Category: 5 star Rating

A Stella Review: Spun! (The Shamwell Tales #4) by J.L. Merrow

RATING 5 out of 5 stars

With friends like these . . .

An ill-advised encounter at the office party leaves David Greenlake jobless and homeless in one heady weekend. But he quickly begs work from his ex-boss and takes a room in Shamwell with easygoing postman Rory Deamer. David doesn’t mean to flirt with the recently divorced Rory—just like he doesn’t consciously decide to breathe. After all, Rory’s far too nice for him. And far too straight.

Rory finds his new lodger surprisingly fun to be with, and what’s more, David is a hit with Rory’s troubled children. But while Rory’s world may have turned upside down in the last few years, there’s one thing he’s sure of: he’s straight as a die. So he can’t be falling for David . . . can he?

Their friends and family think they know all the answers, and David’s office party hookup has his own plans for romance. Rory and David need to make up their minds and take a stand for what they really want—or their love could be over before it’s even begun.

Another amazing book from JL Merrow! I can always count on this author writing, I have to say it was some time I didn’t open one of her books, so it took me awhile to get into her humor and British words, but when I did, it was a so lovely pleasure to read Spun! and I found myself again in the beautiful village of Shamwell.

In this new installment in the Tales of Shamwell series it was finally time for David to have his HEA, remember when we met him  in Out!? David is still the same, still flamboyant, still flirting with everyone. But he is in need of a new job and a place to live. Thanks to his friend Mark, he will find both of them, the first in helping Mark with his new business, the second in Rory.

Rory is a friend of Mark, he’s straight, divorced with two children and in need of some cash. Here comes the idea of renting a room, but he isn’t ready for the tornado David is. And for the feelings they will develop for each other till they will create a family.

As always the author created great characters, I’m a sucker for stories with children in them, the ones well done, and here the relationship between Rory and his children was real and believable, as the way David was able to create a connection with the two little pests, especially with the quiet Leo. I loved how they fell almost easily into each other lives and became the family all of them were looking for.

Spun! was so cute and well done it was impossible to not like all its characters, most of all because it has all the elements I often look for in a story: slow burn, divorced MC, age gap, children. Mix all these with the British humor and JL Merrow writing, what more could I request?

Highly recommended.

The cover art by Natasha Snow follows the style of the series’ covers, I like it.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Amazon

BOOK DETAILS

ebook, 316 pages

Published July 3rd 2017 by Riptide Publishing

ISBN 1626495882 (ISBN13: 9781626495883)

Edition Language English

Series The Shamwell Tales #4

Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus on”Capturing Magic” and their latest novel ‘The Blacksmith Prince’ (guest post)

The Blacksmith Prince by Beryll Brackhaus and Osiris Brackhaus

Editing & Proof Chantal Perez Fournier
Layout & Book Design Julia Schwenk

Cover Anna Tiferet Sikorska | tiferetdesign.com
Map Kosmic | kosmicdungeon.com

Available at: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, iTunes and Smashwords

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to host Beryll Brackhaus and Osiris Brackhaus today as they talk about ‘Capturing Magic’ and their latest novel “The Blacksmith Prince”.

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“Capturing Magic” by Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus

When authors go on vacation together, it is inevitable that book ideas will happen, ranging from crazy nonsense to viable stories. Many, if not most of them, will never get written, simply because you can only write so much and you’ll have to pick what you want to work on.

When Osiris and I went to France last year with another author friend, we spent two wonderful weeks filled with eating and plotting novels and soaking up the very special atmosphere of the Perigord.

It feels, in many ways, like a magical place, a little lost in time. It is very easy to imagine men in laced shirts with large hats, dashing and daring. You just need to squint the right way and the cars disappear from the narrow roads and are replaced by horses. When you walk in the woods, you can almost hear faery creatures whisper in the underbrush.

There was talk of pirates, of orcs and dwarves and of a fisherman.

The fisherman turned out to be the most persistent. When we got back home, we were supposed to start working on ‘Moonstealer’, the third part of our Smilodon pride series. But the fisherman just kept talking about his hopeless love for the local blacksmith, about fairies and curses. He was relentless. So in the end, we had to give in and write down his tale.

All the little details we saw in France effortlessly wove themselves into the tapestry of the story. The swallows over the river, the steep cobblestone alleys, the breathtaking view over the valley from the cliffs, the food, the golden afternoon light – sights and sounds everyone who has set a foot into the Perigord will instantly recognize.

We hope we managed to capture the magical feeling of those wonderful two weeks on paper, wrapped in a story that makes it fun and beautiful to read for everyone. Maybe we will even manage to make our readers feel the beauty and joy of that corner of the world, and that in itself would feel like magic to us.

Tagline

Once upon a time, a young blacksmith sought a witch’s help to save his parents. And foolhardy as he was, he paid him with a kiss…

Blurb

17th century Perigord is a county of sun-drenched villages and dark forests, languid rivers and moonlit lakes. It is a corner of France teeming with spirits, dryads and nymphs, and like everywhere else, witches are burned at the stake here.

Born with the second sight, young fisherman Jehan wants nothing but to keep his head down, work hard, and stay out of trouble. Which works well enough until a suspicious string of bad luck befalls the village smith and his wife. Their adoptive son Giraud is everybody’s dashing darling, who behind his sooty smile and swashbuckling manners has buried a painful connection to the supernatural himself. Fearing that some evil is afoot, Giraud turns to the only other man in town who knows about the hidden world around them – Jehan.

Before long, they are embroiled in a quest involving brigands, witches and noble fey, while their friendship and attraction gradually shifts into something deeper. If they manage to survive ancient feuds and everyday prejudice, they might even have a chance to forge a Happily Ever After all of their own…

From Rainbow-Award-winning authors Beryll & Osiris Brackhaus, ‘The Blacksmith Prince’ is an old-fashioned, swoon-worthy historical fantasy romance about tender love in a time when history and fairy-tales were one and the same.

ISBN-13 978-1542456104 (softcover)
ASIN B071QZG4R5 (ebook)\
Length 290 Pages /  85.000 words
First publication July 14th, 2017

Buy Links

Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071QZG4R5

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/718344

Createspace https://www.createspace.com/6850143

And others on http://www.brackhaus.com/the-books/blacksmith-prince/

About the Authors

Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus are a couple currently living their happily ever after in the very heart of Germany, under the stern but loving surveillance of their cat.

Both of them are voracious but picky readers, they love telling stories and drinking tea, good food and the occasional violent movie. Together, they write novels of adventure and romance, hoping to share a little of their happiness with their readers.

Beryll

An artist by heart, Beryll was writing stories even before she knew what letters were. As easily inspired as she is frustrated, her own work is never good enough (in her eyes). A perfectionist in the best and worst sense of the word at the same time and the driving creative force of the duo.

Osiris

An entertainer and craftsman in his approach to writing, Osiris is the down-to-earth, practical part of our duo. Broadly interested in almost every subject and skill, with a sunny mood and caring personality, he strives to bring the human nature into focus of each of his stories.

Contact

Email osiris@brackhaus.com

Website http://www.brackhaus.com

Twitter @brackhaus

Facebook Osiris Brackhaus

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6427435.Osiris_Brackhaus

A MelanieM Review: Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy by Andrew J. Peters

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

The final installment of the Werecat series, a finalist in the 2016 Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Awards.

A fugitive from two murder investigations in New York City and a bizarre, big cat attack at a bank in Barbados, Jacks Dowd flees to South America to find the ringleader of a shifter terrorist organization deep in the Amazon. The world is on the brink of all-out war between shifters and humans, and Jacks needs to somehow broker a deal for peace.

But a special U.S. intelligence agency emerges as a new, possibly even more dangerous enemy. Both the terrorists and the U.S. government will stop at nothing to get an arcane codex that could unleash an unstoppable threat to mankind or exterminate werecats everywhere.

While Jacks dodges danger from both sides and decodes the ancient book, he’s left with the impossible choice of how to use it.

Final installment?  Hmmmm, maybe…..

I say that because when I finished the story, the first thing I did was write the author asking if, surely, there was another story just around the corner because you couldn’t leave Jacks and the Werecat series like this.  No, there wasn’t a cliffhanger. But there was left open the possibility that Jacks still had a huge task to accomplish, one I very much wanted to read about because this is a wonderful series.

Werecat: The Sim Ru Prophecy takes up right after the last story, The Fugitive ends, with the threat of interspecies warfare, Jacks trying to track down the head of the murderous werecat splinter group called The Glaring and the world on the edge of exploding.  Peters continues to build his intriguing mythology here, bringing in more ancient history and god elements.  As Jacks investigates how the werecats came into being in his search for the werecat leader Tepe in the jungles of South America, the reader gets pulled deeply into the mysteries the author is constructing.  There are more murders, increasing mystical elements and of course a government/military conspiracy worthy of any major action/adventure movie.

Throw in Jacks and his human lover, Farzan, still trying to steady their relationship, and Jacks realizing the reality of the human/werecat age span, and still have a romance /love affair and this story has oodles to offer.  That is if any of them get out of this alive.  The odds are definitely not in their favor!

I gobbled up this book in one quick read, I couldn’t get to the next scene fast enough.  So much action, so much  suspense and yes, a ton of surprises here.  And I can’t talk about any of them because everything is folded in together, melded like one great riveting mythological tapestry, that to give out one fact, just points to another spoiler and that’s just not going to happen.  Wonderful writing and great storying telling here.  It made me want to smack all four books together for one continuous read.  I just may do that.

The characters are real and believable, the settings vivid and authentic and the situations tense and suspenseful.  Trust me it’s a white-knuckle ride most of the time.

Why not five stars?  Because of that little nudge towards another story.  Peters would only say it’s not in the works yet.  Argh!!!!  We need to know what Jacks is going to do next…the future awaits him and us.  Andrew J. Peters, are you listening?

Until he does, grab up all the Werecat stories and read all the way through to this one.  What an amazing saga!  It’s a series I highly recommend.

Cover art works, especially with that wall in the backdrop.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 287 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Vagabondage Romance
ASINB072WT8PPN

A Stella Review: Haven’s War (Safe Haven #2) by Parker Williams

RATING 5 out of 5 stars

With Haven on an extended honeymoon with Sammy, bad guys around the world are breathing a lot easier. No one is better at permanently removing these lowlifes who target children—and the brutal murder of two teenage girls makes clear it’s past time to return to work. Haven’s first assignment back results in a new family member and a renewed sense of urgency to protect and avenge the innocent.

There is nothing ‘usual’ about the business of hunting predators, but when several of Haven’s fellow agents are killed, a pattern emerges. The hunters have become the prey, tools in a bitter vendetta for a perceived wrong.

Despite years of working alone, when the target shifts to someone unexpected, Haven calls in reinforcements—a friend to stand between the family he loves and a ruthless killer. Teamwork may be the only way to win this fight—unless it’s already too little, too late.

Haven tries to approach this as he would any other assignment. Find your enemy and make sure they suffer before you eliminate them. But when a member of his team goes off-book and ends up dead, everything changes. It’s no longer a battle.

Now it’s war.

I was waiting for Haven and Sammy to be back in my life since I first read their story in Haven’s Creed in 2015. I so hoped the author would decide to give me more about them and you can imagine my joy when I finally saw Haven’s War. And in my opinion this new release is the best Parker Williams wrote so far (among what I read of his and I want to specify I am not talking of his coauthored books because I haven’t read those ones). Apart from the plot, which I loved and I will talk about in a bit, I was so engaged by the writing, perfect, clear and focused on getting every single feeling to the reader. Because the story is full of feelings and maybe it’s just what conquered me. Beautifully done.

The Safe Haven series is not what I usually want on my Kindle, I like sweet, I like cute and I don’t like thrillers, blood and abuses. I made an exception for this author and although Haven’s War is hard to read and in some parts the scenes are really detailed, I didn’t feel the fear or the tightness in the throat often stories like this give me, leading me to not enjoying the reading at all. The author with his writing was great, he showed me the love and the force of the good no matter how much blood and human parts were shed.

One more thing I loved, the characters, all of them (I’ll be back to beg for one of them own story, no worry). Yes, someone will die of course and it is necessary for the solving of the plot, but have no fear the important characters will be saved and I am not saying this to spoiler, just to reassure the interested readers. A lot will happen in Haven’s War because as the title say there is a war to fight, but some good events will warm your hearts, new weddings, new puppies, new amazing friends. The way Haven and Sammy are able to create a family with the amazing people they have in their life is so reassuring, they take care of each other and how never once one of them try to be selfish, thinking always at the strength they had in their union.

I have to say I’m pretty satisfied from this book, the author gave me exactly what I wanted, to know what was going on in Sammy and Haven life, see them together and how their love has developed. He gave me an happy ending, not just for them. Now I have just a little little request, I think Oscar deserves more words, I deserve to know Max and so pretty please if there could be more in the series I would be greatly delighted.

I feel to recommend Haven’s War but keep in mind it doesn’t work as a standalone so you have to absolutely read Haven’s Creed first.

I don’t like the cover art by Laura Harner, as I didn’t like the cover of the previous book, they are pretty similar so nothing changed.

Buy Now: Universal Link 

BOOK DETAILS

ebook, 411 pages

Published June 26th 2017 by Pride Press

ISBN13 9781941841501

Edition Language English

Safe Haven #2