Category: eBooks

Review: Dead Air: A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries) by K. Sterling 

Rating: 3.25🌈

While I’m really enjoying this subset of paranormal fantasy novels in the Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery universe, this book doesn’t have the same level of complexity and depth for all the main characters as previous stories. And that lack hurts my connection to the narrative. 

K Sterling is a fantastic author. Her ability to weave together a coherent and compelling narrative is a huge factor in her success. She uses her unique background of investigations, murders then adds more layers of natural history, geography, multicultural history, and mythology to create a unique world and experiences. 

This is where I recommend readers not to forget to include reading all Sterling’s author’s notes at the beginning of this book. On this being a love note to our parks and its Rangers, but also to their own complex, oppressive history with our indigenous people and communities over lands that were confiscated by the government.

And, there’s a dictionary for those who want to know how to pronounce some of these Irish Gaelic words seen throughout the novel and series.  Honestly, I loved this. 

Now to the pluses and minuses of the book. 

The plot is excellent but almost too removed from actual action and its deep roots in a nefarious bargain. We should have seen more of that. And perhaps less sex, more detailed work on a real relationship.

It’s framed in that the Oracle has seen that an innocent, a Park Ranger in the Shenandoah’s, will be in danger from a demon. 

That’s more than enough for the crew of Demi Sun god MacIlwraith, Nelson, Merlin, the two hellhounds and their mates to make the trip to investigate and save him. This group is always a great source for the story and dialogue. And we see Nox MacIlwraith’s powers growing.

However, thing is , the main story revolves around the Ranger, Niall, and the demon, Cenn, aka Lord Smoak.  Of the two, we get one fascinating character and one bland one dimensional character. Guess who is the one note person? Niall the human.

He’s got a great background story, but that not well represented in his actual personality. The dark damage he fled from wouldn’t be the same as someone who really just comes across as an introvert from a conservative background. It’s not believable as written.

Who is on point is Cenn, the demon Lord Smoak. First of all demons, arguably murderous, arrogant, dark and complex. And flexible in his ways and character to show the ability to make choices and changes as he sees fit. 

Silas, a Sheriff and new character has the next book in the series and it’s already an interesting one from the small excerpt included here. 

This left one aspect of Cenn and Niall’s relationship open as well as what happened to the first villain, an ongoing conflict. 

So my take on Dead Air: A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries) by K. Sterling is that it’s interesting but doesn’t hold up well next to the preceding stories. 

Read it as a bridge between the books, for the new characters and to see how the group is evolving. Nox especially. 

Exquisite covers.

Cover art by @KillerLaurent

Moon Mysteries 1 – 3 (first series)

Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries sequel series)

Back in the Hunt #1

The Tides of March #2

Dead Air #3 

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comDead Air: A Nelson & MacIlwraith Mystery (Moon Murder Mysteries)

Blurb 

He hid in the woods to escape a monster but found a demon in his bed.

Six years ago, rising political star Niall Gilpatrick was living a lie. A fearless and vocal activist, he hid that he was himself a victim. After a brush with death, Niall ran, starting over as a park ranger in the Shenandoah Mountains.

But now, strange dreams and an impossibly dashing biologist have upended his tranquil existence.

And that was the point.

An ancient Irish demon, Chance Curn was sent to tempt this surprisingly wholesome mortal into selling his soul. 

He’s haunting Niall’s dreams and playing with his heart, but it is Chance who finds himself in a dangerous trap.

Since when did demons have feelings?

Now, Chance has to decide if he’s willing to risk it all for a mortal and Niall must face his fears to trust a demon with his heart and his life. Can they save each other or will they become dead air?

Dead Air is a paranormal MM romance set in the mountains of rural Virginia. There’s Celtic mythology, an evil plot to foil, and an isolated cabin where no one can hear you scream. Dead Air is set in the world of Nelson & MacIlwraith, but can be read as a standalone.

  • Publisher: Bawdy Books
  • Publication date: August 19, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 247 pages

Review: Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3) by V.L. Locey 

Rating: 4.75🌈

V.L. Locey writes such amazing books. It’s actually hard to name a favorite among her many different books and series, considering the variety of themes and locations. And characters, of course!

Mornings by the Linden Tree , the third book in V.L. Locey ‘s Love’s Journeys series, is a marvelous example of how diverse her books are and how well she writes them. 

If there is one aspect of the story that’s made it slow to connect with, it’s with the beautifully crafted character of Wesley Barlowe.  He’s rich, rigid, so tightly controlled and self restrained that he’s emotionally unavailable, even to the reader. He’s absolutely believable, understandable, and not terribly likable. He’s a single gay divorce lawyer, in Boston, who doesn’t particularly like children, and loves a perfectly scheduled world.

Then his younger drug addict sister dies in another state, leaving him the guardian of a young child he wasn’t aware existed. 

Cue the upheavals on every level. 

Locey addresses many difficult topics here. Both in Aida’s case, the sister who had suffered from substance abuse for years and died of its effects to Wesley, who had abandonment issues that have plagued him, and now his niece who has, as a toddler who has suffered from the effects of her mother’s drug addiction and death, now has her own fears and nightmares.  The author slowly explores each of these characters pain and damage, with sensitivity and realism, and using a wonderful humorous and compelling therapist to help them navigate through their own journey together. With funny socks. 

And the romantic relationship, with a singer/performer , Lennon Cole , who helps them through their own initial experience and the upheaval of becoming a family. That too, is remarkable and real. 

I mean, all the various side characters are pretty much great personalities and make indelible impressions on the reader and in their interactions with the characters in the story.  

This includes Boston itself, it all it’s glorious magic. The buildings, the parks, people,and the legendary Red Sox!

The story ends as it should. A work in progress for the family. We see them happy together and going forward together with new plans, friends and family. 

Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3) by V.L. Locey is another fantastic book in a great series. One I’m highly recommending. 

Cover by Meredith Russell

Love’s Journeys:

Where the Pines Kiss the Sky #1 

Reflections of Cypress #2 

Mornings by the Linden Tree #3

Buy link:

        Mornings by the Linden Tree (Love’s Journeys #3)

    

Blurb 

When you think you have everything you need, fate will show you all you never knew you were missing. 

Wesley Barlowe has it all. He’s a highly successful divorce attorney at one of Boston’s most prestigious law firms. His name is on the rosters of many elite clubs, his clothes are from famed designers, and his historic duplex overlooks Boston Common. His lovers are few and far between by choice, his car is a sporty hybrid, and his bourbon is always aged in white oak barrels. There are no surprises in Wesley’s tightly structured life. Until his estranged sister dies, leaving her three-year-old daughter in his custody. With no other family to pass the child off to, Wesley has no other option but to take his niece into his home.

Instead of spending his days in court and his nights at home studying briefs while sipping on triple mash twenty-year-old whiskey, he now finds himself joining single-parent online groups, waffling about how to handle temper tantrums, and how to entertain a rambunctious preschooler. During a particularly rough morning, she spies a musician on the Common singing to a small group of children. At his wit’s end, he carries his niece across the street and discovers that not only do the children seated on rainbow blankets adore the handsome, funny, and charming performer, but Wesley does too. There is something incredibly calming and warm about Lennon Cole and his silly songs. Something that will show the workaholic that there is more to life than litigations, courtroom wins, and million-dollar settlements.

Mornings by the Linden Tree is a slow burn, age gap, rich man/poor man, single father, biracial MM romance with two incredibly different men, a city along a famous harbor, a precocious child, a housekeeper with plenty of sage advice, songs about frogs in baseball caps, an indecent amount of clam chowder, evenings spent slow dancing with the baby monitor on, and a wicked awesome happy ending. 

*Content Warning: This story has references to loss of a family member and substance abuse*

  • Publication date: August 22, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 259 pages
  • Part of series: Love’s Journeys

Review: Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles Book 1) by Ilona Andrews 

Rating: 4.5 ✨

Here’s another fantastic magical science fiction series from the married authors (Ilona and Andrew Gordon) known as Ilona Andrews. They have quickly become my favorite authors and a must read, with my bookshelf full of great books and series of theirs.

The Innkeeper Chronicles is a complete series,a true delight of worlds and characters.  It starts with Clean Sweep, a sentient inn in a small town in Texas where The Innkeeper, a actual galactic title associated with the house and its current owner is still getting herself established with her own Inn and her clients.

Dina Demille is the daughter of Innkeepers, her parents and their famous Inn mysteriously disappeared without a trace while Dina was in college and her siblings were away from home,far far away from home on other worlds.  After years of searching and no clues, Dina has followed in their footsteps and become an Innkeeper herself. 

Dina Demille is such a fabulously written character. She really stands out from the other characters in this genre of strong female characters in that she has her own unique history and challenges that she’s been working with.  She’s incredibly strong, quietly intelligent and able to be flexible with multiple personalities and situations while still being a relatable person. Full of emotions, a width and depth of experience that is only slowly revealed, Dina is a whole new level of main female character energy!

She’s also got a very strange monster tiny dog that is her companion, a sentient Inn that’s home and more, and a current client who’s a lifetime resident and galactic criminal. And a favorite character!

We get to know the backgrounds and histories for Dina and those around her through the drama that descends on the town. Monsters are killing the townspeople’s pets. 

It’s a fantastic storyline, we meet many important characters such as alpha werewolves and vampire royals. All beautifully crafted and supplied with a great history and dramatic backstory to tell.

This particular storyline is wrapped up completely and in a very satisfying way. But leaves the ending open for more adventures and further development for the three main characters and the group that is forming. 

Honestly, it’s enormously difficult to hold myself back from binging this all the way through like I did with the fabulous Kate Daniels series. 

Highly recommended!

Art by Doris Mantair 

Innkeeper Chronicles:

Clean Sweep #1

Sweep in Peace #2

One Fell Sweep #3

Sweep of the Blade #4

Sweep with Me #5

Sweep of the Heart #6

Buy link

        Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles)

    

Blurb 

This is a short novel, about 60,000 words.

On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, “normal” is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night…Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

  • Publisher: NYLA
  • Publication date: December 2, 2013
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 250 pages
  • Book 1 of 6: Innkeeper Chronicles

Review:  The Demon’s Due: An Enemies-to-Lovers Urban Fantasy (Bedeviled Book 5) by Deborah Wilde

Rating: 4.5✨⭐️

The Demon’s Due is the finale to Deborah Wilde’s Bedeviled series about a Jewish half demon supernatural agent and her Vampire Prince boyfriend who have to save the world, deal with their , admittedly extremely serious father issues, and a sort of shady government agency that Aviva and her mother work for. 

And her identity problems and self acceptance, which finally happens here at the end.

There’s so much to unpack here, starting with how that cliffhanger at the end of book 4 is resolved. Luckily Demon’s Due picks up right away, an almost seamless transition from that narrative to this, so those binging can follow through.

Without any spoilers, Wilde doesn’t disappoint.  This is a highly entertaining, great dialogue, fast paced novel. 

Tons of moments that involve scenes of intimate moving moments, bloody action battle sequences, and plenty more of investigative work and plot twists that are satisfying and surprising. 

The various fathers issues between Ezra and his father, then Aviva and hers are handled differently. Ezra and his father’s history and their relationship is a far more complex and tormented one. As is the outcome. Their dynamic was one of the most powerful emotional moments here.  Aviva’s relationship never gets that same level of attention. And is left open for the most part. Unlike her relationship with her mother. 

There’s always been that aspect of her personality where she’s separated her demon self into another “character “, Cherry Bomb, to keep from integrating with it as part of her. Finally, it’s acceptance time. An overdue moment actually. I thought it would come in book 4. Here it’s almost too late in this storyline. 

There’s a great many action scenes towards end as everyone works to save the world.  The magic was interesting and imaginative. I wish there was more of a follow up to this to  see the aftermath. 

The Demon’s Due: An Enemies-to-Lovers Urban Fantasy (Bedeviled Book 5) by Deborah Wilde is an excellent book. A fantastic way to finish the series and see these great characters off. 

Highly recommended, the author too!

Cover by: Covers By Christian.

Bedeviled:

Big Demon Energy #1

Demon on Deck #2

Better the Demon You Know #3

Demon in Disguise #4

The Demon’s Due #5 – series finale 

Buy link 

        The Demon’s Due: An Enemies-to-Lovers Urban Fantasy (Bedeviled Book 5)

    

Blurb 

Magic has a price, and Aviva’s running out of ways to pay.

When an ancient healing ritual goes nuclear and vampires start short-circuiting, the supernatural world begins unraveling faster than you can say “apocalypse now.” Aviva isn’t just investigating a disaster—she’s living in the blast zone.

Meantime, with demon magic threatening her boyfriend’s life, Aviva makes a desperate choice: she forges a magic bond with him. Nice idea. Too bad it complicates everything. Now tethered to each other and racing against time, they must find a way to contain the chaos unleashed by the ritual—assuming their connection doesn’t destroy them first.

Time to fight fire with fire. Literally.

To save the world, Aviva must embrace both sides of herself: the dedicated operative and the demon who’s done playing nice.

Enter Cherry Bomb. The world better brace for impact.

Featuring a smart, funny heroine and a banter-fueled vampire romance, this wickedly addictive urban fantasy will keep you reading way past bedtime.

Binge the complete series now!

  • Publisher: Te Da Media Inc.
  • Publication date: August 18, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 353 pages

Review :  THE BANNING OF THE BATH BOMBS (A Ross Young, Unholy Trifecta, and Spellbound Crossover) by AJ Sherwood and Devon Vesper 

Rating: 4.25🌈

Short, adorable and great way to mesh these three series and zany group of characters. 

Will you be lost if you don’t know the characters or their respective relationships? Pretty much. It’s still an entertaining read but having all the background information on who’s who and what series they came from makes those scenes and characters more enjoyable.

Definitely a gift to the authors fans. And I love every sentence. 

Cover by Katie Griffin

Series and Characters Involved:

The Tribulations of Ross Young, Supernat PA (multiple shorts/crossovers)

Unholy Trifecta (3 book series)

Spellbound (1 book series)

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comThe Banning of Bath Bombs (The Tribulations of Ross Young, Supernat PA) eBook

Blurb

Turns out bath bombs are actually magical portals. Or at least, in the hands of Master Mage Declan, they became portals. Even he’s not sure why.

Said magical portal connects to Ross’s bath tub.

Which means this is also now the Unholy Trifecta’s problem because Ross absolutely refuses to deal with portal magic by himself. Thanks muchly.

Tags:

Crossover time!, Unholy Trifecta, Supernat PA, Insanity of Reincarnated Mages, bath bombs gone wild, lots of bath tub hopping, I treat Canon like a Buffet but in a Gentle Way, Canon-Typical Poor Decision-Making, brain cells assemble, it’s just mindless fluff and shenanigans, Declan use your brain challenge: failed, crack treated like crack, neither author is sorry.

  • Publication date: August 7, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 42 pages

Review:  Demon in Disguise: An Enemies-to-Lovers Urban Fantasy (Bedeviled Book 4) by Deborah Wilde

Rating: 4.5✨⭐️

In the series penultimate story, author Deborah Wilde really kicks things up into the  anticipated narrative high gear as the characters and storylines head towards the end.

Yes, this finishes on an agonizing climax and cliffhanger. Just a FYI. 

Wilde does excellent work in continuing to make the Jewish faith, culture and religion, as well as history a major factor and foundation for the world building and characters. It’s seamless storytelling while still being able to create a compelling paranormal universe that has vampires and demons, half demons and other otherworldly beings as a part of the plot and as citizens.

This is a rich tapestry of beings that inhabit a complex layered universe of political magical powers, scheming, racial dynamics, and horrors.  To go along with the typical vices of greed, overwhelming need for power and revenge. 

Agent Aviva, her Maccabee director mother, Michael, hopefully bf Vampire Crimson Prince Ezra, and team are fighting multiple battles and investigating each crimes. Her demon father and his vampire mob boss father are both threatening each of them in various ways. 

And a new , more complicated villain has appeared. 

Aviva has yet to totally accept her demon self, still referring to herself as Cherry Bomb, a separate entity rather than herself.  Hiding her true nature is getting to be a bigger part of her story and the overall theme here.   It’s so important and well done. 

Each character has depth and damage in their background. Issues they are very much still working through as events unfold. It’s challenging and a realistic growth in a paranormal world. 

Highly recommended, the author too!

Cover by: Covers By Christian.

Bedeviled:

Big Demon Energy #1

Demon on Deck #2

Better the Demon You Know #3

Demon in Disguise #4

The Demon’s Due #5 – series finale 

Buy link 

        Demon in Disguise: An Enemies-to-Lovers Urban Fantasy (Bedeviled Book 4)

    

Blurb 

Welcome to Vancouver, where the coffee’s strong, the magic’s stronger, and the murders are getting personal.

With tensions between the magic and non-magic communities already at a breaking point, Aviva goes undercover on a murder case that could shatter the city’s fragile peace. As if that weren’t enough pressure, she uncovers a deadly connection to demons—and her own past.

But why have one code red crisis when you could have two? Enter the Ashbishop: a shadowy figure convinced a vampire breeding ritual is a good idea.

Spoiler alert: it’s not.

And forget juggling stolen moments with Ezra between supernatural smackdowns. Fed up with her work-life chaos, Aviva realizes that sometimes, the best disguise is no disguise at all.

Cherry Bomb is ready for her close-up.

Featuring a smart, funny heroine and a banter-fueled vampire romance, this wickedly addictive urban fantasy will keep you reading way past bedtime.

Binge the complete series now

  • Publisher: Te Da Media Inc.
  • Publication date: January 20, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 348 pages

Review: Death Over the Garden Wall (The Case Files of Henri Davenforth Book 7) by Honor Raconteur 

Rating:  4.75✨⭐️

I love Death Over the Garden Wall because it’s a bit different from the other cases Jamie and Henri have investigated. And it goes in a different direction than what I had originally imagined. 

There’s peril, plenty of magic, suspense and suspects to explore when the body of an old friend of Queen Regina’s is found washed up on shore after a tumultuous night with angry guests. At her cliffhanger of a house.

Jamie, Henri, some of her Kingsmen “ducklings “ and the Felix trio along with her other close associates/friends are there to help them investigate and solve the mystery. 

The chapter titles and handwritten “note” by different characters never fail to entertain me. I love how this is framed out by the author.

While this might not be the most compelling or difficult mystery to figure out, it’s engaging and totally one I was invested in. 

Another winner in a series full of outstanding writing. 

Highly recommended. Highly addictive. 

Love the covers. 

Cover by Katie Griffin

The Case Files of Henri Davenforth (11 book series to date):

Magic and the Shinigami Detective #1

Charms and Death and Explosions (oh my!) #2

Magic Outside the Box #3

Breaking and Entering 101 #4

Three Charms for Murder #5

Grimoires and Where to Find Them #6

Death Over the Garden Wall #7

This Potion is da Bomb #8

All In A Name #9

A Matter of Secrets and Spies #10

All Fun and Games #11

Buy link

        Death Over the Garden Wall (The Case Files of Henri Davenforth Book 7)

    

Blurb 

Three modus operandi to die. Four employees, six house guests, and not a single witness.

Confusing clues and no helpful leads cloud the death of Countess Giada Barese, who washed up on shore two weeks after her mysterious disappearance. Henri and Jamie have no idea if her death is a homicide, suicide, or accidental death, for nothing adds up.

There is something strange going on, though, Jamie’s sure of that. The countess was found wearing mismatched slippers, her lover disappeared the next day, and everyone is acting shifty.

Jamie feels like she’s playing a game of Clue, one she’s determined to win. Where’s a candlestick when you need one?

Review:  Grimoires and Where to Find Them (The Case Files of Henri Davenforth Book 6) by Honor Raconteur 

Rating: 5⭐️✨

Talk about catastrophe magic! And it starts at a book faire! I loved the mystery and layers of Grimoires and Where to Find Them. 

It’s got books thefts galore, book lovers and collectors everywhere, Reaper grimoires going missing, and Henri has friends we didn’t know about!

This has moved further into the future with Jamie being here several years later her kidnapping and more than settled down in her own life and relationships. She can, through the efforts of Henri and Seaton, at least communicate with her family, and she’s happy.  

So is Henri, enough that he’s ready for another step in his life and career. It’s an exciting and very wonderful element here. 

The three Felix’s are very much a part of this story and the group. And new characters are introduced as their roles are integral elements of the story and mystery. 

We see new “inventions” that Jamie with Ellie’s manufacturing magic and creativity has introduced to the world and the lists at the end continue to grow. 

A fabulous addition to a fantastic series. It’s slow burn, no sex, all delightful G content. Creative, well written, beautifully plotted and executed. 

A must read for me to share.  I’ll be so sad whenever this series ends. 

Highly recommended. Highly addictive. 

Love the covers. 

Cover by Katie Griffin

The Case Files of Henri Davenforth (11 book series to date):

Magic and the Shinigami Detective #1

Charms and Death and Explosions (oh my!) #2

Magic Outside the Box #3

Breaking and Entering 101 #4

Three Charms for Murder #5

Grimoires and Where to Find Them #6

Death Over the Garden Wall #7

This Potion is da Bomb #8

All In A Name #9

A Matter of Secrets and Spies #10

All Fun and Games #11

Buy link

        Grimoires and Where to Find Them (The Case Files of Henri Davenforth Book 6)

    

Blurb 

How do you catch an elusive thief?

There is nothing more delightful than a bookfaire with his lady love. At least, until Henri learns that a grimoire belonging to the dangerous Reaper’s Set has been stolen without its protective box. When Henri and Jamie go looking for answers, they are horrified to discover more than one volume has been stolen without its protective box.

Jamie has never seen Henri so livid or frightened. The spells in the grimoires, unchecked, are powerful enough to make a building melt. Literally. Melt. They need to find them quickly, for the war-era grimoires could tear the city apart–and have already gotten a head start. 

With the thief nowhere to be found and still stealing grimoires, Jamie, Henri, and Seaton are more than ready to catch him. 

Please. 

And thank you. 

Review:  Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker Book 1) by Sam Burns 

Rating: 4.5🌈

Set in the same universe as the marvelous Fantastic Fluke series, Sam Burns has a new fantastic paranormal series out, Knight and Daywalker. 

The first book, Smokescreen, which ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, is an excellent read and start up. 

It’s got murder mysteries, a paranormal universe with magical characters, including two main characters who are somewhat enigmatic in their precise nature and history as well as a black kitten with a bottomless appetite. It’s also just as intriguing as the other main characters. 

Flynn Knight, has a very scary ,Morticia coded in looks, mother who rules the vampires of their city. Is Flynn a vampire? No, he talks to animals. That’s one of the puzzles in the story. What is Flynn? Other than absolutely engaging.

Then there’s Davin, the Irish vampire who, courtesy of Flynn’s mother, ends up being Flynn’s business partner. But the idea of another agenda seems possible. He’s got his own troubles and backstory to revealed. 

The pace is quick. We meet many new and exciting characters. All incredible and with their own stories to explore. 

And Smokescreen finishes with a startling dramatic flourish and cliffhanger.  Which I’m not unhappy about. 

I’m excited about the next story, even if it’s months away from release.

Sam Burns is an auto buy for this very reason. Definitely recommend this book.

Cover art © 2025 by Natasha Snow 

Knight and Daywalker – a planned trilogy:

Smokescreen #1

Façade #2 –  Jan 1,2026

Masquerade #3 – TBD

Same universe as 

THE FANTASTIC FLUKE-complete ❤️

The Fantastic Fluke 

Fluke and the Faithless Father

 Fluke and the Faultline Fiasco

 Fluke and the Frontier Farce 

Fluke and the Fantastic Finale

Buy link

 Book 1 of 2: Knight & Daywalker 

Blurb 

Flynn Knight is the only (and frankly, impossible) child of the leader of the vampires in Los Angeles. He’s also a bit of a scatterbrain, a thirty-something manchild, and a private investigator. When one of his mother’s political frenemies gets killed and she asks him to investigate, he’s put between a rock—her—and a hard place—the fact that not a single vampire in the city will believe the answers he finds without impressive proof to back him up.

Combine that with an eighty-thousand-dollar bill he has no idea how he’s going to pay, a hit and run that has landed him a victim of the cat distribution system, and his mother trying to foist a new business partner off on him, and his life is way more complicated than he likes.

At least his new partner is nice to look at, even if he’s the weirdest vampire ever, who doesn’t seem to follow any of the usual vampire rules.

Also, why won’t this kitten stop eating?

Smokescreen is set in the Fantastic Fluke universe, starring never before seen characters and a new setting. It begins to explore Flynn Knight’s relationships, and while it contains a complete story, it does not reach the slow burn romance plot, and the main overarching plot will continue in book two, Façade.

  • Publication date: September 4, 2025
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 259 pages
  • Book 1 of 2: Knight & Daywalker

Content Warning: multiple gruesome deaths described in detail, injured (but NEVER killed) animals, ableist attitudes from non-MCs, violence, fraught parental relationships.

Review:  Fangs and Front Pages (Ravens Hollow Investigations Book 1) by Ella Stone 

Rating: 2/ DNF

Just no. Couldn’t get past a preposterous female lead character. The more I read the worse this characterization got. 

Elodie Evergreen is a newly turned vampire, a former investigative reporter back in London, now forced to start over in a new job and paranormal community in the USA. She’s severely unprepared for everything that she does, although the author both lets the reader know that and yet thinks that Elodie’s approach is one we’ll find engaging. 

She’s an investigative journalist. Does she research her new life? What paranormal species there are, and their lives or culture? No. Her mystery friend, Donna, helped obtain her the new job and move. But does she go with any kind of knowledge or groundwork? No. Instead she holds up the plane in an act of amazing stupidity.

Then once, before she’s even settled, she forces herself on the editor to go against his wishes before knowing the community or townsfolk. Makes quick decisions/judgements about everything without having any sort of understanding or knowledge of the community or situation or paranormal anything. And has an immediate argument with the Sheriff while announcing she has a hidden, or not so hidden mission . 

Honestly? TSTL rides high here. 

She’s not very likable. The idea that she was ever a respectable professional journalist isn’t realistic or credible either. But the author is trying hard to get the reader to believe that. Actions to the contrary.

Nor do we get any world building. 

I was done. There’s far better similar novels and female characters than this. 

Poorly conceived, poorly crafted characters. 

DNF.

Read if you’re a fan of the author. 

Paper Cat Publishing

Cover by Christian Bentulan

The Ravens Hollow Investigations :

Bylines and Bloodsuckers -prequel 

Fangs and Front Pages 

Hexes and Headlines 

Demons and Deadlines

Buy link

        Fangs and Front Pages: A thrilling urban fantasy story (Ravens Hollow Investigations Book 1)

    

Blurb 

Is this the scoop of a lifetime, or something far deadlier?

Starting over in Ravens Hollow was meant to be simple – a chance to adjust to my new, nocturnal existence. No men. No complications. Just a bit of light investigative journalism in a quaint magical town by the sea.

Then Pongo the pup trotted into my life, and normalcy bled away faster than my resistance to a fresh pint of blood. I’d barely set up my desk at the Ravens Hollow Oracle before a renowned sculptor turned up dead at the town’s annual art exhibition.

What better way to get to know a place than by investigating its most suspicious residents? The only snag was Chief Whip – the infuriatingly handsome local lawman who’d rather I kept my fangs and my nose out of his murder investigation.

Too bad. The body count is rising, and whether he likes it or not, he needs me—Elodie Evergreen, investigative reporter. My instincts are razor-sharp. My fangs? Even sharper.

Perfect for fans of resourceful heroines, cute animal sidekicks, and exhilarating urban fantasy, Fangs and Front Pages delivers action, mystery, and supernatural surprises. Series includes: stand-alone mysteries, snarky humour, and a slow-burn romance.

Ravens Hollow Investigations Series:
Bylines and Bloodsuckers – Prequel
Fangs and Front Pages – Book 1
Hexes and Headlines – Book 2
Demons and Deadlines – Book 3