Review: Dark Deeds (Class 5 Book 2) by Michelle Diener

Rating: 4.5⭐️

I really enjoyed Dark Deeds and am finding that, for me, it improves with each new book and expansion into the series arc.  

Yes, I finished the series. And the author does answer many questions about the series, like why only women being abducted, as various plots unfold. 

Fiona Russell, the second woman found by the Grih, is another who’s undergone extreme hardships after her abduction from her home. 

Each woman’s story is vastly different but their ingenuity, bravery and courage under incredible circumstances is portrayed credibly and realistically. Fiona’s battle to survive and get away from her captors is suspense filled and emotional.

 Class 5, Eazi comes into play here, along with Grih battleship captain Hal Vakeri, who rescues Fee from both the Krik and the Garmann slavers. 

The galactic political system and high intrigue between the  Tecran and their allies the Garmman and Krik , who have violated the treaty and laws on sentient beings rights , the other worlds in the galactic United Council, is a tension filled, complex plot. Often one with betrayals and conflicts within the same groups and societies that are involved with the sides officially saving the women.

The relationships that evolve between the women and the different AI or thinking systems (a really awkward name) vary greatly. Here it’s between Fee and Eazi, and I really enjoyed the interaction and end solution for both of them. 

The singing aspect is still important and is worked into each of their stories as they find out the importance and impact of their abilities to sing in Grih culture. 

I’d love to know more about the history behind the IA scientist, the wars, and the Grih Class 5 they became. 

Love the series, how it’s developing, and each new woman being introduced. 

A definite winner. 

Class 5 Series (7 book series)

Dark Horse #1

Dark Deeds #2

Dark Minds #3

Dark Matters #4

Dark Class #5

Collision Course #6

Crash Course #7

Buy link

 Book 2 of 7: Class 5 Series 

Blurb 

Far from home . . . Fiona Russell has been snatched from Earth, imprisoned and used as slave labor, but nothing about her abduction makes sense. When she’s rescued by the Grih, she realizes there’s a much bigger game in play than she could ever have imagined, and she’s right in the middle of it.

Far from safe . . . Battleship captain Hal Vakeri is chasing down pirates when he stumbles across a woman abducted from Earth. She’s the second one the Grih have found in two months, and her presence is potentially explosive in the Grih’s ongoing negotiations with their enemies, the Tecran. The Tecran and the Grih are on the cusp of war, and Fiona might just tip the balance.

Far from done . . . Fiona has had to bide her time while she’s been a prisoner, pretending to be less than she is, but when the chance comes for her to forge her own destiny in the new world she’s found herself in, she grabs it with both hands. After all, actions speak louder than words.

Eclipse

Publication date

January 4, 2016

Language

‎English

Print length

384 pages

Book 2 of 7

Class 5 Series

Review: Our Nanny is a Vampire by Lindsey Devin and Roxie Ray

Rating:5⭐️

Well, I’m absolutely flabbergasted by this book.  It’s starts with the cover. I mean, it’s cute, colorful, showing an adorable woman holding a teddy bear in a style that suggests this  story is going to be sweet, entertaining and honestly, lighthearted. 

What the reader falls into is a beautifully written exploration of a family deeply bound up in their grief and loss of their mother and their father’s love for his wife. Their center is gone and they’ve been shattered. After three years they haven’t started reconnecting with their father or outside of the home.  

There’s an equally strong emotional aspect here. A 200 year old vampire who is carrying her own trauma and deep emotional baggage that has never been fully recovered from.

The Lawrence household, overwhelmed, overworked father Conrad Lawrence, youngest girl Billie, middle child C.J, and oldest daughter Bianca, all of whom are brilliant, talented and perceptive in their own right, and hurting for their father, themselves and their loss.  

Immediately, after the children dispatched yet another nanny from the house with an amazing display of engineering enthusiasm, the family heads to the cemetery. And I’m both lost for words for this grieving family and lost in this world and story. 

The authors have me in tears and their grip. The dialogue are beautiful, apt to the characters and ages, clever but also poignant. Powerful and funny and emotional.  We know what they are thinking and how they feel about each moment.

“The cemetery sat behind a small white church twenty minutes from the house, tucked between old trees and a low, iron fence. Jade hadn’t been especially religious, but she’d liked the cemetery. She’d told me that if people had to be buried anywhere, they might as well be somewhere with decent shade and no highway noise.”

The children are so remarkable, real and connectable. I love them deeply. 

“Billie stared out the window with her brows pinched together. “Is Mommy cold?” she asked.”

Oh my heart.

Then , courtesy of the fabulous Lady Ferdinand,  Conrad is given a card and number to call:

Miss Winifred Carrington 

Private Childcare and Household Instruction Discretion Assured

I won’t spoil her entrance or what happened next. I will say it’s scene after scene of things I could picture in my head. The artfully executed conversations, the relatable relationships forming between Winnie and each child, the healing as the family starts to recover and move forward. 

There’s also an important side plot about Winnie’s past that comes with trigger warnings. But everything here is thoughtfully written and woven together with the dynamics of the family and slow burn romance that it’s extremely important for Winnie’s character to grow as well for this element to occur. 

I kept wondering if something would pop up to keep me from loving this. But even that ending was just right. She’s a vampire with eternal life, they are humans. That’s recognized by both Conrad and herself as a reality of their situation. She’s never going to get old. But the way love is treated and discussed here is impressive. 

And it makes sense and so the ending feels satisfying. 

I wondered how I would feel about this given how many writers are involved (each author is actually two writers or more) but it’s an absolute joy to read and a 5 star story. 

Really, that cover is such a mismatch between it and the complexity of the content inside. Love surprises like this.

Highly recommended!

Read the trigger warnings. 

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comOur Nanny is a Vampire eBook : Devin, Lindsey, Ray, Roxie

Blurb 

Conrad Lawrence has lost nine nannies in three years.

There was Nanny Franny McFine (four days). Marie Von Fire, who claimed she’d once worked for a duke. Mrs. Corrinna Rainer, who lasted until Billie released crickets into her suitcase. 

Mademoiselle Joella Frosty, who called his kids “creatively hostile” and blocked his number before she reached the end of the driveway.

So when nanny #10 walked through the door, Conrad wasn’t expecting much. Then Winnie shows up.

She’s calm where his house is chaos. Patient where his kids are relentless. And she sees the grief he’s been quietly carrying for three years without flinching from it — because she’s been carrying centuries of her own.

Winnie has survived two hundred years by never staying long enough to be found. But this house, this impossible family, and this exhausted, good-hearted father are the first things she’s wanted to keep in longer than she can remember.

She should have known better. Because the past doesn’t let go that easily — and hers is coming to collect.

✨ Perfect for readers who love: grumpy widower x unbothered 200-year-old nanny energy, slow-burn nanny romance, found family with a coffin parked under the trees, and exes who show up mid-domesticity like they weren’t already asked to leave

Special Fiction Books

Publication date

July 23, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

‘O567 pages

Review:  The Rut in the Road (Beyond the Veil #11) by K. M. Avery

Rating: 4.5🌈

Rayn’s journey has been one of the most haunting, and tormented of all of the characters to date in this immersive paranormal world where an Arcana virus swept across the world altering the human landscape forever. A large portion of the world’s population perished, others were left altered by the virus, becoming orcs, witches, weres of various species, zombies, vampires and other otherworldly beings. Quickly consigned to hospitals, or institutions or worse when society and families couldn’t accept them or the virus transitions were physically agonizing and long to take hold. 

By book 11, Humans only rights groups, not just the extremists, are fighting to remove the rights the Nids have gained. It sounds very familiar. And the fear and ugly hate groups, the crimes against the Nids going unpunished, is so well written that it feels lifted from events today. 

Rayn,older and working as a touch psychic in alongside Ward and Mason in BTV is still very much the under socialized, on the spectrum person he’s been even as he’s developed physically.  His childhood, and its accompanying deep trauma and abuse along with his lack of knowledge of his own powers, still makes Rayn an introverted, emotionally awkward person. He’s trying to get people to accept him as adult and not as a fragile little traumatized boy most who know his history see him as. 

Avery’s crafting of Rayn is immaculate, he is real in his skin, his efforts to navigate through the communication blocks and issues between Raj and himself are emotionally tough and difficult and feel absolutely credibly raw.  Hart plays a great supporting role here, once again revealing himself to be a fine, intelligent caring man. 

Raj has been a strong presence in the series and his involvement with Rayn starts in the previous book. But the issues between him and Rayn have been building and his extraordinary overprotective nature is a huge problem. 

It’s addressed and seems to be an aspect that he needs to work through. Do I believe that it’s resolved? Not sure. I never know with Avery, maybe it is or maybe it isn’t. There’s one more book in Rayn’s trilogy and the human only faction element has just gotten more complicated and suspenseful by the end of this very amazing story. 

I highly recommend reading it but it’s not something that you can read by itself. Each one should be read in the order that it was written for characters and overall plot development. 

Amazing series and fantastic characters. One of the best paranormal group of storylines I’ve read. Certainly one that has the most impact on current events.

Series couples to date (not standalone and have to be read in the order they are written):

Highly recommended. 

Beyond the Veil Series : 

💀Ward’s story (1-3): 

The Ghost in the Hall 

The Boy in the Locked Room 

The Skeleton Under the Stairs. 

💀Hart’s story (4-6): 

The Dog in the Alley 

The Bones in the Yard 

The Elf Beside Himself 

💀Seth’s story (7-9): 

The Turning of the Tables 

The Badger in his Burrow 

The Past in the Present 

💀Rayn’s Story (10-12) 

The Diamond in the Rough 

The Rut in the Road 

The Rock and the Hard Case (coming 2026) 

💀Dan’s Story (13-15) Coming 2026-2027

Buy link 

 Book 11 of 11: Beyond the Veil 

Blurb 

I was finally getting my life together—I had a job, a boyfriend, was working on my college degree, and was learning to control both my magic and my psychic abilities. I’d reconnected with my sister and I was starting to think that I might actually be able to have something approaching a healthy adult life, even if it wasn’t going to be an even remotely normal one.

And then I hit a rut in the road.

Or, rather, people started hitting other people. What started as a single hit-and-run had become several of them, all targeting Arcanids, and I was being asked to get into the mind of the killer… although I’m starting to think that maybe there’s more than one. Tracking one killer is hard enough, but when you think there might be several, things get a lot messier.

Especially when your boyfriend is a federal agent who just got called in to take over the case. It’s the first time we’ve worked together since we started dating, and it’s definitely taking a toll. I don’t want to have to choose between keeping him and solving the murders.

July 30, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

430 pages

Book 11 of 11

Beyond the Veil

Review:  The Bone Charm (The Haunted Ranch Mysteries #8) by Sara Bourgeois 

Rating: 4.75⭐️

The Bone Charm brings the beautifully written paranormal mystery series , The Haunted Ranch Mysteries by Sara Bourgeois to a heartwarming, richly satisfying conclusion. 

Through 8 books, nine of you count the prequel, Claire’s development starting from a woman who has fled failures in her life back in Chicago, fired from her job and dumped by her fiancé to arrive in a small town in Arizona and a ranch left to her by a aunt.

Slowly she’s accepted that the dusty, weird town of Perdido Springs and her desert life out on Whispering Saguaro Ranch is where she belongs. The ranch becomes an animal sanctuary in odd scenarios, each a memorable character themselves and, the ranch is inhabited by ghosts, fully realized and completely a part of Claire’s life and the series. 

Each book has a murder mystery, the casualty one that leaves a wound upon the community in multiple ways. Physically and emotionally and metaphysically damaging the magic that surrounds the desert and town. 

That happens here. 

The townspeople, like Buddy Kern feel incredibly real, as part of the landscape that the author describes so realistically and with such great detail.  They’re believable in their crustiness and weariness from the everyday realities of ranch life in the heat of the desert. 

And don’t get me started on how much I love Oso the livestock guardian dog lost in his grief while still watching his flock. 

The thoughtful investigation, the way the case was resolved, both of them, because there was several aspects to this particular murder mystery that needed to be finalized. 

And Sara Bourgeois brought Clair’s journey to a close with her role being tied to her land and town in a way that makes sense. She’s grown and become grounded, by her ranch, the animals, the land itself. And her magic has evolved as she has.

The end acknowledges her journey, her growth, and her future there. It’s all tied up together beautifully. And I’ve feel so thrilled and happy for this series to end like this.

One of my favorites.  Highly recommended. As is the author. 

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries (8 book series)

Last Call in Chicago #0.5 prequel 

Death Rides The Desert #1

Bones and Cactus Blooms #2

Spirits of the Saguaro #3

Tombstones with a View #4

Body Beneath the Wither #5

Death Waits at Dead Rock #6

Skulls and Sunlit Secrets #7

The Bone Charm #8

Buy link

 Book 8 of 8: The Haunted Ranch Mysteries 

Blurb 

Claire Caldwell’s life at Whispering Saguaro Ranch is never quiet. Between escape-artist goats, a rooster with a personal grudge against her wedding ring, and a spirit fox who disappears every night on business of his own, she’s learned to expect trouble in feathers, fur, or both.

Then Socorro Vega, the elderly herb seller from the farmers market, is found dead on a desert trail.

The county blames the heat. Claire might have believed them if she hadn’t gone to rescue Socorro’s goats and her grieving Great Pyrenees, Oso. One touch of a carved bone charm in Socorro’s kitchen shows Claire what really happened. A dark room. Hands pressed over an old woman’s face. A desperate voice begging her to sign a piece of paper.

Plenty of people wanted what Socorro owned. Her forty acres include one of the last live springs in a drying valley. Her handmade charms are worth a fortune to the right collector. Even her closest relative has debts he can’t outrun. Unfortunately, the sheriff has already closed the case, and visions from a dead woman’s necklace aren’t evidence.

While Claire and her friends search for something they can prove, Perdido Springs begins coming apart in ways no one can explain. Animals panic without cause. Lights wander through the cemetery. Ghostly cowboys flee into the desert. Socorro wasn’t simply gathering herbs all those years. She was tending a hidden boundary around the town, and her murder left part of it wide open.

Finding Socorro’s killer is only the beginning. If Claire can’t finish the work Socorro died protecting, whatever is pressing against that broken boundary may soon find its way through.

July 28, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

154 pages

Book 8 of 8

The Haunted Ranch Mysteries

Review: Neverthorn (Of Quirks and Curses Book 1) By Shannon Mayer

Rating: 4⭐️

Shannon Mayer is a hit or miss writer for me. Some stories I think she writes are just wonderful, well plotted with amazing characters. Then there’s those books I find have terrific points and elements but include one or two aspects of the story that make me put it down, permanently.

Neverthorn, the first book of Of Quirks and Curses series by Shannon Mayer, is a bit of both. Mayer’s previous dark urban fantasy academy thriller, Shadowspell (2021) is amazing. Now comes Neverthorn, Of Quirks and Curses, it’s not a YA novel although there’s some similarities. 

It has some really interesting elements about it. Starting immediately with Harlow, a 29 year old magical thief, who, along with her younger non-magical sister, is dragged unwillingly back to Neverthorn Academy, a place she left and swore never to return to. 

As with these urban fantasy academy mystery series, the main character gathers together a group of misfits around her. This time it’s another group of older people, thrown together into a magical House, who’ve come from a variety of normal lifestyles outside of the magical life because they sucked at magic.

This is a great element. A group of adults brought back to an academy for purposes unknown, most of them with “weak magic “, who were bullied when they were younger there. 

I loved watching them gell as a group, definitely a “us vs them” atmosphere. But with such a fantastic plot element, Mayer has a hard time hanging onto the characters ages and writing them as credible adults of 29 and older.  More and more, their personalities start to present as younger than they should be.  They soon feel like early 20’s, if that. And an interesting plot idea is being lost.

The School is certainly harsh as is its situation. The scenes are laid out in rich detail and the darkness of the magic of the villain is spookily drawn into the narrative. Very well executed. 

However for every nice twist that’s revealed, there’s a major plot or storyline that’s been easily telegraphed by Mayer’s execution so that the reader can see who is actually the villain (wink, wink) and how the entire series will play out without needing to read it. It’s just that heavy handed.   

I’m going to because I’m sure there’s some interesting twists along the journey. But yes, I have to say I have a good idea of how it will go down. And if you have read enough of these books, you’ll see it too. 

It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. 

And the second book is out so the reader can head immediately forward to the how it’s resolved. 

I’m recommending it because it’s still enjoyable to read. 

Of Quirks and Curses (2 book series)

Neverthorn #1

Heathermoor #2

Buy link

 Book 1 of 2: Of Quirks and Curses 

Blurb 

In a realm where magic reigns, a legendary Hero once stood against the encroaching darkness. But with his death, hope dwindled, and the best the world can muster is Harlow Daygon—a thief, magic school dropout, and notorious troublemaker.

At nearly thirty, Harlow can’t even cast a simple rune without blundering it. So why does anyone think she can take up the mantle of Hero? Reluctantly, she’s dragged back to Neverthorn Academy with seven former classmates, tasked with training to confront and defeat the Villain of their world.

But the challenges are stacked against her:

Professor Hot-As-Sin makes it clear she’s a failure.

Professor Used-To-Be-A-Mean-Girl has a vendetta.

And lurking in her past is a secret so dark it could reveal she’s not the Hero the world needs—but the next Villain.

With fate hanging in the balance, can Harlow embrace her destiny before the shadows claim her?

Hijinks Ink Publishing

Publication date

July 22, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

529 pages

Review:  A Witch’s Legacy (Drakethorn Legal Book 1) by Michael Anderle and Isabel Campbell

Rating: 3⭐️

Michael Anderle is an extremely prolific author who often co writes his books and series with several other authors, Isabel Campbell among them. 

And I admit I often pick up a book by him because the premise is intriguing, offering something I haven’t seen before in a paranormal/fantasy or science fiction novel. 

That happens with A Witch’s Legacy, the first book in the Drakethorn Legal series.  

It has a really great storyline about a main female character who is a lawyer who turns out to be a dragon. There’s so much potential there for interesting character history, courtroom drama, and, well dragon related stuff. 

Stacy Drake, a lawyer who has an eye for cases for the underdog, doesn’t know she’s a dragon until she starts blacking out . Turns out she’s a dragon or the offspring of a dragon and a witch. 

It starts off entertaining and with all the drama and elements that drew me into this story. But then begins to lose me. 

Anderle is very good at writing action and fantasy stories. He can build worlds and make them real. But here the bridges between Stacy’s character and storyline and how we get to her father and his past and the fantasy isn’t well established. 

She’s mad at dad. He’s fabulously wealthy. Huge castle and estate. She sees him again and wonder of wonders, the servants are gone, estate is looking shabby, and our young lawyer says nothing about it. Her dad doesn’t look so hot either. Any chance of Stacy mentioning that? No. 

She’s supposedly extremely intelligent, great attorney. Yet time after time, things slide right by her. Not just her father and the past. But SMH plot points that make a reader wonder about the character’s motivations and smarts. 

Then there’s the entire she’s supposed to be a dragon but we get the magic of her mother, so there’s that. A bit disappointing and the magical system we do get is never explained but more on the poof, it’s magical thing. Not very exciting.

I finally finished it but nothing made me feel as though I had to go further. 

Interesting. But the potential for more was what brought me here. 

Cover by Mihaela Voicu

Drakethorn Legal (With Michael Anderle) 

A Witch’s Legacy (Book 1) 

Scales of Truth (Book 2)

Buy link

 Book 1 of 6: Drakethorn Legal 

Blurb 

You don’t read books about lawyers.

Neither did she — until the lawyer turned out to be a dragon.

Stacy Drake champions the people no one else will fight for. Evicted single moms. Bullied shop owners. An entire nation the city wants to bulldoze. She buried her old-money family name so every courtroom win would be hers and hers alone — and she’s very, very good at making smug, powerful men squirm.

Then a masked man jumps her in an alley with a knife and a warning. She blacks out. She wakes up with no memory, a bloodied shirt, and a headline about three attackers found torn apart — “WITNESS CLAIMS SUPERHUMAN ATTACK.”

The truth is older than she could imagine. Her estranged father is the last Red Dragon. Her dead mother was a powerful witch. And Stacy is both — just as the rival she keeps beating in court hires something inhuman to bring him her head.

A snarky, big-hearted urban fantasy for readers of Annette Marie and Lindsay Buroker — dragon fire, witch magic, found family, and an underdog you’ll be c heering by page two. Clean read, no spice, all bite.

One-click A Witch’s Legacy and start the series readers binge in a weekend.

Review: Dark Horse (Class 5 Book 1) by Michelle Diener

Rating: 4⭐️

Dark Horse, the first book in the science fiction series Class 5 by Michelle Diener, was given several awards for science fiction in 2016, one of the reasons I grabbed it up. 

I’m always curious to see how well science fiction stories will age from publication point, given their author’s storyline, scientific elements, and any imaginative alien aspects that are presented here. 

I’m really enjoying this series and growing groups of characters. While there’s some overall series plot elements that I have been questioning, the characters and storytelling just draws one into the narrative and each women’s struggle to adapt and survive her new life in space among aliens. 

The first story is that. The first for  multiple characters, cultures and the beginning of a major galactic mystery and heinous crime that will take the entire series to investigate and unravel.

Yes, I’m on book 2 now. 

Rose McKenzie, a linguistic professor, has been abducted by the Tecran, tortured and experimented on. The one who saves her? The Class 5 Battleship, Sazo, who itself has been a prisoner of the same race and needs Rose to free it. They form a formidable alliance and friendship to free themselves. 

Here Sazo is called a thinking machine, which I found unwieldy. But most importantly it’s one of only 5 in existence that survived a AI war in which they were killed off and banned. 

So it’s not just about Rose’s recovery from her ordeal, her trauma and her struggles to adapt but it’s Sazo’s too. With Rose’s guidance, learning empathy, emotions, and what its emergence as a self aware being means. To itself and those around it. Especially when so many mean it harm because of prejudice and past history. 

Their relationship and dynamics is layered and has a depth that is emotionally strong with the reader. As well as containing some surprises. 

The aliens are humanoid, the Grif especially with their elf life ears. Maybe this aspect of the series will expand into more complex worlds and less human like aliens as I get into it, but for now, it’s just human-like aliens in space. Something I see quite a bit of in space exploration fiction. When it’s not cat-aliens in space. Wish there were more imagination used here in this capacity. Not that I don’t enjoy the characters, I do. 

The references are fun, the characters are engaging and the plots well executed. Things that i would thought were underutilized were later shown by the author to be a long-term storyline. Loved this.

I originally thought the author missed an opportunity for Rose as a professor with the sociological aspect of singing both species looking at songs and singing from very different perspectives. From an Earth cultures/ peoples perspective, singing and songs are viewed as an integral part of life, from lullabies to dirges, entertainment to dance. The Grih are at the other end of the spectrum, seeing songs and the few who sing them as solemn rituals , reverent and cherished. 

However, Diener is using this idea of singing and songs as a series thread that multiple characters are using to express themselves and create bonds between species. In some cases, beginning to see a cultural or ideological shift,for better or worse.

 Its elements like this, along with engaging characters and just plain old terrific storytelling that has me hooked. 

No it doesn’t always science, but it’s highly enjoyable. I’m recommending it. And I’m onto the third!

Class 5 Series (7 book series)

Dark Horse #1

Dark Deeds #2

Dark Minds #3

Dark Matters #4

Dark Class #5

Collision Course #6

Crash Course #7

Buy link

 Book 1 of 7: Class 5 Series 

Blurb 

Some secrets carry the weight of the world.

Rose McKenzie may be far from Earth with no way back, but she’s made a powerful ally–a fellow prisoner with whom she’s formed a strong bond. Sazo’s an artificial intelligence. He’s saved her from captivity and torture, but he’s also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.

Captain Dav Jallan doesn’t know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he’s not going to complain. The only problem is, everyone on board is dead, except for one strange, new alien being. She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5’s owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn’t the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.

In this race for the truth, he’s going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.

Winner of a SFR Galaxy Award 2016 and the Prism Award 2016 for Best Futuristic.

The Class 5 science fiction series is set in a galaxy where Earth women are abducted and thrust into conflicts between alien civilizations. The United Council governs multiple planets, while powerful AI battleships known as Class 5s navigate tensions between warring species. The Tecran have been abducting humans in violation of UC law, and the Grih Battle Center works to rescue abductees and prevent interstellar war. Each woman becomes a catalyst in diplomatic crises that could shift the balance of power between nations on the brink of conflict.

Exploring themes of survival, agency, and adaptation far from home, the series blends military science fiction with character-driven narratives. The abducted women must forge alliances, navigate political machinations, and fight for their own destinies while caught between species racing toward war. With AI battleships as both allies and unpredictable forces, the series examines individuals who refuse to remain pawns in larger conflicts. Perfect for readers seeking space opera featuring women who take matters into their own hands when facing impossible odds.

Review:  Sweet Something (Wood Hollow Stories Book 2) by Lane Hayes 

Rating: 3.5🌈

Sweet Something is the second book in Lane Hayes’ Wood Hollow Stories, a contemporary romance novel set in a Vermont landscape of 4 small towns that are very close together and connected socially with each other. 

Four Forest area of Vermont are : Wood Hollow, Elmwood, Pinecrest, and Fallbrook.

I loved This Guy and getting to know more about the community of Wood Hollow. But Sweet Something just doesn’t feel the same. It’s not as well executed or all the elements don’t add up to a warm hearted feel good story. Somehow it’s not realistic enough in the components that Hayes has written in to be a completely happy story. 

Dexter the donut shop guy is very engaging. He’s outgoing, helps run and organizes the community flag football teams, and loves his adopted town. There is a side story about his dysfunctional family and controlling mother , a brain injury, ex wife, but it’s not well developed . So the scenes and resolution with his mother feel forced. Especially after so many years of pain and hard feelings between them. 

Viggo the lumberjack is initially a character that is hard to connect with, especially after his aggressive angry introduction and interactions with Dexter. To be honest, that entire conversation and element would have had me with serious concerns about the entire situation with the surrogacy. She violated Dexter’s privacy rights. And sent an unknown man to scream and yell and threaten the person who will be the father of the baby. That’s never ok. 

No matter how Hayes used this , it makes it seem as though surrogacy and the tight laws and regulations surrounding it are incredibly fluid. I would think if you were going to include such an important topic as surrogacy, you’d make sure every aspect of it was thoughtfully addressed. It never really felt like it was here. At least to me. 

Anyway, I end up thinking about consequences, then other things like character dynamics, as well as other aspects of the story that don’t have a good flow. The entire Mother factor is another. She appears, often threatens, leaves. Epilogue. Everything is fine. 

Plus his brain injury that’s mentioned, gives him headaches and forgotten again. Was there any lingering issues? 

Anyway they all lived together HEA. It’s sweet and left me feeling less than satisfied. 

Looking forward to the next one. 

Cover Design by Sleepy Fox Studio

Four Forest towns  of Vermont Universe – see note below 

The Elmwood Stories (6 book series)- I love this series ❤️ it mentions the lumber mill and introduces the Four Forest towns. It’s hockey meets Vermont small town ❤️.

Wood Hollow Series:

This Guy #1

Sweet Something #2

Mountain Man #3 – Oct 12,2026

Four Forest area of Vermont are : Wood Hollow, Elmwood, Pinecrest, and Fallbrook. The Elmwood Stories ❤️ series is complete

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 Book 2 of 3: Wood Hollow Stories 

Blurb 

The baker, the grumpy lumberjack, and a new dad journey…

Dexter

The donut business is booming in Wood Hollow, along with my flag football program. Now I’m ready to take on a new challenge—parenthood. See, I’ve always wanted to be a dad and it’s finally happening. Wood Hollow is the perfect place to raise a child. It’s quiet, safe, and the folks here are friendly.

One glaring exception is the grumpy lumberjack…who ends up being besties with my surrogate. What are the odds?

Yeah…this will be interesting.

Viggo

I’m a logger. I like wood. That’s it. Maybe that makes me a solitary person, but so what?

Unfortunately, I can’t ignore the handsome donut man’s new dad-to-be situation. Not when it concerns an old family friend.

Look, I don’t want to be involved, but I have no choice. And if that means I’ll have to step outside of my comfort zone and do people-y things to make sure Dexter is a going to be a good dad, so be it.

It doesn’t mean I like Dexter. He’s accidentally funny, kind of sweet, very hot, and—

Okay, fine.

Maybe I like him too much.

Sweet Something is an MM bisexual, grumpy/sunshine, small-town romance featuring Wood Hollow’s hottest baker and the grumpy lumberjack with a big heart.

July 21, 2026

Language

‎English

Print length

286 pages

Book 2 of 3

Wood Hollow Stories

Review:  Age of Deception (The Firebird Chronicles Book 2) by T. A. White 

Rating: 4.5⭐️

The author does a remarkable job of seamlessly flowing the end of each book into the next, so if they end in cliffhangers, they are immediately resolved and the reader rewarded with a new chapter of the journey and a sense of purpose. 

This author has become a new favorite of mine and I’ll admit I’ve blown through this series. It’s fantastic. Now to catch up on my reviews.

Age of Deception sees Kira caught up in another web of plots from all factions that see her as their best player in the galactic political power struggle and potential new war that is about to begin. 

From one house to the another, one of her parents to her father’s clan, now it’s as a daughter of House Roake who has staked their claim and wants her to prove herself one of their race and warrior class. 

White’s plot has a multitude of strong storylines that she continues to explore, among them the effects of the horrors of the abuse, violence and experimentation that the children of the Sorrowing underwent. Whether it’s Kira or Jin or any other of the lost, bit by bit, what actually happened to them is slowly revealed. And that works so more powerfully than if we get the information all at once.

The political intrigue is complex and another aspect of the story that has its own twists. Because between the different planetary systems and ruling powers, and what roles each played in the last war, the intrigue and structures are still being rolled out. It’s riveting and suspenseful.

 

The best is the torn relationships and divided dynamics between species and that of Kira and her new family and that of her old found family of military crew, the Curs.  Humans are not regarded by other species as anything but weak animals. But the Curs are special. 

Kira with a long history with the Curs, has a heartbreaking secret, and Jin, a being who is regarded as “demonic “ on the new world, is the incredible complicated elements here. Highly emotional, physical and beautifully written in every aspect of this book, it’s a page turner in the best way. 

White juggles many storylines and characters without losing the depth of plot or character dimension. We’re watching this, exploring the new territory, culture and world just as the characters do. It’s fabulous.

And as it ends, on a cliffhanger. It’s easy to swing right into the next book and right into the plot without a hitch. 

Which is what I did. 

Highly recommended. A real winner for lovers of strong women, great storytelling and fast paced action. 

The Firebird Chronicles (6 book series)

Rules of Redemption 

Age of Deception 

Threshold of Annihilation 

Facets of Revolution

Trials of Conviction #5

Echoes of Insurrection #6

Connected new series:

(Picks up right after Echoes of Insurrection)

Cosmic Dryad series:

Botanical Mischief #1)

Buy link 

 Book 2 of 6: The Firebird Chronicles 

Blurb 

War hero and daughter to two Houses, Kira is just beginning to learn how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Agreeing to accompany her father’s people back to their homeworld, Kira Forrest prepares for the fight of her life. She’s agreed to undertake the Trial of the Broken, a rite of passage every member of her father’s House must pass. It offers a path to independence and freedom that is too tempting to deny. 

Not everyone welcomes this lost daughter of Roake. There are those who fear what her presence might bring to light. Betrayal stalks the halls of Kira’s birthplace—its roots embedded deep in the events that claimed her parent’s lives and set her on her current path.

Walking the wire’s edge between truth and deception will test the person Kira has become as she separates ally from betrayer. An old enemy has put into motion a plan that could topple the balance of power in the universe. Letting them succeed spells doom—but the price might be more than Kira is willing to pay.

Review: Shadowspell Academy : Year of the Chameleon Book 6 by Shannon Mayer

Rating: 4.75⭐️

Shannon Mayer brings the Shadowspell Academy series and the Year of the Chameleon mini trilogy to a thrilling conclusion here in the sixth and final story. 

Wild, Gregory, Wally, Johnson and the rest of her crew have 3 days to stop Frost or all is lost. It’s a terrifying race to find the all the keys and figure out how the magical pieces work together to become the ultimate weapon to defeat a enemy whose powers are growing.

The author’s manages to gather all her characters, the main circle of friends as well as the older characters, ghosts and outliers together, as well as their past shared histories , in this magical powerful confrontation with evil. 

And it takes Wild back to her beginnings and returns the series to its own roots. A really great narrative touch. 

The ending was harrowing, heartbreaking in scenes and emotionally charged. How it finally felt after the battle was over? Drained and right. 

It would have gotten a higher rating but there’s still too much left unfinished. Characters who are important but have no resolution. Same goes for Wild’s siblings and father. 

For a “academy/trials” trope, outside of the first book, the school and any type of academic work is not addressed here. The very idea of an academy going forward with Wild and crew and their schooling would have to be a continuing part of the series. 

What would come after The Year of the Chameleon? 

Anyway, this was excellent. Absolutely exciting, highly suspenseful, thrilling storytelling. I’ll definitely be recommending it for lovers of this genre and paranormal fiction. 

A real pleasure to share.

Shadowspell Academy (6 book series)

The Culling Trials #1 through 3

Year of the Chameleon #4 through 6 written by Shannon Mayer

Buy link 

        Shadowspell Academy: Year of the Chameleon: (Book 6)

    

Blurb 

You Don’t Choose the Academy. The Academy Chooses You.

Broken, bruised, and battered beyond anything else, I’ve survived what I shouldn’t have. 

But my day isn’t done yet. We finally have the key to stopping Frost—literally. Even if we don’t know how to use it. 

One last time my friends and I have to scour not only the city but the supernatural world to find the pieces of this final puzzle—and we have three days to do it. 

One final showdown brings us back to where it all began, and I face off against the woman who killed my brother. Who hunted my mother down. Who broke my uncle’s spirit.

Hijinks Ink Publishing

Publication date

May 18, 2021

Language

‎English

Print length

326 pages

Book 6 of 6

Shadowspell Academy