Tag: Paranormal

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!

Erin Bedford-Death in Her Eyes

This is the first Erin Bedford book that I’ve read, but since I really enjoyed this one, it won’t be the last one, especially since Death in Her Eyes is the first book in a new series, and I’m pretty sure that I love Elle, and I know I need to find out more.

We meet Elle when she opens her door to a police officer who has come to tell her that her mother has died in a car accident. Elle doesn’t act too shocked, but that’s only because she knew that this day was coming. You see, Elle has always been able to see death. When she touches someone, at least the first time, she sees how they are going to die. She might not see the exact date of when they will die, unless the person is by a clock or calendar, but she can generally come up with a pretty good time frame. She’s known for many years how her mother is going to die, and knew it had to be coming close by certain signs. She tried to change it, but her mother wouldn’t let her. So, she calls everyone and starts setting up the funeral and all. Everyone, that is, except for her deadbeat dad.

At the funeral, she’s staring off at a tree, when she notices the shadows seem to expand and someone steps out of the shadows. When she has a better look, it turns out that it’s her father. Who she really didn’t want to see, and definitely didn’t invite to the funeral. It turns out that he is there for a very specific reason, and he takes her away and drops her at the Fallon Academy for the Gifted. It turns out that she’s a Nephilim, a child of an angel and a human, and she’s there to be trained and to be kept safe.

I like Elle. I think that she has been dealt a hard hand. I mean everyone except her best friend thinks that she’s a weirdo and she tries really hard to never touch anyone because when she touches them, death. I can’t imagine how firm the walls she has to shove all that stuff behind has to be. I mean, imagine all the people you see and touch during the day. Well, except for when we are in the middle of a lockdown because of the plague. Think about how many people you might accidentally bump into a year ago, just as  you were talking around each day. And every time you brush past that person, or accidentally touch their hand as you are getting your food at the restaurant, or any of those things, you see how they die. It’s no wonder than Elle is inured to death. She’d have to be, just to keep herself in any kind of sane.

This series looks like it’s going to be a slow burn. There are a couple of guys who Elle might end up with, but there is no real romance in this one. We are getting a lot of story in here, and that’s all good with me.

I cannot wait to see what is going to happen next.

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I want to know more about Cass. I think that Dahlia deserved what happened, because she kept pushing.

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

Lexi C. Foss-Andorra Sector

So, Andorra Sector is the second book in the Zombie Year 2099 shared world. This one is also the first book in a new series, the X-Clan Series, which is a shifter Omegaverse series, so you know that I am going to be all up over that bitch, right?

So, Andorra is a tiny little country in Europe, high up in the mountains in between France and Spain. In our book, the zombies have been around for a long time, and Andorra is ruled by wolf shifters. The main city is a domed city, and they specialize in high tech. There are humans around, but not all that many of them, and what few there are living in caves and are barely scraping by. The wolves use them as kind of an early warning system. The zombies are going to go after the humans first, and the wolves will be able to protect themselves by rooting out the zombies.

So, with all that said, here’s our story. We have Kat, a human, and Ander, the Alpha of the Andorra Sector. We meet Kat because she is with a bunch of humans who are trying to find food. The guy who is leading them took them to a food shipment vehicle. Which, of course, goes to the wolves, which is basically suicide by wolves. That’s what happens. The wolves find the humans trying to take the food, and all of the people are killed. Well, all but one. The guy in charge of the raid sees Kat and there is just something about her that he wants to learn more about, so he takes her back to the city, where he’s going to have some testing done, and see if they can turn her into a wolf.

Meanwhile, we have Ander. He’s a really strong Alpha. He wants to make sure that his people are strong. One problem is that they don’t have enough Omegas. Omegas are rare enough anyway, but among the X-Clan wolves, they are even rarer. The other X-Clan enclaves won’t trade Omegas over to Andorra, so he’s trying to come up with another solution. In this case, that means trading Omegas for tech from another clan of wolves, and hoping that they are compatible. But then, Kat shows up.

Kat gets tested and they give her the serum to change her, and change her it does. It turns her wolf, but more than that, it turns her into an Omega. Kat, being Kat, isn’t going to let anything stop her, and she decides that she’s going to escape. And she does, for about a hot minute, before she runs into Ander. Quite literally.

I like Kat. She is fierce and determined. In the blurb, it says that even though she’s an Omega, she’s an Alpha inside, and I totally would agree with that, 10000%. She’s a fighter. She’s had to be, just to survive the shitty life that humans live now. When I say that she’s a fighter, I really mean that. She’s a fucking fighter, as in she kinda sorta stabs some wolves in her escape attempt. She’s also confused as to what is happening, and at an extreme loss.

Oh, I kinda really hate Ander a lot of the time in this book. He’s really a prick. There are times when I do like him. He’s still a prick at those times. I think that’s the mark of a good writer and a good character. If you can feel such extremes in one book for one character, and sometimes feel them at the exact same time, then you know the author did their job, and did it well. Anyway, Ander is a good leader. He wants to have the best for his people, and he’s willing to do just about anything to help them and to keep them flourishing. Then there is Kat, and what he wants from her. He wants her to be his mate, and knew that she would be from the second that he saw her.

I’m really looking forward to reading more in this world. I think it’s going to be truly fascinating.

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I hate, hate, hate Ander for saying something stupid. All he had to say was this one stupid thing, and that was all it took. He was also operating under a set of circumstances that may or may not have been faulty.

I’m really glad that Riley was there.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one. Go check it out. Happy reading!

 

Lee Savino-Owned by the Berserkers

Lee’s back with her Berserkers. They are a bunch of Viking and ancient Celtic warriors who were changed into wolves by magic. They have three forms, the man, the wolf, and the monster. The Berserkers walk a fine line between being sane and crazed. The monster can eat away at their sanity. Because of that, most of the Berserkers have paired up in brother bonds, to help keep their sanity intact. It wasn’t until the Alphas found their woman and found out that she was something called a spaewife that they learned that spaewives can mate with them and can control the beasts. There were originally four sisters, but then the Berserkers found out about an abbey filled with orphans who are spaewives. So, they raided the abbey and took all the orphans with them.

In Owned by the Berserkers (Berserker is a fun word to type), we get the story of another one of the orphans, Fern, and her mates, Svein and Dagg. This book flashes back and forth between the present and the past. We get to see what happened at the raid and what’s currently happening.

At the raid, Svein and Dagg discovered Fern and carried her away. They knew that she was her mate and they decided that they were going to be very careful with her and woo her before they told her. All Fern knew is that she felt safe with them and that being with them held off her visions of the skeletal monster who wanted to have her. She got to spend just a few blissful days with them before that monster, the Corpse King, decided to attack. He managed to make Svein and Dagg crazy and cause them to do things they never would otherwise.

Now, Fern lives with all the other unmated spaewives and orphans. They live in a lodge on the mountain, isolated from all the Berserkers so that they don’t cause any problems. When each of the women goes through the heat that each spaewife goes through, she is mated to the Berserkers who are their mates. The women get to see some of the already mated women from the orphanage, but other than that, they are kept under close guard.

Fern has problems though. One is that her visions of the Corpse King are coming back and they are coming back stronger. All she knows is that she was safe with Svein and Dagg. And there are wolves that are howling around the edge of the mountain. She’s been feeding them on the sly, but she finds out that they are to be driven away after a blizzard. That’s when Fern knows that she has to do something.

Fern, Dagg, and Svein are going to be my second favorite trio, after Sage, Rolf, and Thorbjornn. Fern is an incredibly strong character. She knows that she has to do something and she goes out and does it, even after she’s been warned that the wolves howling at the mountain are monsters with nothing left of their humanity and that there’s a horrible blizzard on its way. She goes out and does it anyway and nearly dies from the weather, but succeeds at her overall goal. I was sad about some things in this story, because, well, they are sad things. I was also worried about some things. But, overall, I was hopeful and knew that Fern would be successful in her goals. She was too determined to win for her to manage to fail. If you haven’t read any of the Berserker books, you could read each as a standalone, I guess, since each is a story in and of itself, but they are all part of a larger story, and you will like them more if you have read the ones before it.

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I’m looking forward to seeing how Fern’s new power is going to fit in with the rest of the story. I do love that the women are powerful and that they are actually powers in their own right, not just because they are mated to a Berserker pair. I think that’s pretty awesome.

I’m looking forward to seeing Juliet’s story. I know that Jarl has something to do with it, so it’s going to be interesting to see. She may be the first Berserker bride without a flower name. Maybe she needs to have a name change.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check out both the Berserker Saga, for how the story began, and the Berserker Brides for how the story is continuing. You won’t be sorry! Happy reading!

Maggie Ryan & Shanna Handel-The Wolf’s Demand

A few months ago, I wrote a review of a book called Princess of the Pack by Haven Handel, which is a nom de plume for Shanna Handel. It was a good book that I enjoyed. It featured wolf shifters, evil spirits, and domestic discipline. It was low on the steam scale, but it was a sweet, lovely read. Well, Shanna decided to pull the book and partner with Maggie Ryan to do some reworking on it. It’s still the same basic story, but has a definite steam factor added in, and has been fleshed out.

So, let’s get into The Wolf’s Demand. Here’s our story. Cassandra and Deo Ambrosia are married. They’ve been going through a difficult stage of their marriage, and it’s been very hard and cold at their house. They are either arguing or ignoring each other. Right up until the night that Cassandra comes home and tells Deo that she’s leaving. There are all kinds of reasons that this isn’t a good thing. Deo basically says the hell you are, and takes her into his office and spanks her. She didn’t really want to leave, she just wanted to get his attention, and that was the only way she could do it. Turns out, she really, really likes him spanking her and it worked out well for them.

The next day, she walks into her law practice late, on purpose, so that she didn’t have to sit down at the partner’s meeting, after all, her ass was still tender. Her friend Cynthia asked her about it, and Cassandra told her about it. Then Cassandra goes out to lunch with Andrew, another lawyer at the practice. He has a thing for Cassandra, it’s pretty obvious. When Deo shows up where they are having lunch, Andrew tries to get all alpha male with him, but the problem is, Deo is the Alpha, and it’s hard to out-alpha the alpha. When Cassandra gets back to work, there is a strange man there who tells her that Deo sent him and that she should come with him.

Deo and his family are Greek. Their names all have special meanings, and when you meet them, they are more than happy to tell you the meanings. Deo means godlike. Balthazar, AKA Baal, means protector of the king. Draco means dragon, but also means guardian, and he’s there to protect Cassandra. Alekos, who is Deo’s little brother, means protector of mankind. And Xander means protector. Yeah, it’s important to know all those things.

So, the Ambrosia family is hiding a secret. Hundreds of years ago, back in Greece, an ancestor was cursed. They have to fight against evil and they shift into wolves. Most of the time, the evil spirits they have to fight against stay away. But, every now and again, when an Ambrosia breaks a solemn vow, like oh, telling her husband that she’s leaving, the evil spirits are able to break through. That’s what has happened here, and that’s why Deo sent Baal to pick up Cassandra from her office. Deo has Baal take Cassandra to a castle in upstate New York, where the Ambrosia family has gathered. Deo also tells Cassandra that their marriage is going to change. He knew that she was begging for him to control her and he’s going to do that know.

OK, here we go. Like I said, the basic story is the same from the original book. Or, at least the bones are. There are some changes, outside of the added sexy times scenes. There was a cheating storyline which is now gone, which I like. The storyline wasn’t as fleshed out as it could’ve been, so getting rid of it made the story better, IMO. The ending is also different, and I like the ending a lot better. I liked the original, I like the rework better.

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One of the changes I like a lot is the fact that we’re going to have a menage situation. I thought that there was a point in the original book where we were headed for a reverse harem, which would’ve been an interesting setup, but it didn’t go there, so I’m very pleased to see the menage set up in this book. We really didn’t see much of it in this book, just the setting up of it, and Cassandra agreeing to it, but the next book looks like we’ll have the full thing going on then.

So, that’s it for this one. Go hit up King Zon for it. Happy reading!

Golden Angel-Chasing His Puma

I find it highly appropriate that we are talking about Golden Angel’s new Big Bad Bunny book on Easter. I wouldn’t recommend anyone trying to give one of the Bunsons as an Easter gift, though. That would probably turn out poorly. LOL. On the other hand, the Big Bad Bunnies work out well for some people, which we find out in Chasing His Puma.

So, here’s the story behind this world. The 5 Bunson siblings were kidnapped by a mad scientist. The scientist was trying to find a way to cure some illnesses that affect small shifters. He had lost his wife and son to one of them. Trying to find a cure sounds all well and good, right? The problem is that he was unethical, crazy, and probably sociopathic. He did it by kidnapping these siblings, killing their parents, and spending 7 years doing terrible experiments on them. By the time they were rescued, the siblings had been changed from the humans they were to bunny shifters, with just a little extra. Most of them are bear-sized bunnies. And, oh yeah, they have turtle shells under their fur. Big and bad, indeed. The one sibling that’s bunny sized is called the Beast of Caerbannog. I’m pretty sure that even the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch won’t help against her, no matter what number you count to. If you aren’t familiar with that, then you need to go watch some Monty Python. So, that’s the quick background on the BBB world. Now let’s get down to business with bunnies and pumas.

Brock is one of the 3 Bunson brothers. He and his brothers have joined up with the shifter soldiers so that they can help protect the shifters in general and fight the people who turned them into what they are. On their last mission, Brock was shot in the shoulder. It was bad enough that being a shifter wouldn’t heal it enough, so Doc had to do surgery on it. After the surgery, he had to do physical therapy on it, but ended up messing it up again. Which meant that he had to go back to physical therapy, and he went with Doc. He was taciturn and Doc, Doc really isn’t. She talks a lot and believes in happily ever after.

Doc is a puma shifter. She loves all things Disney. She hates her first name and barely tolerates her middle name, so she tells everyone to call her Doc. She knows that the Bunson siblings have had troubles with her because she’s a doctor and they’ve had such terrible experiences with doctors. Most of them are fine with her, but Brock still has issues being around her. He kind of antagonizes her, but he kind of does that because he likes to poke at her too. At the mating ceremony of his brother Brady and his mate Jesse, Brock goes too far, and chases Doc off. Of course, that’s not the end of it, or this would be a super-short book, and it’s not.

When the call comes from a group of skunk shifters who are ill, Doc has to go and give them a treatment. When his sister’s fated mate, Steele, asks for volunteers to go with her, Brock says he will, which surprises everyone. That’s when things turn really interesting.

I love the Big Bad Bunnies. Golden Angel has a very quirky and snarky sense of humor. You get to see it a lot in this series. She also sticks in all kinds of easter eggs in all of the books, so when you are reading this, make sure that you are keeping your eyes open for them. The books are pretty light and sweet. I wouldn’t recommend reading them as a standalone. I mean, you could if you really wanted to, but… There are a lot of things I like about these books, but one of them is that it doesn’t place importance on fated mates. Yes, they do exist, but they are extremely rare. And, if you find someone you love and have already mated, then the fated mate bond is broken. In fact, most people aren’t really waiting for their fated mates, they are just going about meeting the person that they love and want to mate. That turns the shifter trope on its head, and I think that’s awesome.

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I can’t wait to find out what’s going on with Bailey and Kasim. I know that something is. Pretty sure they aren’t fated mates because we would’ve known already, it’s a biological imperative to seal that mating bond as soon as possible. But, there’s something. Golden will probably make us wait and wait and wait until we find out.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one, so go over and check it out. You won’t be sorry you did. Happy reading!

Renee Rose & Lee Savino-Alpha’s Desire

Oh, how I love these ladies. And I adore the worlds that they create individually. The world that they created together is pretty damn awesome too. I’m always looking forward to reading whatever they have coming next. Today, it’s Alpha’s Desire.

So, Desire takes place in Tucson, like most of the other books in this series. Today, we have Jared, who is muscle for Garrett’s pack. He likes to fight and his wolf is pretty violent. He works as a bouncer at Eclipse, which is pretty perfect for him. He also likes to fuck. He’s taken many human women back in the storeroom and enjoyed some up close and personal time with them. But, he hasn’t done that for a while. That’s because he’s obsessed with one human right now, the lovely Angelina.

Angelina is a ballet student at the university in Tucson. Her parents have pushed and pushed her into dance. At this point, she’s not sure if she likes it because she likes it or because her mother made her like it. Her father thinks that she should become a teacher and not try to do anything else. Angelina feels like she’s getting pushed into her parents’ dreams at the expense of her own. The only thing that makes her happy right now is the gogo dancing she does with two of her friends every Saturday night at Eclipse. Angelina went and talked to Garrett and set it up and she choreographed a few routines for the three of them to do. She’s also crushing on one of the hunky bouncers, Jared. When a drunk harasses her one Saturday night, Jared comes to her rescue. She jumps on his shoulder and dances on her shoulder and gets real up and close to Jared, which makes him nuts. That night ends up being really good and then really bad. The good: Jared takes her back into the storeroom and gets her off. The bad: She hits Jared with her car when he’s on his motorcycle.

Jared takes her two friends home and then goes home with her. When she notices how quickly he’s healing, he knows that he’s going to have a problem. He calls Garrett to find out what to do, and he’s told to make sure Angelina gets her memory wiped, but when it comes down to it, Jared can’t do it. Garrett tells him that he has 2 weeks to either figure out is Angelina is his mate or to have her wiped, and he has to stick like Gorilla Glue to her side. The problem with Angelina maybe being his mate? She’s human, and everyone knows that werewolves can’t mate with humans.

OK, here we go. Unlike the other books that have external enemies, there really isn’t that much external pressure and drama in this one. We do have Agent Dune being introduced, and he’s going to be interesting. We also have Angelina’s parents, but they aren’t really the bad guys. I don’t know that I can really point to anyone in this and say bad guy. Instead, all of that pressure and drama comes from Jared and Angelina. It’s all internal as they are trying to figure out who they are and what they want, and how they can fit together. They both have some serious demons that they are trying to fight, and it’s hard to do that, especially when you are trying to fight for a relationship at the same time.

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So, the whole Agent Dune thing. That’s going to be an interesting storyline, I think. I think from Jared’s reaction he’s a shifter of some flavor, but I’m wondering if he was a born shifter and he didn’t know it, like Foxfire and Kylie or if something happened to him and he was turned into a shifter and he’s forgotten it. That’s going to be really interesting to find out.

I love where Jared figured out where to bite Angelina for the mating bite. It shows that he put a lot of thought into the whole situation. He wanted to make sure that she would be fine when it came to her dancing, so I thought that was pretty awesome.

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

Ava Sinclair-Fire Bride

Ava Sinclair has brought us back to her Drakoryan world and back to Lyla and her 4 mates, Imryth, Zelki, Drogros, and Tythos in Fire Bride.

Now, remember, in an RH, there isn’t always group sex. It’s more about the relationship that each hero has with the heroine and what needs of hers they happen to meet. Some RH books have group sex in them, not all of the ones I’ve read do. Ava’s Drakoryan books don’t have any kind of group sex. It would upset the boys too much to watch anyone else go at their bride, even if it’s a brother.

In Sacrifice, the seer had a vision that Lyla would have an important part to play in the upcoming war and that her mates shouldn’t keep any secrets from her. However, there’s a problem with that. For all that they know that they shouldn’t keep secrets from her, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t. Villages are being destroyed but they don’t want to tell Lyla that the ancient enemy is coming back. Zelki is all for letting her know what’s going on, but the other boys aren’t so sure. Drogros, as the oldest one, keeps telling them that nope, they are keeping it a secret. They are trying very hard to make sure that she’s occupied with them and with keeping her home. What they don’t know is that Lyla kind of hates it. She wants to know so many things, and she’s not like the other brides who are all into their children and their homes and their families. She can fake it well, though.

Lyla knows that something is up with her mates, they all seem just a little off, but they keep telling her everything is fine. There’s a big council meeting coming up to their house, so now she’s busy working on making sure that everything is up to the high standards required to impress everyone else. But she finds out things that show she’s being lied to.

OK, it’s that time. I really like Lyla. She isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes and to fight for what needs to happen. She’s definitely a warrior in her own right, even if she doesn’t do it the same way her mates do. They really do need her. I’m really looking forward to War Bride to advance the story so we can find out what more is going on.

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I loved that the witches needed to see Lyla and that she got to see them, even if it wasn’t normal for a Bride to show up there. It just shows how important that Lyla is in the greater scheme of things. And without her pushing and pushing, certain things wouldn’t have happened. So, yay Lyla.

The next book is going to be very interesting. I can’t wait for a continuation of the story, even if we have a different group at the forefront.

That’s all for today. Happy reading!

Golden Angel-Night of the Wild Stags

We have another Night of…. reverse harem story. There are several authors who got together to write that lovely little group of books, and today it’s Golden Angel’s turn. We met her on the blog not too long ago with her book Tempting the Domme. Today, though, we have a totally different genre. We’re in the world of shifters.

This book takes place in Golden’s Big Bad Bunny world. If you haven’t read those books, you totally should. I had to just because no one thinks of bunnies as big and bad, so I couldn’t figure out why they would be called big and bad. Trust me, they are, and it’s pretty awesome.

So, let’s talk about Night of the Wild Stags. With a name like that, I bet you can guess what kind of shifters that we are dealing with. Alright, you don’t have to have read anything in the Big Bad Bunny world to read this one since it’s a standalone and you will have no problem getting everything you need to know for the story. But here’s some quick backstory.  In this shifter world, there are all kinds of shifters, but you can kind of break them down into big species and little species. Bunnies, squirrels, and other similar things would be the little species. Then for the larger ones, you’re looking at deer, wolves, lions, etc. There are some diseases that affect shifters. In the larger species shifters, those diseases don’t cause a huge problem, but in the smaller species, they can be fatal. They have a vaccine and a cure of sorts, in a place called Lakewood, which is a shifter area. With that said, now we can talk about the book.

Kiara is a Pudu deer shifter. Her herd is very isolated and very isolationist. They all live in the same apartment building. Because there aren’t many males, each male has several “mates” and they take turns with them. Kiara sees her “mate” on Wednesday nights and it’s basically wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Kiara, who has been editing romance novels, isn’t happy and she wants more. So she runs away. While she’s on the run, she gets very sick with the Scourge. This is one of those shifter diseases. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem since she’s a deer, but there’s one small thing about Pudu deer. That’s the fact that they are teeny tiny. They are the smallest species of deer, at full grown, they are about the size of a lamb. That means that they would come under the small species, and the Scourge can be fatal to her.

Meanwhile, we have a small herd of 4 red deer stags. Red deer are pretty much the largest deer species. These 4 guys are two sets of brothers and are cousins, named Dorian, Gavin, Alec, and Riley. They are soldiers in Lakewood, but they are headed out to their cabin in the woods so that they can have a vacation. On the way there, they see a pile of clothing in the road. When they notice it move, the guys go look and find Kiara. All four of them are drawn to her. When they take her to the hospital, they all hang around her and stay in her room. When she’s starting to feel better, they invite her to go to her cabin with them so that they can take care of her.

Alright, it’s that time. I’m seriously digging the RH thing. Each guy has something that needs a specific need in Kiara, and she can have a relationship with each guy within the larger whole and with the larger whole. It’s pretty awesome how that works. They are all so good for Kiara. I really love all of them. I want Golden to write more about them.

 

Red deer stagsF-ESPECIES-AMENAZADAS

OMG, I love Kiara’s doe after her treatment. She gets cocky for sure. I also love the description of the size difference between Kiara and her mates. When they are all shifted, she can literally stand underneath them and not touch their bellies. That’s some serious size difference right there. I love it.

Sebastian got what he deserved. I wish I know what he was told, but I don’t think we ever will. He’s a scummy scummy douchecanoe.

OK, that’s all for this one. There’ll be another one later.

Raisa Greywood-Wicked Deception

You know how I love to help out new and new-ish authors, right? If the author has done the hard work to write the words and been vulnerable enough to hit that publish button on Amazon, I’m going to do what I can to help them out. (Sidenote, leave reviews on Goodreads and Amazon for authors you like.) What does that have to do with today’s blog? Well, I’m more than happy to introduce you to Raisa Greywood, a new-ish author who is just getting started. Today, we’re talking about the first book in her Wicked Magic series, Wicked Deception.

So, WD starts out like a fairly typical Victorian-era romance. You have the young lady who is swept off her feet by a handsome lord who whisks her away to a life of wealth, comfort, and hot sex. But, that would be deceptive. Here’s what really happens.

Elizabeth is the daughter of a knight and has spent most of her life living in genteel poverty that’s slowly becoming more poverty and less genteel. She runs the house, avoids her father who is a prick, and tries to keep up on her own interests. She’s a very smart young woman, who reads Newton and Darwin. She’s also very much WYSIWYG. She’s blunt, honest, and not tactful at all. She’s terrible at small talk. She’s loyal to her friends, even though they probably want to strangle her on a frequent basis. I like her. If I were her friend, I would want to strangle her. She’s also determined, strong, and stubborn.

One day, Elizabeth’s father called her down to his study where he introduces her to Richard, Earl of Shepton. She’s promptly told that she will be marrying him in the morning. She’s actually kind of happy about that because that means she’ll be getting away from her father. Still, she’s about to get married to a man who she has met for all of 5 minutes. And when he is late for their wedding the next day, she’s worried.

As soon as she can escape from her father’s house after the wedding, she does. Now, Elizabeth is an interesting character. I really did like her. But, she’s a mix of OK, I’m married now and OMG, I’m alone with a man and he’s my husband and WTF happens now? And keep in mind, they barely know each other and they’ve had to have a special license to get married so quickly.

When they eventually get to their house, there are some fun sexy times. I loved the bathtub. And things are… OK for a while. Elizabeth knows that she will probably have to share her husband with his mistress, especially when he calls her Angeline while they are having sex. Then, Angeline shows up.

Angeline is a shady, sneaky bitch. I didn’t like her at all. And when Richard was around her, he turned ugly. She fed all kinds of nasty impulses in him. But for some reason, Elizabeth liked everything that happened, appeared to be a willing participant, and did what she could to please Richard and Angeline, even when she heard a little voice in her head try to tell her all these things weren’t right.

Elizabeth’s stubbornness does serve her well, as does the strength of her character. She uses these things to her advantage when she has the chance to take charge of her own destiny. This really was a good story and I really did enjoy it. I’m dying to read the next one.

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I really want Amelia’s story at some point. I’m pretty sure she’s going to grow up to a true force to be reckoned with.

I love how Elizabeth handles Angeline. It took some out of the box thinking. And I do love how she handled Richard. She knew what she wanted and she wasn’t going to pass up what she wanted just because of Richard feeling guilty.

All in all, quite a good story. Go check it out! Happy reading!

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