Category: Fantasy

An Alisa Review: Black Magic Glitterbomb by Sage C. Holloway

Rating:  4 stars out of 5

 

Benji Seung is not one of the good guys. He commands dark magic; he looks out for himself before all else; he kills rival mages and steals their coffee makers. Life is good–or at least as good as it’s going to get for a guy whose soul grows more tainted with every passing day.

 

Everything changes when he accidentally rescues Kit, a wide-eyed young man down on his luck and living on the streets. With serious reservations but no better options than to leave Kit at the mercy of the elements, Benji takes him in and then can only watch as ominous events around them gain traction.

 

With an unknown adversary gunning for him, and Kit in the line of fire, the last thing Benji should be thinking about is romance, but he finds it impossible to resist the carefree troublemaker. Together, these two fight for their lives against black magic, diabolical schemes, and evil cupcakes.

 

This was a good story.  Benji is just a mess of contradictions, he practices black magic but refuses to do blood magic which is the worst of all and from the beginning he will do anything to protect Kit from other magic users.  Kit is quite innocent and accepting but will stand his ground on what he wants.

 

We see this story from Benji’s point of view, so we can see how he struggles to accept help let alone allow Kit a place in his life.  He was hurt when his ex, the man who got him into magic, left him with no word.  We see as his walls begin to breakdown and accept Kit into his world but he is lucky that Kit is so open and accepting because he still isn’t quite sure what to do about it.  For the “seriousness” of the threat against Benji (and now Kit) this story was quite light hearted, which was just the kind of thing I was looking for when I read this.

 

Cover art by Natasha Snow is beautiful and gives a great picture of Benji.

 

Sales Links: Loose Id | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 91 pages

Published: May 29, 2017 by Loose Id

ISBN: 9781682523438

Edition Language: English

A MelanieM Review: Kingdom Volume 2 (Kingdom #2) by R.J. Scott

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

The Demon’s Blood

When Simeon, a mountain lion shifter meets Asher, a blood demon, there is instant attraction. But, how can they act on the way they feel when there is an entire kingdom at stake.

The Incubus Agenda

Nicholas Tarrant has worked hard for his position on the Werewolf Coalition. Having access to whatever is happening inside the Coalition is important to the Underground and he’s good at blending in.

Brody Lennox is sent to Glitnir to broker talks of peace but is dragged broken and bloody into the Council chambers. Ludvik wants him killed as a traitor.

Can Nicholas save Brody? Or is Brody too broken to be saved?

The Third Kingdom

The story that began as a simple Retriever case, has become the tale of the fight against a thousand years of evil.

The wolf shifters have Niceros to take down. The Vampire Twins have to deal with Cassius. The Second Kingdom is in disarray and Simeon, Asher and Phin are desperate to calm the unrest.

An alpha needs to accept his role, a blood demon has to become the King he was meant to be, and the Vampire twins have to end the war.

Against all this, Reuben and Ethan, lovers separated for a millennium, are thrown back into a war to end the poison that is Ludvik Peitrol.

In a battle on the barren fields of Arberfan is where this story will end.

Kingdom Volume 2 (Kingdom #2) gathers the last three books of the Kingdom series into one as the saga builds to its series ending finale.  RJ Scott put the narrative sink into these stories, I mean there’s vampires, werewolves, elves, incubi, mages both good and evil, demons, thrones at stake, multiple couples finding love while raising an army and going to war…simply everything and it works.  I was only missing the dragons here.

The final three stories also fills in the rest of the universe building and mythology.  As twins Micah and Joseph, their mates, and the rest of the Resistance race to gather the rest of the races and Councils against Ludvik Peitrol, these stories see at what cost working for the Resistance and that strategy comes at before the final battle can be fought.

Let me take them one by one…

✒︎The Demon’s Blood – 5 stars


When Simeon, a mountain lion shifter meets Asher, a blood demon, there is instant attraction. But, how can they act on the way they feel when there is an entire kingdom at stake.


Asherkan Iblis is a blood demon, a slave to elves and a soldier. He keeps the fact he has royal elvish blood a secret. His half brother returns to broker peace but reveals he is actually there for much more and Asher faces a decision that could lead to his death.


Simeon Blue, brother of the leader of the Feline Guild, mountain lion shifter, is tasked to accompany Phin on a mission over the Red Mountains and into the Second Kingdom. He has to talk to the Guild but all they want to do is stay in isolation and his mission is fraught with danger.


When Simeon is wounded Asher hides him and suddenly, next to a king’s death, a cousin’s hate, and Ludvik’s black magic, love falls on the agenda.

The Demon’s Blood takes two great side characters and brings them into the spotlight they deserve.  Asher the half  bl0od demon, half elf was an intriguing persona the first time we meet him.  Here we get to see the exacting price blood demons pay for their genetics and past as a creation/slave of vampires.  We also learn more about Asher’s background in particular.  He, honestly, could have his own series, he’s that strong a character.  In Simeon, Scott has balanced him with a cat shifter of equal strength and a real solidity that translates successfully that we can understand why he can be a foundation for Asher.  Layer in court politics, intrigue, black magic and hot, sexy, romance?  That makes The Demon’s Blood a great story on every level.   Plus we get all the other characters too.  Love it!


✒︎The Incubus Agenda – Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5


When Nicholas Tarrant sees a broken and bloody Brody Lennox dragged into the Werewolf Coalition he has to decide. Stay under cover or help the incubus live. His decision is simple.


Nicholas Tarrant has worked hard for his position on the Werewolf Coalition. Having access to whatever is happening inside the Coalition is important to the Underground and he’s good at blending in.


Brody Lennox is sent to Glitnir to broker talks of peace but is dragged broken and bloody into the Council chambers. Ludvik wants him killed as a traitor.


Can Nicholas save Brody? Or is Brody too broken to be saved?

The Incubus Agenda is great more for who it introduces as well as for the romance between werewolf and incubus, Nick and Brody.  I love that the blurb gives absolutely nothing away as to a major storyline here and neither will it.  Needless to say, it’s a stunner and makes this story while pulling together more of the entire mythology of the Kingdom tales.  Scott takes us into the heart of Glitnir where Brody is being tortured and Nicholas must come to a decision either to save him or continue undercover.  Wonderful hurt/comfort here as well as that instantaneous “wolf knows his mate”  bonding that occurred earlier with another pair (which laid the groundwork here).  I wish we had more time with Brody and Nicholas but with everything that goes on here to prepare us and the Resistance for the final book and battle, I think it came off fine.


✒︎The Third Kingdom – 5 Stars out of 5


The story that began as a simple Retriever case, has become the tale of the fight against a thousand years of evil.


The wolf shifters have Niceros to take down. The Vampire Twins have to deal with Cassius. The Second Kingdom is in disarray and Simeon, Asher and Phin are desperate to calm the unrest.


An alpha needs to accept his role, a blood demon has to become the King he was meant to be, and the Vampire twins have to end the war.


Against all this, Reuben and Ethan, lovers separated for a millennium, are thrown back in to a war to end the poison that is Ludvik Peitrol.


In a battle on the barren fields of Arberfan is where this story will end.


How can love survive the evil that is another’s hate?

The final battle, the final everything.  The Third Kingdom, that kingdom that arises after the foretold “twins” use magic on the battlefield to smite down the great evil.  Trouble is only one of the twins has magic…plus they are greatly outnumbered and several of their main support characters are in identity crisis.  What’s a band of Resisters to do?

That’s the question here.  How does RJ Scott pull it all together to take down the centuries old evil that is Ludvik Peitrol?  In a huge and marvelous way is the answer.  All the characters and their mates are here,  all the questions get answered, the battles get fought and the villains fall to the doom, assisted of course by various methods not to be named here.  Its suspenseful, action-packed tale that doesn’t forget that there’s plenty of couples in love riding off to battle and perhaps their deaths.  It doesn’t disappoint at all.  Well, maybe I wanted Ludvik to suffer even more at the end but you can’t have everything.  Well, maybe more stories.  I love this universe and characters, plus it’s full of even more secondary characters that could use stories of their own.  Now wouldn’t that be lovely?

 

Cover art by Meredith Russell.  The thing about these covers is that they are too mundane. Where’s the magic?  The shifters or demons or castles even?  I think they missed the mark here.

Sales Links

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2sUq864

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2rTSJUA

Book Details:

ebook
Published June 21st 2017 by Love Lane Books Limited
URL http://www.rjscott.co.uk
SeriesKingdom #2

A MelanieM Review: McShayne’s Dragon (McShayne’s Bloodline Book 1) by Nicole Dennis

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Betrayed, Morric McShayne, a bloodline elemental witch, wakes during a lightning storm, bound to a post—the latest sacrifice to appease a dragon. He swears to survive as the last McShayne and there is no dragon until a powerful claw plucks him away from the precipice.

With every equinox, the dragon’s keeper, Xavier, pushes back the loneliness. The keeper holds a secret until magic flares. This sacrifice is different.

They battle desire and duty. When a single kiss changes everything, can the Fae help them answer more secrets and a legend’s promise? Do they fight against Fate’s choice

I can’t resist a dragon story of any sort so both the title and the cover drew me to Nicole Dennis’ story, McShayne’s Dragon, the first in a new series.  A short story, one easily blown through, I thought Dennis did a good job with laying in some nice world building elements here along with an interesting storyline.

The idea and character of Morric McShayne, the elemental witch and his “family” territory is an intriguing one as well as frustrating.  We get just enough neat details and scenes that make this character and then ones that proceed to wash those away.  He’s smart, intelligent and wary.  He distrusts the villagers and their awful “sacrifices” yet he falls prey to them easily?  It made no sense.   I even liked Xavier although there’s no real “secret” to him.  Its blatantly obvious what Xavier is.  And their first scenes together again held real promise, full of fire, obstacles, and tension.

But the author only gave herself 63 pages so everything collapses quickly.  It has to in order for the story to go forward, more characters to be introduced and more groundwork laid for the next story.  All of which is such a shame.  There is a terrific story here along with characters that deserve to be fleshed out but we get the barest of outlines instead.  Maybe the next story will be different.  I will certainly be reading that one with higher hopes.

Cover art is terrific.  Its an important scene from the story. Its dramatic and well done.  Love it.

Sales Links  MlrBooks |Amazon.com

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 63 pages
Published May 26th 2017 by MLR Press
ASINB072C2M3YM

A Lila Review: Waiting for You (Lifesworn #1) by Megan Derr

Rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

Shanna has spent her whole life waiting—waiting to be old enough, waiting for the day she must pick a consort, waiting for a chance to finally overcome her despicable stepfather… and waiting for someone to finally banish the loneliness that comes with being a queen-in-waiting one step away from being murdered.

On the eve of the two-week event during which she must pick a consort from a bevy of suitors, two strangers arrive claiming to have been invited—though she knows full well they did not receive any such invitation. But the handsome, mischievous Prince Kallaar is too intriguing to resist, and his quiet bodyguard too compelling to ignore…

But she’s learned the hard way never to let anyone get too close, and on the verge of gaining true independence her stepfather will stop at nothing to see she never gets it.

Waiting For You is an interesting take on triad stories in a fantasy setting.  Between this and the fairy tale-like plot, it almost felt as a fae poly troupe. It starts directly into the action and we get to meet Shanna and learned about her life up to that moment. At the same time, we are introduced to other relevant characters in the story.

As with other stories by this author, the main characters’ sexuality is not an issue. In their world, they have a sort of implicit bisexuality that it’s natural and accepted. Which opens the door to a diverse group of consort prospects for Shanna. They come, by invitation, to take part of the two-week festivities and we learned enough about the candidates, their lands, and how they all would benefit from a marriage alliance—including the uninvited prince and his bodyguard.

I enjoyed the story, but the world-build and the characters’ connection wasn’t strong enough to carry the plot forward. It is a good introduction to the series and it’s probably going to get better in the next books, but at the moment is hard to see how they would work as a triad in the future. We will have to wait and see.

The cover by Natasha Snow is pretty, but similar to other covers by the artist. It has a fantasy feel but could be used for other genres as well.

Sale Links: NineStar | Amazon | Nook

ebook, 173 pages
Published: June 5, 2017, NineStar Press
ISBN: 9781947139169
Edition Language: English

Series: Lifesworn
Book #1: Waiting For You

A MelanieM Review: Kingdom Volume 1 (Kingdom #1) by R.J. Scott

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

The Vampire Contract

A vampire guilty of murder on the run from justice to prove his innocence. A werewolf sent to retrieve him with one thought – that only the guilty run.

The Guilty Werewolf

Declan Finlay is hunting the guilty werewolf, his friend Connor. The incubus, Levi Tiernan, is his companion on the hunt. If Declan doesn’t track and kill Connor, then Levi will.

The Warlock’s Secret

In a world where magic is rare, Joseph Jamieson is a holder of power. Orophin Tiwele, or Phin to his friends, is the son of the Elf King and has magic of his own. The rules say two supernatural beings with magic cannot be together and Joseph and Phin have lived by that rule despite their attraction to each other.

Let me take the stories of RJ Scott’s Kingdom series Vol 1  one by one.  These tales, the first three in the series, build on each other, each picking up where the other left off.  None should be considered standalone stories because you need all the previous information and character foundation laid out to get the gist of the impact of the search and the issues with the Glitnir Court here.

None of these stories are of great length yet Scott manages to build wonderful  characters and interesting relationship dynamics between them all.  Brother to brother, brother to potential lovers/mates.  There’s frenemies to lovers, second chance at love stories…so many favorite tropes the author visited here within this volume that’s easy to read,  easy to please, and hard to put down.

♦︎The Vampire Contract – 4 stars

A vampire guilty of murder on the run from justice to prove his innocence. A werewolf sent to retrieve him with one thought – that only the guilty run.

Vampire Micah Jamieson is found guilty of killing his human husband. He runs from the execution he is facing to get home. He just has to pray he’ll reach home before supernatural law enforcement, in the shape of a Glitnir Court Retriever close in on him.

Wolf shifter and Retriever, Connor Strand easily captures Micah and he’s fully prepared to take the runaway in. But his wolf has other ideas.

Something about Micah challenges Connor and his long held beliefs. What if Micah is actually innocent? Will Connor put to one side his own prejudices, and then risk both his life and career to keep Micah safe?

I loved the Micah and Connor story.  Micah had the most interesting element here because of all of the surprises he had in store for the reader.  They just kept coming.  Poor Connor, his inner wolf had no issues knowing where he stood which made the relationship aspect delectable if a little predictable.  I found this to be Micah’s story all the way, which was fine as he will have a powerful role down the line.  This story started laying down the universe and the issues within it.  Loved it.

♦︎The Guilty Werewolf – 5 stars out of 5

Declan Finlay is the best Retriever that Glitnir has.

Well, he is now that Connor Strand has gone rogue.

He is sent to find Connor – the guilty werewolf. But he doubts that his best friend could ever be guilty and he resolves to track him down and find out why he ran with the renegade vampire.

When the Fae Alliance, reporting to Glitnir, demand that he not go alone he is forced to accept the Incubus, Levi Tiernan, an assassin, as his companion on the journey. If Declan doesn’t kill Connor, then Levi will.

What happens when old lust and love dictate action and suddenly Declan is questioning everything he loves.

The Guilty Werewolf is amazing and it rests on the shoulders of 2 great characters.  I can’t help it.  My favorite?  That incubus, Levi Tiernan, the assassin, who undergoes an amazing evolution here, one he expects in a way.  The other is Declan Finlay, an already troubled Retriever, pursuing an old friend under  circumstances he can’t or won’t believe.  Nothing here is as it seems and the characters and their painful path to romance shine under this layered, twisted narrative approach by RJ Scott

♦︎The Warlock’s Secret 4,75 stars out of 5

In a world where magic is rare, Joseph Jamieson is one of the most powerful holders of power. Orophin Tiwele, or Phin to his friends, is the son of the Elf King and has magic of his own. The rules say two supernatural beings with magic cannot be together and Joseph and Phin have lived by that rule despite their attraction to each other.

The resistance is growing larger each day, but traitors threaten everything Joseph has built. He wants peace, but soon comes to realize the way to peace, is through war.

When the only thing that will save lives is Joseph and Phin working together, it becomes impossible to see where magic and passion end and where love could begin.

The Warlock’s Secret is a story that could have easily doubled in size for all the author  set out to accomplish here.  It’s a huge tale bringing in all the couples from the three stories but the focus is on Joseph and Phin as well as the growing resistance movement to Glitnir.  Secrets are revealed, rescues are undertaken, more horrors are uncovered…it’s one giant thing after another.  And it works to lay down more groundwork for the next three stories coming and the revolution that’s in the air.  The only reason it didn’t get 5 stars is that when you are trying to cover so much narrative ground in so few pages, there are bound to be some holes, are there are some I found here.  I wanted more background on a big character I cannot name (would be a spoiler) and a certain book.  Hopefully that’s coming.

Joseph and Phin?  A lack of communication did them in early on and it almost does again.    Wanted to shake them both, good thing as characters they are magic together, literally.  I also can’t wait to see more of them in the stories in the future.  Should be one wild ride.

What’s better than having three books?  Three books in one volume so you can easily blow through all three in one read as I did. It made for sorting out all the relationships and ties and family dynamics easy.  Loved it and loved these stories.  Now I’m on to Vol. 2.  I’ll let you know what I find.  In the meantime, I highly recommend all three stories in one volume.  Werewolves shifters, vampires, Fae, incubus Oh My!

Cover art by Meredith Russell does a nice job with the characters.

Sales Links:Amazon US | Amazon UK

Book Details:

ebook, 296 pages
Published June 14th 2017 by Love Lane Books Limited
ISBN139781785640643
Edition LanguageEnglish
URLhttp://www.rjscott.co.uk
SeriesKingdom #1