, even though she’d like to come off as tougher than she is. She has a marshmallow inside.

We get to see Charlie start to come into his own in this. He has spent a lot of time just going along to get along. I don’t think that he has been unhappy, I just think that he is very mellow, and there has been a lot of drama with Gabe and Darwin. But, with the two of them gone at the beginning of the book, we get to see Charlie. We also get more about his feelings than we have before.

I understand why Gabe did what he did. It kind of made me mad, and it kind of made me sad. Gabe has a gentle nature, and sometimes it gets the better of him. I don’t think he’s fragile, per se, but Darwin did a number on him when he took Gabe away from Teddy. And he just hasn’t really bounced back yet. So, like I said, I understand why he made the choices he did.

I absolutely did not like Darwin at the beginning of the series. I wanted to punch him out myself. But EJ did manage to save him and actually make him likable. Does that mean he’s not still an asshole? Yeah, he’s still an asshole. But now he knows that he’s an ass, and he’s working to not be as much of an ass. He does have a lot of trauma in his history, and we’d learn about some of that. I had some of that, really I don’t blame him for it, it would upset me. In fact, it did upset me as I read it. And I read it twice. What’s as EJ sent it to me and then again in the book. Luckily, Teddy is pretty bound and determined to have her way about everything, and Darwin now has her on his side.

I really enjoyed the series. I got really invested in Teddy and her boys. I’ve also enjoyed reading Capricorn, which I will blog about next week. We get to see some really interesting things in that book.

So, that’s all for today. I’m losing my voice, so dictating is turning hard. Go check out this entire series and see what I liked it so much. Happy reading!

Minette Moreau-Wicked Rage

Minette Moreau may sound like a new author to me and the blog, but she’s not. She’s actually a new pen name from Raisa Greywood. Minette is Raisa’s paranormal nom de plume, so if you go looking for the previous 2 Wicked Magic books, make sure that you are looking under the right name. But, we’re not here to talk about those books, we’re here to talk about the newest one, Wicked Rage. And check back later on this week to catch Raisa’s other release.

This is the 3rd book in the series, and it’s Rizan and Feather’s story. Feather is a half bear/half mage young woman, and Rizan is an ancient dragon, and brother to the current dragon king. And oh yeah, he’s Feather’s mate. But, he made a deal with everyone that he would let Feather go to college before they sealed their mating and their familiar bond. So far, all he really does is lurk around her to keep an eye on her. But the book starts out on Feather’s prom night, and she’s helping her best friend get ready. Feather isn’t going, for many reasons, but one of which is the fact that Rizan would do grievous bodily harm to any male touching Feather. Somehow, Rizan finds out how important prom night is as a milestone, so he surprises Feather at her house with a beautiful dress, jewelry, shoes, and a 1951 Jag. (BTW? Somehow=Feather’s parents)

That night, Feather and Rizan do alllllll the traditional prom activities, and it is magical, quite literally. Then it’s time for graduation and for Feather to leave. She’s leaving her tiny town in Arizona to go to college in England and Rizan is counting down the hours. She also suggests to Rizan that he figures out something to do while she’s at school for the next 5 years.

College isn’t all that Feather thought it would be, and there are troubles in the UK. Feather finds out about the problems, and moves to do something about it, but before she can, bad things happen.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Rizan has decided that he’s going to join the Army. He does, and joins two natured unit, headed by a kick ass tiger, who promptly kicks his dragon ass, which I loved altogether. A few weeks into training, he found out that his mate has disappeared. He goes to find her, along with a crack team.

Five years later, Feather is still missing, and Rizan is now counting down the days until his stint in the Army is done so that he can go search for her. He and his team have searched for her, but nothing yet.

I like Rizan. He’s got a really interesting journey through this. I think that the military was good for him. It knocked sense into him when no one else really had yet. Feather made some impressions on him, but Kali made more. I think that he really grew up, which yes, is weird to say about a dragon that has been alive for millennia and survived hundreds and hundreds of years in a hellscape, but that doesn’t change my opinion.

Feather is really smart, really powerful, and incredibly fierce. She has strong allies, apart from Rizan, and she did a lot in the big war. I think that some of that gave her a slightly lowered sense of personal danger. So far, between her own power and all of the powerful beings she knows and loves, there hasn’t really been anything that she can’t handle, so she feels like she can handle just about everything. Which, TBF, is also a trait of a teenager, and she’s only 18, no matter how much she’s been through and what she’s done. She just doesn’t have the same amount of life experience behind her. She has a lot of loss from the war, but there’s still a weird spot that she falls in.

Feather’s journey is a particularly painful one, and I teared up about it more than once. Raisa is occasionally mean to her characters. Well, I say occasionally… I’m not going to say that good things came out of the pain, because I think that it diminishes both the sheer level of pain she went through as well as the results thereof. I know that growth needs struggle and often pain and all, but I feel like it dishonors her suffering. Does that make sense? It does in my head, at least.

Anyway, that’s all for this one. You really should go pick it up and give it a read. Happy reading!

Hailey Turner-A Veiled & Hallowed Eve

This is the 7th book in Hailey’s Soulbound series, and it is absolutely, positively NOT a standalone. You 110% have to have read the other 6 books in the series before you read A Veiled & Hallowed Eve. I highly recommend this series, I mean, very highly. It’s an MM series that has shifters, dragons, mages, and gods who walk among us. The world that Hailey created is beautiful, deadly, and feels oh so very real.

OK, so we have Patrick. He’s a combat mage who survived a previous god war. Because of damage taken in that war, he is no longer in the military, but works for a branch of the government now. It’s like the FBI, but for supernatural things. He’s based in NYC, with his boyfriend, wolf shifter Jono.

The past 6 books have been one battle after another. Each book has had its own unique battle, but they are all tied together in one overall storyline. And now, we have come to the end. I am going to be very careful with spoilers here, because pretty much everything I say could be a spoiler, so the synopsis is going to be really broad. Go read the books, trust me, all the ins and outs are worth it.

It’s nearly Samhain, the day that the veil between this world and all others is thinnest. It’s also the time that the Dominion Sect is going to make their big move. It has to be Samhain when it happens, because the bad guy wants to turn himself into a god and bring all the hells to Earth, and the hell dimensions will be closer that day.

Jono and Patrick are both exhausted. They’ve been fighting for such a long time, and right now they are fighting a war of attrition against hunters and demons. And it’s still weeks until the big day.

I really like Patrick and Jono, together and apart. Patrick is a very good man who has had a bunch of shit handed to him in his relatively short life. He’s been taught and trained as a weapon, and been used as that for the majority of his life. He’s self-sacrificing and the majority of the higher powers and authorities in his life have taken advantage of that fact. People have lied to and for him for most of his life. There are reasons why many of those lies have been told, but that doesn’t mean that the truth isn’t going to hurt him when if/when he finds out about it. I understand the reasoning behind why they have done what they have done, but it doesn’t mean that they ever had Patrick’s best interests at heart. Frankly, I think that there is only one adult in Patrick’s younger life who had his interests at heart, and I think that person kept him centered as much as they were able to.

Then there’s Jono. Jono will always make sure that he has Patrick’s best interests first. He will make sure that Patrick will take care of himself even if he doesn’t want to. Jono makes Patrick a better person, in all the best ways. Jono’s life hasn’t been perfect, but he had a better start than Patrick, and he’s determined to make sure that Patrick knows how valued and valuable he is and how much he is loved. Jono is a loving, caring person, who is very loyal to his friends. He will make decisions based on that loyalty so that he can protect those who are important to him. I think that he and Patrick really complement each other quite well.

I have loved every book in this series. They have all kept me right on the edge of my seat, and I gobbled them up. I was really sad to see this series end, because of just how good it was. Because we follow one main couple and their friends and family through the whole series, we really get to know Patrick, Jono, and all their associates.

This one has a lot going on. But it’s not an overwhelming, even though there is a lot of action. It does nicely tie everything up in a very satisfying way. When I was done reading it, I just sighed a very happy sigh, because I was really happy with what happened.

Nia Farrell & Claire Marta-Blue

Nia and Claire have just released the newest Guarded Hearts book, Blue. This is the second book in the Hell’s Fury MC books. These guys are still gargoyles, but they mate singly, instead of in pairs like the original guys. And being an MC, they are a lot freer than the original guys. So, let’s talk about Maverick and Blue. If you haven’t read these books, you will be lost when you read this, because a lot of stuff is referenced and you won’t be sure what is going on.

So, Maverick saw Blue, a wolf shifter, fighting in an underground match a few months ago, and there has just been something about her that he has been drawn to since. He can’t get her out of his mind. When his brothers have to go on a rescue mission to save the mother of another brother’s mate, Maverick goes along. He’s there to help rescue Maria, the mother, but he is also going to rescue Blue, although no one knows that except him. He’s set up a cell in the basement, next to the one that Lilith has been staying in. Maverick has done what he can to make it all nice and homey, but still, it’s a cell in the basement. He finds Blue, sedates her, and brings her to his clubhouse. Which of course, pisses off his Prez, which ends up with him getting punished by having to be a bouncer at their bar.

Meanwhile, Blue wakes up in a cell, in a strange place, with a strange man looking at her. He tells her she’s safe, but the jackals who owned her before have spent too many years mistreating her for her to trust anyone. The only good thing is that Maria, who has kind of acted like a mother to her is right there with her. There are a whole lot of bad things, primarily the fact that her twin brother, who the jackals also run as an underground fighter and pimp out as necessary, isn’t there. He wasn’t at the clubhouse when Blue and Maria were rescued, he was out on a fight. All she can think about is the physical pain she’s in and the fact that her twin isn’t there, and she needs to get him. Maverick keeps telling her that he will save her brother for her, but she doesn’t trust him. He’s another biker, after all, and bikers lie.

I think that Maverick was a little Pollyanna Sunshine about what was going to happen. I think that he was also a little naive about some things. He really did everything with a good heart and with good motives, but I don’t think that he necessarily thought about everything that was going to happen. I just don’t think that he was prepared to handle Blue’s feelings, and how everything that has happened to her in the past has formed who she is right now. I think that he kind of pushed her too much at times. Like I said, I think that he did it with all the best intentions, but you can still fuck up and cause damage with all the best intentions.

I don’t blame Blue for not trusting anyone except Maria. I wouldn’t either. She’s basically been through hell, and now she’s been “rescued”, but she’s still in a cell. I mean, she doesn’t stay there all the time, but it’s long enough. Then there’s what her wolf does and how Maverick reacts to it. I was kinda mad at her wolf part because of that, because it’s not OK. And I thought that Maverick should’ve acted differently about it.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Anna Edwards-Banishing Regrets

Ok, first, yeah, I still live. Life is still interesting in my section of Maine. I don’t think that will ever change. What can I say?

Anyway, let’s talk about Anna’s newest book, Banishing Regrets. This is the last book in the Glacial Blood series, and I’m so sad to see it go. I’ve fallen in love with all the characters and was intrigued by the story. Anna saved the best for last, and gave us Kas and Jane’s story. We’ve seen bits and pieces of the story over the series, but now we get the whole thing.

We open up in the past, with a younger Jane and Kas. We get to see bits of Kas training with his grandfather, who, as we know, is not a very nice guy. Evil grandfather doesn’t have the pack’s best interests at heart. When Kas is done with his grandfather, he walks out and meets Jane. He realizes that she’s his life mate, which would be all well and good, if she wasn’t already in a relationship with his best friend. Kas decides that he’s going to just never be with anyone if he can’t be with this woman that he’s supposed to be with.

Fast forward to the present time, Jane’s husband died years ago, saving their son. Kas killed his grandfather, also years ago. And Kas’ insane twin brother Nuka is working really hard to kill all the humans in the world.

Jane and Kas have decided that it’s finally their time, and they aren’t going to avoid being with each other anymore. Yes, their world may be ending, and terrible things might be happening, but they love each other, and they have waited for so long, and they’re done waiting.

While that’s happening, Nuka and Team Evil are doing all kinds of evil things, including leaving shifter bodies where they can be found. One body gets autopsied on TV, and the governments of the world have decided that they are going to isolate all the shifters to a place in Africa. I can really see a polar bear like Kas working well in Africa.

I have always liked Kas. He is a good man, and one who has done everything he can to take care of his people and to protect them. He’s been put into a place where he has to save not just his pack, but all the supernaturals in the world. He has so much pressure on his shoulders, and until now, he’s been doing it all on his own. He’s had to make some really hard decisions, and he has even more coming up.

Jane hasn’t had a bad life. She’s had her son, and Kas has always been there to help her, but she lost her husband, who was a good man. She’s seen her son be happy, and seen him be really stressed out. Their pack is as strong as it can be, even though there is so much stress and terrible stuff going on outside. She does what she can to make sure that the pack, especially her son, his wife, and Kas stay as strong as possible. I think that she’s a really strong character, and she is really a necessary part of the Glacial Blood pack, even if she isn’t a shifter or supernatural.

We get to see little glimpses into the lives of some of the other characters that we’ve come to know and love during the series. We get to see how they are handling the stress and what they think they should do. Those are pretty short chapters, and I think that they worked really well in the flow of the story.

Overall, I thought this was a great way to end this series, and I really am sad to see it go.

Nia Farrell & Claire Marta-Rory

So, hey! I’m back! I had a nice break, watched a lot of TV, read a lot of books, played some games, and got high. Living in the land of legal weed and medical weed delivery is nice. I feel more like myself, and I have more energy than I’ve had in a couple of months. My husband has gotten both his shots, my son and I have both gotten our first shots. I’ve sprinkled wildflower seeds over part of my backyard, outside my kitchen, so I can stare at them while I’m working. And I can order Vanilla Coke from the grocery store again. Now that all that’s been said, let’s talk about today’s book, shall we?

Rory is the first book, sort of, in the 2nd season of Guarded Hearts. We first meet them in the Twisted Steel MC anthology. I haven’t read that story yet, but I just bought it, so I’ll be reading their story sometime today. I think that I was fine without having the backstory, but I think that it will just make things better to have read that.

So, Quake is a member of the Hell’s Fury MC. They are The Order of the Dragon, another cadre of gargoyles. Instead of being artisans and cloistered the way that the last set of gargoyles are, these guys are a motorcycle club. That comes along with a lot of drinking and fucking. The boys visit a strip club/brothel that is full of shifters, so they have a group of women who they aren’t keeping in the dark. One of those women is called Magenta, because of her hair color. She and Quake really hit it off well, and eventually they have some kind of relationship. But, some evil jackal shifters kidnap her and do terrible things. After that, she runs away, while Quake is away. She spent some time in rehab because she couldn’t control her shifting, and she met Sydney there. Sydney became her best friend and together they started a lingerie and sex toy business called Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

It’s now been a year. Rory, AKA Magenta, is living her best life, mostly. She is living with Syd, and her baby Quinn. She still has flashbacks to things that happened, and she still does have security on call, headed up by Guy. She is planning on living for Quinn, and to hell with everything and everyone else. Then Quake shows up. And all of a sudden, her best life ain’t all that great any more. She immediately tells him to leave her alone and calls her security so that she can be protected.

Quake is in New York with some of his brother, visiting the Order of the Phoenix when all hell breaks loose. In the wake of that, he discovers where Rory is working and goes to see her. He’s shocked to find out that she wants to have nothing to do with him. He follows her to her house and finds out that there is a man and another woman there, along with a baby. He figures that the kid is the child of the woman holding him, which would be Sydney, and that the man is the baby daddy, that would be Guy. With that “evidence” in front of his face, he decides that Rory is in some kind of triad with those two.

They manage to stay apart for a while, right up until Quinn gets kidnapped by the trusted nanny. Quake steps in with his brothers to help find Quinn.

I like Quake, but sometimes I want to just knock his head into a wall because he’s being a stupid asshole. I know that he’s trying to do his best, and he’s trying to be a good man, which he is, I think, but he just lets his assumptions get the better of him. Because he lets that happen, he sometimes makes some really huge mistakes, which is when I want to just smack him and tell him to stop, look, and use his brain. He really is a good guy. He has such a good heart, and we get to see it over and over in this. He is really loyal to his friends and his family. He’s also really strong and is willing to stand up for a lot of people.

Rory is remarkable. She has overcome a whole lot and has managed to put herself back together and build herself up. She is really strong, she’s a loving mother, and she’s a good friend. I really like her. I really admire her and think that she deserves all the good things.

I am seriously mad at Sydney and Guy. They can just fix themselves.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out!

K Webster-Shift of Morals

There is a collection called the Kingdom of Wolves. They are all about shifters, and they are all standalones. They are not all MM, but some are. Shift of Morals is one of those books. It exists in the same world as K’s Brigg’s Ferry Bay books, and we get to see some of the characters from those books. But, keep in mind, those books are contemporary, and this one is a PNR.

So, we have Cyrus. He is a park ranger at a small park outside of Brigg’s Ferry Bay. He’s also the alpha of a small shifter pack. When I say small, I mean very small. There are only a handful of them. One of the members of his pack is Remy, who has just turned 18. Remy is constantly butting heads with almost everyone in the pack, but most especially Cyrus.

Years ago, Cyrus and his pack found a young boy who was bloodied and torn laying next to his dead and mutilated mother and sister. Remy survived, mostly, but he can’t speak because of throat damage. And a total fuck ton of anger issues. Right now, he wants to have some freedom. He hasn’t gone to school, he doesn’t have a lot of contact with the outside world. Cyrus and the rest of the pack has kept him safe and away from everyone, especially since they don’t know who attacked him. But, that protection makes Remy really angry. He knows why they want to keep him safe, but he wants them to give him some freedom, and I don’t blame him, at 18, you want that.

Some new people move in down the road, and things start to change, including the fact that Cyrus and Remy now are drawn together, strongly.

To be honest, this isn’t my favorite K book. I like the story, I like the premise, and I liked the characters. But, there are a few places that I felt like there were some shortcuts taken that didn’t quite work. I actually have no problem with shortcuts, and there have been plenty of times in which the same kind of shortcuts have worked really well for me, but in this one, I felt like they didn’t work well and they kind of left me blah.

Will I reread this one? Probably. I enjoyed the read and I can understand why K went the route that she did, I think, and as the author that is totally her right. I will never tell an author how they should or shouldn’t write their books. Their books are their art, and I wouldn’t want someone to tell me how to write if I were in their place. All I can do is talk about how I feel about any particular book, and try to do it in a way that doesn’t spoil the book for anyone else.

Anyway, that said…

I like Cyrus, he really is very protective of his entire pack. I like the fact that the pack has this psychic link that keeps them all in touch with each other, because we get to see how connected and caring they all are towards each other, even Remy.

I did want to smack Remy a couple of times, but he’s 18, angry, and kind of stupid. We’re all kind of stupid at 18. Remy does know how bad the world is, but even knowing that he wants to explore his boundaries, and I think that Cyrus should’ve let him do that.

That’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Claire Marta & Nia Farrell-Ash

Today we have the last book in the first season of the Guarded Hearts books. And let me tell you, I think that Ash is the perfect book to wrap up the season. I think that the main thrust of the story for the last 7 books was wrapped up well enough and the hooks were laid well enough that moving on to season 2 is going to be easy and we aren’t going to want to know what happened with what thing.

We start with Ash. She’s 18 and has been staying at a safe house owned by her step-cousin, who should be the Don of his family, but since he was too young when his father died, his uncle, Ash’s step-father and all around scumbag douchecanoe, took over, and he hasn’t stepped down yet. Ash had to get away from him for a lot of reasons, one of which is the fact that he was going to trade her to a vampire. Only now, Ash has overheard one of her cousin’s guards talking to her step-father and she has to leave. So, she sneaks out and runs. For a few days she manages to hide, but then she ends up at the Citadel, where she is able to find somewhere safe to hide. While she’s there, she sees a man working at a forge. He’s her god of the forge.

Tobias is the only one of his cadre to not have a partner or a mate. He leads the cadre, protects everyone to the best of his abilities, and does everything he can to fight the battles they are in with Etienne and his ilk. He also crafts things, usually in his forge, but not always. He’s not looking for a mate. He doesn’t think that he deserves one. He had bad things happen in his past, and he’s pretty sure that it means he’ll never have a mate. Until the day that he looks up from his forge and sees a face that he’ll never forget. And he discovers that Ash is hiding on their property. He takes her up to his apartment, and has to figure out who she is, what to do with her, and what her being there means.

I really like Ash. I think that she is this real mix of worldly and naive. She’s strong and yet she’s really fragile. She is really cynical about some things, but in a lot of other things, it’s like she’s seeing everything for the first time. It’s really interesting to read, and it makes her a really good character. I think that she’s also really protective, and she will do a fuckload of shit to make sure that she can protect the people that she loves. Frankly, I think that she and Tobias are a perfect match, really.

Tobias has been a bit of a mystery during this whole series. We’ve only really seen him as this stern and paternal leader. He makes the rules, he makes sure that everyone follows the rules, he makes the hard decisions, and he does what he can to make sure that they are going to win their battle against the dark. We don’t see much in his head during the other books, so we don’t really get to know him until this one. In fact, a few times in the older books, I actually kinda didn’t like him at all. He made decisions that I didn’t like. Oh, I understood why he made some of the decisions that he did, but they didn’t make me like him. And after reading this book and getting to know more of his past, I can understand his decisions even more. I think he has spent many years being lonely and locking himself away, convincing himself that he doesn’t need a mate, so when Ash shows up, it shocks the hell out of him, and well it should. I think that he needed her, in more ways than one.

I really do think that this wrapped up this cadre’s season really well. And it did it without sacrificing Ash and Tobias’s story, which would’ve upset me. They truly deserved to have their own story.

Nothing under the pic today. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Susi Hawke-The Devoted Alpha

We very recently had a Susan Hawke book on the blog, and today we’re back to Susi, her mpreg MM omegaverse name. The Devoted Alpha is the 3rd book in Susi’s West Coast Wolves series. These are best read in order, because they really do build on each other, so you’ll miss stuff if you don’t read them all. But that’s OK, they are good books, and they are all in KU, so you can read them that way.

As a quick brief on this world, it’s a shifter omegaverse with mpreg. Wolf packs are divided into alphas, who lead, and then betas, deltas, gammas, etc. And omegas, of course. When a ruling alpha has more than one alpha child, they have all the heir they need, so they kick all the following alpha children out at 18. The theory is that it’s impossible for more than 2 alphas to get along. But Nick and his friends proved that wrong. The 4 of them, all alphas, got together in a motorcycle club and all was good. Then Matty got called back to his birth pack, and became the alpha of the pack, and they found out that there were omegas that had been stolen from families. So, that’s the basic plot of the first two books. So, let’s talk about Nick and Tom.

Tom was stolen as a baby and his family were told he was stillborn. He was raised with his “brothers”, all omegas in the same state. When he was rescused, he stayed with the pack that saved him, since his brother mated the alpha. On an incredibly dramatic day, Tom helps out at the tasting room of the winery the pack owns, when he meets Nick.

Nick was given a pack when his friend Matty had one pack too many. He’s been trying to help out his pack, but there are all kinds of things going on that he has to maneuver around. Luckily, the territorial alpha has been helping out, and approves of Nick’s plans. So, after he manages to make things happen, he meets with the territorial dude in order to make sure everything is ready to go, but then they find out that the need to go to the winery where one of Nick’s brother alphas has become alpha. When he gets there, he senses Tom and fireworks.

I really like Tom. I like how he doesn’t have problems saying what he thinks about certain things. He doesn’t want to be that omega that anyone one walks over, he’s had too many years of everyone telling him what to do, thing, be, and he’s not going to do that anymore. I think that he’s really strong. He has such a sweet and loving heart too.

Nick. Nick is twisty af. He thinks about 13 steps ahead of everyone else. He thinks about everything that someone else could do and he makes a plan to counter that and to make the other person do what he wants. He knows all the laws and rules and regulations, even the really obscure ones, and he has no problem using them to get what he wants. I wouldn’t want to cross him. I love how patient he is with Tom and how he has no problem letting Tom take the lead.

These two are going to be a massive power couple. I can’t wait to see where the world is going to go.

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