Review: A Beginner’s Guide to Sea Monsters, Messenger Angels, and Other Management Mishaps (Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures #5) by Shannon Mae

Rating: 4🌈

The penultimate (so the author says) book in this delightful paranormal romance series, Mae is looking towards tying up several important series storylines by bringing back secondary characters from previous stories. The purpose of which is to connect them together with their soulmate by way of elevating them into main character roles.

Gabriel,the tightly wrapped, overly worked, stressed out Divine Herald, the messenger of the Lord, the Angel of Revelation we’ve known before is now ready for a new path. Mae’s charted a sexy, joyful story for Gabriel here. It’s one of discovery and insight for himself and his afterlife. We feel so happy for him. And his partner.

That’s the demon Leviathan aka Levi , a sea demon/monster who has also made appearances in preceding books. Levi is a sexy tentacled delight of a demon and his development along side his relationship with Gabriel is wonderful to read.

The story also brings in important elements and characters that will help finish off the series in the concluding storylines. I’m really excited to see what this will entail.

Shannon Mae has written a highly entertaining, happy and sexy story. It’s a terrific read and one I’m happy to recommend.

Cover artwork by, Grimm Kat Cover assembly by, Tammy, Aspen Tree E.A.S.

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures:

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures: (Paranormal Romance ):

🔷 A Beginner’s Guide to Death, Demons, and Other Afterlife Disasters #1

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Mistakenly Summoned Demons and Other Misadventures #2

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Revenge, Chaos, and Other Absurd Escapades #3

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Ghosts, Fallen Angels, and Other Afterlifers #4

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Sea Monsters, Messenger Angels, and Other Management Mishaps (Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures #5)

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures Novellas:

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Christmas Miracles (A Holiday Novella)

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Pet Demons

🔷A Beginner’s Guide to Demonic Possessions

Demonic Disasters and

Afterlife Adventures Collections: 🔷Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures Collection 1

Hellhounds of Paradise Falls -sequel series:

How to Flirt with a Hellhound #1 – (Coming Soon)

Buy link

A Beginner’s Guide to Sea Monsters, Messenger Angels, and Other Management Mishaps (Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures Book 8)

Blurb

Gabriel:

Gabriel is the Divine Herald, the messenger of the Lord, the Angel of Revelation… and he’s currently losing ground to social media. (Really, how is he supposed to compete with that ticking app?) When the afterlife’s management team forces him into a “professional development partnership” with a demon, Gabriel is horrified—until he meets Leviathan, a sea monster with tattoos, tentacles, and a knack for helping him connect with mortals.

Levi:

Leviathan has no interest in going back to the underworld. He’d much rather spend his time topside with his octopus sidekick and now, apparently, one very uptight angel. Teaching Gabriel about mortal pleasures—food, coffee, books, and other things (that require less clothes)—is the best adventure Levi’s had in centuries.

But as they both start to enjoy their unexpected partnership, one problem remains: what happens when the leadership team decides the partnership is over? Levi isn’t about to give up his angel, and Gabriel isn’t sure he wants to return to Heaven without his demon.

Tags: Featuring one grumpy angel and one cheery sea monster demon; accidental stroke of genius from the leadership team (very accidental); Mt. Everest is overrated, but mortal coffee is divine; even angels enjoy a good book; Gabriel discovers the joys of food, and other mortal pleasures (wink, wink); Levi has tentacles, and Gabriel definitely approves.

December 1, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

262 pages

Book 8 of 8

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures

Review: Façade (Knight & Daywalker Book 2) by Sam Burns

Rating: 4.5🌈

Sam Burns is an auto buy/read author for me, a consistently excellent writer whose stories never fail to engage my imagination as well as my heart.

Knight & Daywalker is another fantastic hit of a paranormal/urban fantasy trilogy from Burns with one last novel to go.

In Façade, the second book in this series, Burns moves her characters into new territory, exploring new powers, expanding their relationships, and diving further into their respective backgrounds to bring them and this series into a broader and richer world and with a darker mystery to investigate.

Flynn Knight has multiple problems ahead of him, new friends and neighbors to explore and help get settled, along with maybe bf/business partner, Davin Byrne to sort things through with. Plus he’s got his scary kitty of unknown origins, to feed.

How Burns beautifully develops the new storylines alongside the evolution of the characters growth in their relationships and powers is a joy to read. This is a great read and one I couldn’t put down until it was finished.

And that teaser at the end? That intro into the first chapter of Masquerade? How I want that book right now!

Low spice romance, high adventure, fantastic characters and amazing storytelling.

Highly recommend this book and the series. Read them in the order they were written.

Knight and Daywalker – a planned trilogy:

Smokescreen #1
Façade #2
Masquerade #3 – April 2,2026

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

Content Warning: gruesome deaths described in detail, violence, fraught parental relationships, serial killer & kidnapping (prior to book, off-page).

Buy link

Façade (Knight & Daywalker Book 2)

Blurb

Flynn Knight has a million things to do. From the mundane, like helping his new friends open the restaurant next door, to feeding his cat—a near full-time job. Then there are the unexpected things, like trying to find out about his father’s people, now that one has tried to kill him.

When someone adds yet another attempted assassination to the mix, the only thing he knows for sure is that he can’t hide in his back office until everything blows over.

Right?

No, of course not.

Besides, if he’s in danger, then so are his friends, and he can’t have that; he’s attached. Especially to his new business partner, Davin Byrne, the world’s weirdest vampire, who has dark secrets of his own.

Façade is second in a new series set in the Fantastic Fluke universe. It settles Flynn into his new life with his friends and family, begins to explore the slow burn romance plot, and continues the main overarching plot, which will complete in book three, Masquerade.

date

November 23, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

258 pages

Book 2 of 3

Knight & Daywalker

Review: The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down (Hopefully) (Carry A Faerie #2) by Michele Notaro

Rating: 4🌈

The second novel in Michele Notaro’s Carry A Faerie series, The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down (Hopefully) is an entertaining tale , one jammed packed with emotional drama of the group of characters as well as their multiple personal storylines.

There’s sub plots which have a series mystery element associated with abducted fantasy creatures. A big storyline that’s building is one that features the younger characters of mages Aeson and Chaos, now working at a local museum. Their story is prominent here in, not just because they require the help of Miles (Empath) and Winter (Null) to take care of another pixie infestation but as we can see, they aren’t doing as well personally since we saw them last.

Miles and Win’s relationship moves forward in several ways, including the reveal of their own histories.

But most interesting, a third POV is added to the mix at the end of the story.

The characters of the young mages and the fantasy animals/familiars are fantastic. Detailed, engaging and engaging. Their circumstances are such that the reader is immediately empathetic to their story.

Which is why another aspect of this book is bothering me. Hard to go into details without spoilers but for the author to go down this route so early in the series (and having set up the situation to go bad considering the characters involved), makes me wonder why and what Notaro’s thoughts were. Especially given the sensitivity of the storyline.

This series seems to veer from comedic scenarios to extremely complex emotional dark scenes and histories. And I’m not sure it’s giving enough context and depth to the latter. And this talented author is more than capable of doing so. See her series, The Magi Accounts.

I’m recommending this story. It’s cute, shows lots of potential and has great characters.

It will be a year before the next book is released. I’ll be looking forward to it.

Carry A Faerie (3 book series):

Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! #1

The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down (Hopefully) #2

Gremlins, Goblins, And… What Is THAT? #3 – November 5,2026

Buy link

Book 2 of 3: Carry A Faerie

Blurb

Am I afraid of gnomes? Maaaaaaaybe.

Did I take on a huge gnome job anyway? I sure did.

Am I about to ask my crush for help?

Well, I have to ask someone, right?

I get called out to a huge mansion with the biggest number of invading gnomes I’ve ever seen, and I’m not sure who to call to help. And I definitely need some help.

So when Winter Montgomery just so happens to stop by, I know I have to ask him. I’ve been crushing on the handsome guy from afar for years, so now’s my chance to get close—and get some much needed support.

As long as I don’t let him see just how much I hate gnomes—okay, I’m actually terrified of them, but he doesn’t need to know that… right?

Did It Really Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie Book 1) is a MM urban fantasy and the first book in Miles and Winter’s love story. Each book will have its own supernatural problem with a HFN ending for the couple, but there will be overarching plot themes throughout the series

Publication date

July 31, 2025

Language

‎English

Print length

296 pages

Book 1 of 3

Carry A Faerie

Review: Demon Dating Service by Jocelynn Drake

Rating: 4🌈

Demon Dating Service by Jocelynn Drake is a really cute paranormal romance. A graduate student in need of housing and romantic relationship advice gets both in the form of a “haunted” mansion that’s home to a found family of demons.

Luke is in desperate need of a cheap place to rent when the crows he feeds drop a flyer advertising a room near campus that’s the right price. Except he’s not aware that the landlords are demons playing a game of scare the human because they are bored.

This is an engaging out story with well defined characters, especially the demons which I really enjoyed. The joint journey they all take to acceptance, friendship and found family is marvelous.

The romantic relationship is less interesting as we don’t get as much background on the other character or their time together.

For me, Luke and his demon found family made the story. Along with his best friend who deserves more time here.

Cute and entertaining.

Cover by Phoenix Design Covers.

Buy link

Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.comDemon Dating Service – Kindle edition by Drake, Jocelynn. Romance …

Blurb

Even demons get bored…

Luke is a poor grad student, desperate for a cheap place to live.

Desperate enough even to live in a house full of demons.

(Anything is better than his last roommate.)

When the demons find it’s nearly impossible to scare Luke away, they decide on a new plan to amuse themselves.

They’re going to help Luke with his love life.

Can they really aid Luke’s efforts to catch his college crush? Or are they headed for a disaster that neither heaven nor hell can fix?

Demon Dating Service is a fluffy, chaotic stand-alone novel about a sweet guy making friends with the misfits of the demon world, trying to survive grad school, and snagging the hottest guy on campus.

Review: Enticing the Elf (Elf Magic #2) by Louisa Masters

Rating: 4.5🌈

The second book in Masters’ Elf Magic series, Enticing the Elf was a romantic joyride, a comedic urban fantasy journey of love. That’s a phrase I’m sure those bros would appreciate!

This is Dáithí and Eoin’s story, characters we’ve grown to love and appreciate throughout this series and stories from the Hidden Species universe. It’s a couple that have been seeing each other, so no insta-love but realistic obstacles and struggles that they face that are keeping them from a committed relationship.

Immediately I like the story better than the first. The groundwork is there, the characters are well defined, and Masters’ plot hilariously allows for many of our favorite characters to shine in supporting roles to bring Dáithí and Eoin to their HEA.

It’s got comedy, romance, realistic relationship discussions and heartwarming moments. And bunnies!

Plus we get a setup for the next book and couple to watch for.

Dáithí and Eoin turn out to be #relationshipgoals. What a happy ending and fabulous story.

Highly recommended.

Cover Photo: Wander Aguiar

Model: Ryan

Cover Design: Booksmith Design

Elf Magic:

Wooing the Elf #1

Enticing the Elf #2

Buy link

Enticing the Elf (Elf Magic Book 2)

Blurb

There’s nothing I want more than a life with him… but my past is the world’s worst wingman.

For a big chunk of my life, I expected to die along with the rest of my species. Nobody thought we’d make it, and I did my best to live in the now and enjoy every second of precious life.

Now that’s coming back to bite me in the ass.

Because the impossible happened, and we got our second chance. A safe home. A tomorrow worth planning for. And a future I want to spend with Dáithí.

He’s amazing—sassy, clever, the kind of guy who can cut you down with one eyebrow and still make you laugh. We’ve known each other a long time, and convincing him to date me was one of the best wins of my long life. Convincing him to be my boyfriend? That’s a fight I might not win.

Because the reputation I earned when I was living life to the fullest has stuck, and Dáithí’s convinced I’m only in this for a good time, not a long time. He’s protecting his heart from future damage by keeping things casual between us… even though they’re not.

How do I prove I want him forever?

Review: Shadow Throne King (Emperor’s Assassin Book 3) by Kai Butler

Rating: 4🌈

Shadow Throne King is the third novel in Kai Butler’s Emperor’s Assassin series and I thought this is where the series would be wrapped up.

But there’s more to come and I’ll be honest, I’m struggling a bit here.

Butler has written about a complex political situation, with an equally strong layered world upon which the author made its foundation. Kingdoms at war, subtly and magically. Ice and fire, ancient blood magicians, and monstrosities abound.

And dragons as well as things that lurk in the dark.

That’s all pretty exciting. Love the ravens. And the characters are, individually, intriguing and given strong backgrounds.

Based on its elements alone, it’s a 4.5, as a series and story. Solidly crafted and executed so well that I really enjoyed it.

Especially that last section of dramatic fights and flight from the mountain. So excellent and moving. I was with those mountain badgers and their families every single step. And that song at that moment? Heartbreaking.

What I’m struggling with? And shouldn’t be is the relationship between the two main characters. I feel absolutely no connection with them. Individually yes. Together no.

I just don’t find them credible as a pair. No real chemistry between them. And Kai Butler can write chemistry like crazy. Just read Butler’s The Empty Throne Trilogy. But, at least for me, I’m not feeling it here.

I enjoy Airon, the northern assassin/Prince Consort, although at times I feel that he’s not consistent enough in his character for me here. He’s a trained assassin. Yet he doesn’t know to trust his instincts here in the story? Particularly regarding a certain character whose actions are screaming don’t trust me?

Things like that in a character and storyline just will take a reader right out of a narrative quickly. As it did me several times here.

For me, it just highlights that you can have all the “pretty things “ like great world building and details but you need to get the actual substance, the core , the relationship right for a story to feel complete. And at book three it’s not happening.

But could be that’s it’s just me. So for all the great execution of the plot and characters, 4 stars.

Cover by Hannah Latham at oexasart

Emperor’s Assassin series:

Betrothed to the Emperor #1

Emperor’s Wrath #2

Shadow Throne King #3

Dragon Blood Curse #4 – March 16,2026

Buy link

Book 3 of 4: Emperor’s Assassin

Blurb

As the Imperium crumbles beneath our feet, will I be able to keep hold of Tallu?

The imperial generals who so loyally served Tallu’s monstrous father have declared war on us and fled the capital. The enemy nation of Krustau claims to have Empress Koque and Prince Hallu, the second son of Emperor Millu. If that is true, Krustau would have claim to the Imperium’s throne.

Unable to risk the possibility that Tallu’s brother could fall into the wrong hands, Tallu and I must confront a greater threat than either of us could dream of. Will Tallu’s secrets lead to our loss or will he finally trust me with the truth he can barely whisper in the dark?

Publication date: October 27, 2025
Language: English
Print length: 394 pages
Book 3 of 4: Emperor’s Assassin

CW: Animal death (temporary), dismemberment, death.

Review: Out Of A Fix (Torus Intercession Book 7) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.75🌈

Out Of A Fix brings an end to Mary Calmes wonderful Torus Intercession series with the last of the original fixers, 52 year old Nash Miller takes a job in a small town in Washington state where the family she left behind of a woman who is now in WITSEC program resides. Her brother is concerned their safety isn’t a priority for the FBI and wants Torus to insure they are protected during this trial.

Seems simple enough. However, that’s not the case that Nash finds out when he enters the town. The ex-husband is absent on a job site. The kids are in trouble and he’s desperately needed there as a fixer. On many levels.

Calmes quickly turns this last story into a heartbreaking then finally heartwarming tale of a family rescued . Which turns into an engaging emotional story about a family that has finds their hearts and home rebuilt into a new beginning, including their own fixer.

The children are so well written. They grab at the readers hearts just as they do Nash’s. Whether’s Tatum, the youngest child or the oldest son, whose behavior has brought him into the worst possible situation, these are kids who are fragile and need help immediately. And get it.

The issues are slow to be revealed and are addressed as needed. This includes issues of the dad’s too. Luke Duchesne doesn’t get an immediate pass on his behavior but there’s also an effort made to understand and address it. And to do better.

Therapists have a prominent role here and that’s a positive element of the story. For each of these characters have issues to overcome.

The plot moves forward swiftly, the romance is not always the center of the story but the forming of the family which folds in the newly created dynamic of Nash and Luke. That feels very realistic and seated in the story.

It’s fantastic to see all the characters from the Agency and the couples reunite here at the end. We see where each of them are in their own lives and relationships as well.

This is just an outstanding sendoff to one of my favorite series.

I’m highly recommending it and have starred my favorite stories below. I’m sure we each have our own.

Torus Intercession series: 7 books complete:

No Quick Fix #1

In A Fix #2❤️

Fix It Up #3 ❤️

The Fix Is In #4

The Big Fix #5

Get A Fix #6

Out Of A Fix #7

Buy link

Out Of A Fix: Torus Intercession Book Seven

Blurb

If you put a family back together, how can you ever leave them?

Through the years, Nash Miller has watched all his buddies fall in love and get married. It was romantic, and he’d wondered when he himself would find the one. Now, older, wiser, he realizes that what he’s always wanted—a husband and a family—just isn’t in the cards for him. And that’s all right. He has wonderful friends, a good life, and he gets to help people, which has always been his true calling. So when the time comes to protect a family in a tiny town in Washington State, he’s more than willing to get on his white horse and ride.

The family needs a bodyguard, but it goes beyond that. The mother abandoned them for a new life, and the father is absent, stuck on a work project he took on to keep his family afloat. What Nash finds are three kids in need of a fixer, and lucky for them, that’s exactly what he does. Providing support and structure is second nature to him, and he’s on solid ground, confident…until their father, Luke Duchesne, gets home. He’s nothing like Nash assumed he’d be, and with each passing day, the lure of the man, and his great kids, gets harder to resist. But he can’t stay there. He’s a fixer, after all, and what they’re all feeling is simply gratitude. Isn’t it…? Though when Luke kisses him, it starts to feel like so much more. Nash hopes he’ll be able to explore a life with Luke—he just needs to make sure his own isn’t cut short.

Publication date: September 23, 2025
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Print length: 349 pages
Book 7 of 7: Torus Intercession

Review: A TOUCH OF MURDER (Touched Book 1) by E.M. Leya

Rating: 4🌈

E.M. Leya writes the terrific Ghostly romance mystery series and this is the first in her new paranormal murder mystery series, Touched.

The main characters , located in the small town of Hidden Falls , WA, are Barrett Whitestone, 34, PD detective skeptic and Adam Wrecker , 32,a psychometric psychic. That’s someone who can , by touch, sense events and experiences from an object they have been given.

A missing girl brings the two men together and the cosy nature of the small town dynamics repeatedly makes repeated visits necessary in various ways.

One aspect of this story that’s out of the usual box for this author is the graphic depiction of violent SA, torture and murder of the victim here. I suspect that, given the circumstances surrounding the psychic gift of Adam Wrecker that this will be a reoccurring issue.

I feel this series and story should have trigger warnings associated with it given those elements. FYI.

Leya is creating a new cozy mystery atmosphere for her series by introducing a full cast of townsfolk and shopkeepers, police officers included. It’s a tiny town that counts on tourism. But most cozy mysteries don’t have such raw material as part of their storylines.

There’s a sweet, slow burn romance between the two characters but countered by the graphic horror of the victim’s death.

For me, the other seems jarring here. I get that it helps authenticate Adam as a psychometric, but it’s out of “character “ for the rest of the narrative. If this was a harder type of story with characters who are hardcore, a romance with an edge , and darkness, then I’d expect this aspect of the novel.

But with donuts, small towns communities dynamics and cozy spaces, along with the occasional slow burn sweet kisses, it other feels out of place.

Adam comes across as very believable in his gifts. The slow investigation of the culprits and frustrations of the small police force also seems real and credible.

A Touch of Murder is a good start to a new series. I look forward to seeing what the author has in store for us next.

Cover Art by: Annabella Stone

Buy link

Book 1 of 1: Touched

Blurb

Officer Barret Whitestone loves the small town of Hidden Falls. After all, he grew up there. He takes his job of protecting the people seriously, and so when a case brings him to Touched, he’s sure he has just met the biggest fraud and charlatan in town. With a murder case to solve, he doesn’t have time to waste with someone he’s sure is taking advantage of a grieving family.

Adam is a psychometric—a person who has the rare ability to sense an object’s history through touch. But unlike most others with his gift, he can’t turn the ability off. He’s used to people not believing him, but when it comes to murder, he knows he can help identify a killer.

With pressure from the town, Barret humors Adam. At first, he’s convinced he’s wasting time and energy, but when what Adam tells him starts to match with the evidence, he can’t help but believe there may be something to Adam’s ability.

Forced to put their differences aside, the two slowly piece together what happened to a missing woman. Navigating through a confusing case while searching for evidence that can be used in court, they’re both determined to bring a killer to justice and learn to trust each other along the way.

Publisher: E.L. Publishing
Publication date: August 31, 2025
Language: English
Print length: 290 pages
Book 1 of 1: Touched

Review: The Sinner’s Son (Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood Book Two) by Aimee Nicole Walker

Rating: 4🌈

The Sinner’s Son is the second in the Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood series by Aimee Nicole Walker. It’s a ongoing dramatic story about a couple who have traveled from their first encounter and police cases as police officers through the obstacles of a complicated process of their relationship and respective careers through the process of marriage and now fatherhood.

With any long history and multiple series like this, there is going to be books that will hit on every level and some that will fall short.

For me, The Sinner’s Son fell a bit short. Too much of repetition in terms of certain aspects of the storyline. I felt like I anticipated the plot and villain. Especially since the overall mystery going through to the next book seems clear.

For me the best elements are those surrounding the impending birth, their emotional state about fatherhood, their friends and support.

The mystery feels less well developed than usual. Or maybe I just read too many mystery novels. And listen to too many crime podcasts.

Either way, I enjoyed the first novel more. And will look forward to reading Brokered Betrayals later this year.

Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood series:

The Paternity Puzzle #1

The Sinner’s Son #2

Brokered Betrayals #3 – Dec 16, 2025

Preceding Necessary Locke and Key Series :

Zero Hour (3 books)

Sawyer and Royce: Matrimony and Mayhem (3 book series)

Related series:

Sinister in Savannah (3 book series)

Buy link

The Sinner’s Son (Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood Book 2)

Blurb

Can a sinner’s son outrun his father’s shadow, or will darkness follow him everywhere and taint everything?

No one’s life should be reduced to random items in an evidence box, only to collect dust for decades. Seeking justice for the forgotten will bring a temporary partner into Sawyer’s life who threatens his carefully curated peace. Alec Bishop, the son of a serial killer, arrives in Savannah with an audacious ego, an unwillingness to accept boundaries, and an overzealous fan club. Calling it quits isn’t part of Sawyer’s character, but he might not have a choice when the circumstances surrounding the sinner’s son take a dark twist.

Nature versus nurture? The age-old question forces Sawyer and Royce to reevaluate the relationships with their fathers, and it influences the parents they aspire to be now that the countdown to Baby Locke has begun.

The Sinner’s Son is book two in the Felonies and Fatherhood trilogy, the third installment in the Royce Locke and Sawyer Key story arc. ** New readers should start with the Zero Hour and Matrimony and Mayhem trilogies before reading Felonies and Fatherhood. **The Sinner’s Son continues Royce and Sawyer’s happily ever after as they move into the most anticipated phase of their lives. Though some storylines span the trilogy, this book does not end in a cliffhanger. Heat, humor, heart, and homicide abound. You have been warned.

Publisher: Chasing Rainbows Press LLC
Publication date: September 9, 2025
Language: English
Print length: 216 pages
Book 2 of 3: Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood

Review: How to Trust a Hellhound (Hellhounds of Paradise Falls Book 4) by Shannon Mae

Rating: 4🌈

How to Trust a Hellhound is the fourth book in the Hellhounds of Paradise Falls series by Shannon Mae. A terrific interconnected series with Mae’s preceding work with crossover characters, here we’re watching an adopted family of Hellhounds find their fated mates, often from a similarly small group of found family of humans friends, starting with a paranormal author next door.

The humans have, for the most part, damage and horror in their past or present lives, which meshes well with hellhounds intent on delivering justice and dark souls to the underworld.

How to Trust a Hellhound focuses on adoptive Hellhound father, Wilder, who has returned to his “boys” and the town of Paradise Falls only to find someone who needs him.

That’s human Josh, close friends with Toby (the author and now hellhound mate). It’s been obvious for several books that Josh has been in dire trouble, mostly due to his controlling boyfriend. But here Mae shows us exactly what Josh has been through. The emotional and physical abuse, and the damage it has caused.

This particular situation and how the characters, especially Josh and Wilder, as well as the various other characters, handled it, was well written. Multiple reactions, including shock. Anger, withdrawal. Everything reads realistic and painfully true.

Along with the development of Josh and Wilder’s relationship, which is slow, given the current situation, there’s also the fact that Josh was unaware of the otherworldly beings around him. Hellhounds being number one. That’s was very funny.

The only aspect of this story I felt was underdeveloped or not as well explored was the big dramatic climax which sets up the next relationship and novel to come.

There’s no foundation for it. Any of it. You could say it was all meant to be a surprise but there should be some kind of narrative shoring up of the plot and aha moments but instead it feels muddled and confusing.

The author states that originally another couple was to have the next book but she changed her mind because these two were speaking up. I get that. But it feels rushed.

Especially since it looks to be a very intriguing relationship. Can’t wait to see how that plays out.

Recommended!

Cover design by Morningstar Ashley

Hellhounds of Paradise Falls: (Paranormal Romance)

How to Flirt with a Hellhound

How to Hack a Hellhound

How to Tame a Hellhound

How to Trust a Hellhound

How NOT to Kill a Hellhound (Coming Soon)

Linked series:

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures: (Paranormal Romance)

Buy link

Book 4 of 4: Hellhounds of Paradise Falls

Blurb

Wilder

Angels, demons, hellhounds, Nephilim, and a whole host of other non-mortals—my pack of adopted hellhound sons sure knows how to pick a place. And yet somehow, the most interesting one of all is the sad, quiet human who’s become friends with the pack. Helping people heal and learn to trust is a specialty of mine, but I don’t see Josh as someone to adopt—my hellhound sees him as a mate. The problem? Josh doesn’t believe in anything supernatural. Plus, there’s the vicious and oddly hard to track ex-boyfriend, the meddling but strangely helpful sheriff, the delicate side project I’m working on, and the immortal evil rich guy running around. As I said, my boys sure know how to pick a town.

Josh

I’m the boring one. No imagination. No fun. In control. My ex-boyfriend taught me how to let loose and explore things, but then he changed… or maybe I just realized who he truly was. I want someone who cares for me, not someone who controls me, but I don’t think Rick will let me go easily. Everyone is willing to help, though, including the handsome dad of my best friend’s boyfriend. My inappropriate feelings for him aren’t helping matters, though. Not to mention that the more I hang out with everyone, the more my writer friend’s supernatural stories suddenly don’t seem so far-fetched. Something is strange about Paradise Falls, and I can’t help but think that Wilder is more involved than he lets on.

Tags: It’s always the quiet ones (wink, wink); Josh doesn’t believe in hellhounds, but they believe in him; Wilder is just the hellhound to give Josh all the comfort and healing he needs; Helene is the best therapist for someone who’s been wronged; the entire pack gets involved (of course) and chaos ensues; abusive ex-boyfriends always get what’s coming to them; there’s torture and death (but only of really bad people); hellhounds have tails, and they know how to use them.

Publication date: September 1, 2025
Language: English
Print length: 276 pages
Book 4 of 4: Hellhounds of Paradise Falls

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