Category: M/M Paranormal Fiction

A VVivacious Prerelease Review: Nemesis (Alpha Unit One #2) by Chris T. Kat

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Nicky and Sam are back and there is a new drug on the streets, Nemesis. As the team works to stop Nemesis from claiming more lives, Nicky finds himself rethinking his every move.

As the force adapts to baby shifters working among them, Nicky finds himself curbing some of his natural urges as a baby shifter. Over time, this seems to make Nicky unable to do the job he loves. With things coming to a head in the search for Nemesis’ creators, things take an unexpected turn and it is up to the team to deliver justice.

I loved this one. It has been a year since I read the first book in this series and I wasn’t even aware that there would be a sequel, but my glee at knowing that this book exists was way over the top. I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and the moment I started reading I found myself back in this world and it was like I never left. I loved how the story just picks up and you find yourself caught in the flow.

At the beginning of this book there was just so much to fix that I was overwhelmed. Nicky is hiding things from Sam and this fact had alarm bells ringing in my head and I realised that while things were better they were no where near settled. People on the force are still getting used to working alongside baby shifters and as the team comes under scrutiny for having baby shifters on board, Nicky finds himself second-guessing his ability to do his job.

The amazing thing about this book was that despite the fact that, there was so much up in the air at the starting, everything is handled exquisitely. Just seeing things work out so perfectly for Nicky and Sam made me so happy. The best thing was that their compromise was so flawless it didn’t even appear to be a compromise, it just felt like a part of being an amazing mate.

Nicky and Sam were so amazing in this book. I love these two so much. There entire team is so so good. Connor and Jesse are still working out things but I love where we leave them by the end of this book. I would really love for them to work things out between themselves. In fact, dare I say, I would love to have a book with them as the main characters. I really want to know more about these two. Roland is amazing, I love him, I love how good he is at supporting everyone in his team and seeing him with Nicky and Connor at the end was so heartwarming. He is so good. We get more of Annie who is as fearless as ever, Jake, Julie, Chris and Reese and I appreciated them all.

I can’t wait to delve more in this world and the ending makes me optimistic that we might just get another book in this series. I have said this before and I will say this again, I love the world the author has created for this series, it is so ingenious. If you liked the previous book in the series, this is one you definitely don’t want to miss.

Cover Art by Cate Ashwood. The snow leopard steals the show in a pretty magnificent cover. I like how the covers of the books in this series give off the same vibe despite being different.

Sales Links:   Amazon
Book Details:
ebook, 1st edition, 164 pages
Expected publication: August 16th 2019 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN13 9781644054246
Edition Language English
Alpha Unit One #2

A MelanieM Review: Stand In Place by Mary Calmes

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

One summer won’t be enough….

Kaenon Geary was done fighting the small minds in his sleepy Texas town when he made his escape and never looked back. But now, for the first time in more than a decade, he’s returned to Braxton to spend the summer with his beloved grandmother—her final summer—and no longer recognizes the home he’d left behind all those years ago.

Everything has changed.

Everything but the man he’s never stopped wanting.

Brody Scott was the local football hero who became a gridiron champ, but he retired from the fast lane to forge a new life as the Chief Constable of Braxton. He longs to put down roots in the community he is now sworn to protect. Though he’s not at all sure he can protect his heart from the quiet, earnest boy he once knew. The boy who has come back a man.

Starting something would be a mistake. Kaenon plans to fly away at summer’s end, but his love is something Brody desperately wants to have…and to keep. Their days together are numbered. Unless some simple hometown magic can make all the right things bloom and show them the true definition of love.

Stand In Place by Mary Calmes is a sort of fantastical mix of romance, forgiveness, family, and love.   Of all sorts.  Familial, friends, houses, gardens, the land they stand on, and of course, romantic love.  All lightly laced through with the aromas and touch of the mystical and magic.  Had that Practical Magic sort of feel about it….sans the murder mystery of course!

It starts with a phone call to Kaenon Geary from his beloved grandmother, asking him to come spring her from the hospital in his home town of Braxton, Texas.    It’s a phone call he can’t and won’t say no to.  Even though the town is a place he has nothing but bad memories and swore he wouldn’t return.  But it’s his grandmother and there’s nothing he won’t do for her.

The setup here is both heartbreaking and life affirming.  It’s about a journey that both looks back, inward,  and, eventually forward.  And it’s all centered in Kaelen who returns to the family, school kids, town who treated him so horrifically when he came out as gay,  All excerpt for his coach, two best friends and his grandparents and Aunt Peg who he went to live with when his parents kicked him out.

The setup is enough to rend one’s heart.  The impending loss of the last person he considers family, the return to the town who beat him for being his true self, and finally having to deal with all the memories and people Kaenon thought were deeply buried in the past.

Then come the gardens, the fireflies, and the magic.

All of which Calmes swirls around her characters like a witch with a wand.  A narrative one at that.

Kaeon is another one of the author’s golden boys she does so well, here given a glow imbued by a land that missed him so.  I believe in that, totally.    Just as I did in the romance between Kaenon and Brody Scott.   And the forgiveness that followed.  Character by character.

Too soon?  Too much forgiveness?  Others will admittedly hate that Kaenon forgave  so easily perhaps , but within this setting and context. I think the author made her case.

Did I want more?  Yes.  Of Aunt Peg, their relationship, the town, even more of Brody and Kaenon but I’m glad it ended where it did.  I didn’t need it to go past the summer and the vibrant return of the garden.  I was content to leave all three right where they were.  In that small house, facing the garden, savoring the summer night and the magic in the air.

And yes, I highly recommend this story.

Cover art: Reese Dante.  Love that cover, perfect for this story.

Sales Links:  Amazon |

Book Details;

Kindle Edition, 311 pages
Published July 17th 2019
ASINB07VCM4QK1
Edition Language English

A MelanieM Review:Where the Night Reigns by Emilie Lucadamo

Rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

The barrier between worlds has shattered. Demons wreak havoc across Earth; the dead are rising from their graves; psychics and witches are vanishing without a trace. The fate of the world rests in the hands of the enigmatic Tresser Corporation, a company of demon soldiers… and a kindergarten teacher.

In other words, humanity’s odds aren’t looking great.

When hunter, David Tresser, pairs up with a High Demon, he knows he’s in over his head. Of course, there are worse positions to be in, like Henry, whose girlfriend hasn’t been seen since the demonic attacks began, or the psychic Cassandra, who has become a target of those very demons herself. As this motley crew teams up, trust is slow to be gained…but they really have no choice when the world around them is falling apart at the seams. In the midst of it all, Tresser finds himself curiously drawn to the demon he’s not even sure he can trust.

After an exorcism gone terribly wrong, the team is left with no choice. To save their worlds, and themselves, they’ll have to travel into the darkest part of Hell: the Pits of Gehenna, from which no one has ever returned.

To defeat the odds and preserve humanity, they’ll all have to work together.

This was one of those books where I definitely needed to pay closer attention to the author’s notes and tour warnings.  Usually I’m better at that.  But in this case I missed several important flags.  One the title has two formats, I only saw one.  It’s the second I wish I’d seen and paid attention too.  The one that indicated that it was the last story in a trilogy.  As in Where the Night Reigns (In the Darkness Book 3).  The other flag?  Please note that the story contains a death of a major character.

Nope missed that.

Because honestly, I would not have read this story.

And it all starts off so promisingly.  Even without knowing about any other novels (remember I didn’t know this was a trilogy),Emilie Lucadamo sets the universe and premise for the story and then dives right in.  It doesn’t take long to start connecting emotionally to the characters, especially as they start to form this odd band of fighters/family up against incredible odds sort of thing… about to ride into Hell itself.  I mean … there’s humor, pathos, and great fantastical action scenes.

And even some of our fav characters start to pair up, ridiculously, wonderfully so as we get to know them better and our brave and supernatural Scooby gang prepare to save everyone in the world even as the odds rise up against them.  I mean the author has done a mean job of getting us to the point that we are engaged with the story and all the characters.  The huge world ending battle comes and it doesn’t disappoint.  Because with what happens to everyone …well, these are special beings with otherworldly gifts…and scenarios that could happen.

Until the epilogue.  Which you just don’t believe.

It sent me searching for other stories and reviews.  Which is how I found out this was in fact the series finale, the third story of a trilogy.  There won’t be any sequel, no hoped for change. This is it.  Huh.  How depressing.  And no won’t be reading the other stories either.  What’s the point?

I know there are fans out there for this type of bittersweet sort of storytelling.  I’m just not one of them. If you are, then yes, I believe you will like Where the Night Reigns (In the Darkness Book 3) by Emilie Lucadamo, all three stories.  The characters in the preceding novels get their resolutions here.  So obviously their stories were cliffhangers.  Just a FYI.  If it hadn’t been for that ending, I probably would have rated it higher.  But that ending still rings in my mind so no.  Not happening.  I’m just not that sort of ending gal.

Cover art: Natasha Snow.  Dark and murky.  Turns out it perfect after all.

Sales Links:  NineStar Press | Amazon

Book Details:ebook, 229 pages
Expected publication: July 1st 20191 by NineStar Press
ISBN139781951057053
Edition Language English
URL

 

A MelanieM Audio Review: Burn (Witchbane #1.5) by Morgan Brice and Kale Williams (narrator)

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

One hundred years ago, a sheriff’s posse killed dark warlock Rhyfel Gremory, but his witch-disciples escaped, and their magic made them nearly immortal. To keep their power, each year one of the witch-disciples kills a descendant of one of the men in the posse, a twelve-year cycle that has cost dozens of lives, including that of Seth Tanner’s brother, Jesse.

Seth uncovers a cycle of ritual murders that feed the witch-disciples’ power, and he saves Evan Malone, one of the warlock’s potential victims. Neither Seth nor Evan expected to fall in love, but when the dust settles, they find themselves on the run and on the road together, heading toward Pittsburgh, on the trail of the next killer.

Seth wonders whether Evan will come to regret his choice to stay together, now that he’s living the reality of Seth’s nomadic life and the risks that come with it. He wants Evan to stay, but he’s afraid that Evan would be better off without him, living a normal life. Evan’s whole world has been upended, but there’s one thing he’s sure of, his love for Seth. Evan worries that he’s a liability, not yet able to hold his own in Seth’s rough-and-tumble world, but determined to do whatever necessary to have Seth’s back. On the way to face the next warlock, supernatural threats abound, forcing them to learn to fight as a team.

Fate and danger threw them together. But once the adrenaline fades, will love last?

Burn is a short follow-up story in the Witchbane series where Seth Tanner and Evan Malone are still adjusting not only to each other but recovering from the recents events from book one, Witchbane and before book two, Dark Rivers.  Their “partnership” is new, from the tentatively forming romance to the decision to carry on and find the rest of the  warlock’s witch disciples. And dispose of them.  So Burn is a story of uncertainty, adjustment, learning, and communication.  All while killing nasty supernatural and paranormal beasties.

It is most definitely NOT a standalone in any way shape or form.  Really wish they would stop doing that in blurbs and descriptions.  It’s a series, people, with world building and this is only an interim story. It most certainly rests on the shoulders of the rest one as any solid building block does.

So, if you’ve read Witchbane, this is a wonderful sequel and mirror into where the characters stood immediately after the events of that novel.  Not shockingly, they are having issues.  Not talking and it’s ready to combust.  As written by Morgan Brice and narrated by the most wonderful Kale Williams, this story flies by.  It’s action packed, the characters alive and full of torn emotions.  As they should be.  I was so caught up in the story that it was over before I knew it.  As I said it’s a short story and the audio reflects that.

Witchbane is just one of the many interconnected series that Brice has right now.  There’s Witchbane, Badlands, t and the the new one , Treasure Trail.  All with interconnected characters that appear in each others stories and series. If you read one or listen to one, you find yourself getting sucked, quite willingly, into the overall universe Brice is building.  Read one?  Nope, have to read them all.  Or listen to them.  Which I am finding equally addicting under the spell of Kale Williams.

Which means I am recommending Burn the audio to you all, after you listen to Witchbane of course.  That was a terrific audio too.  Now to wait for Dark Rivers to arrive in audio.  Be still my heart!

Cover art works for the characters and tone of the story.  Love it.

Buy Links

Audible US  |   Audible UK 

Amazon US  |   Amazon U

Audio Details:

Listening Length: 3 hours and 2 minutes

Audiobook
Published April 16th 2019 by Tantor Audio (first published September 26th 2018)
ASINB07Q4R76RK
Edition Language English
Series Witchbane #1.5

Witchbane Series

Witchbane

Burn 1.5

Dark Rivers 2

In Our New Release Spotlight: The Shaman of Kupa Piti (Shaman’s Law #1) by A. Nybo (special excerpt)

The Shaman of Kupa Piti (Shaman’s Law #1) by A. Nybo
Published July 30th 2019 by DSP Publications

Cover Art: Kanaxa
Sales Links:

DSP Publications /  https://www.dsppublications.com/books/the-shaman-of-kupa-piti-by-a-nybo-518-b

Amazon / https://www.amazon.com/Shaman-Kupa-Piti-Shamans-Book-ebook/dp/B07Q7QD2PG

Kobo / https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-shaman-of-kupa-piti

Barnes & Noble / https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-shaman-of-kupa-piti-a-nybo/1131080510

A.Nybo is on tour for the new exciting release The Shaman of Kupa Piti (Shaman’s Law #1) and has brought a excerpt for all our readers.  Check it out below and how to contact the author as well.  It’s a story I’m happily recommending as well.

✒︎

Blurb

When an international case involving a series of ritual murders lands in his lap, strait-laced and logical Agent Leon Armstrong is going to need some help.

Leon follows the trail to the opal-mining town of Coober Pedy, Australia, where he gets tangled up with the wild Russian mystic Sergei Menshikov. Despite his commitment to rationality, Leon discovers he isn’t immune to the way of the spirits, no matter how much he’d like to think so. When Sergei tells him he treads a predestined path, Leon’s world turns upside down.

Leon’s experiences in Coober Pedy will change his life forever, but can he hold out against Sergei and the spirits—who Sergei claims have chosen them for each other?

 

 

The Shaman of Kupa Piti.

Setup: Australian Federal Police agent Leon Armstrong enters Soda Bob’s pub to speak with the witness, Sergei Menshikov. The following is one of Leon’s ongoing lessons of the way of life in the mining town of Coober Pedy.

Excerpt

Someone yelled “Doris!” and every patron turned to look at the door and, with broad grins, began chanting “Dor-is, Dor-is, Dor-is.” There were a few heckles as well, with one man yelling out to ask whether there was a Doris Day available for some extracurricular activity.

Not understanding the jibe, Leon largely ignored it, but knowing it was a taunt of some sort, he smiled and gave a little nod as though bowing to his audience.

Glancing towards the bar, Leon met Sergei’s eyes. Sergei had twisted on his bar stool to watch their advance, a teasing eyebrow raised and a smirk on his lips. He turned back towards the bar.

When Charlie went to the left of Sergei and leaned on the bar, instead of moving to the other side of Charlie and using the big man as a buffer, Leon slipped in between the two. He wasn’t sure why.

The barman was about to speak when Sergei introduced them. Leon supposed it didn’t take a genius to guess they were here to see him.

“Soda Bob, you know local Doris, and this is federal Doris.” Sergei grinned.

“Doris?” Leon asked.

Soda Bob chuckled. “Did you ever watch A Country Practice?”

Leon gave it a moment’s thought and realised the pig in the TV show was named Doris. He turned to Sergei. “I guess that makes you Rasputin.”

Soda Bob’s brow drew down. “Wasn’t Rasputin mad?” he asked one of the patrons sitting to Sergei’s right.

“Mad as a meat axe,” the man with blinding white teeth confirmed.

Coober Pedy was relatively isolated, but was their knowledge of the outer world really that restricted? “He was a mad monk,” Leon offered.

The white-toothed man’s eyebrows shot up. “A monk? I didn’t know that.”

Leon glanced at Sergei who, seemingly ignoring the conversation, stared straight ahead, one hand loosely holding the stubby on the bar before him, the other grooming his beard.

“Nah, he wasn’t a monk.” The redhead who spoke had so many freckles they’d started joining up like overlaid dot-to-dot pages. He added uncertainly, “I don’t think.”

“I don’t know anything about him being a monk,” said Soda Bob, “but whoever gave Rasputin his blasting ticket should’ve been hauled over a bed of shit and left in the shade for the flies.”

His blasting ticket? What the fuck?

At that moment, Sergei turned and looked directly into Leon’s eyes, a smug eyebrow raised and a smile twitching on his lips as if to say, “Well, that went well for you, didn’t it?”

Given he was not in the habit of blushing, when the heat rushed to Leon’s face, it was like lava flowing through the blood vessels in his cheeks. Sergei’s hazel eyes pinned him to the spot like a bug to a board. Leon couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Sergei blinked, and the self-satisfied expression lightened to a teasing and playful gaze that was more captivating than the previous look had been paralysing.

Sergei turned his head away, but his eyes remained playfully on Leon until he was gazing out of their corners from beneath hooded lids. With another blink he looked ahead again.

“Yeah,” said White Teeth. “Tiny was lucky he wasn’t in his pit that day.”

Leon dragged his eyes from Sergei. What were they talking about? Oh yeah, Rasputin and his blasting ticket. Obviously the conversation had gotten away from him completely.

“The man was a menace with explosives,” Soda Bob assured Leon. “He blew up Norman’s washing machine.” He laughed. “It was said that if you wanted a pig to fly, you just had to leave it with Rasputin. He sent most things around him sky high sooner or later.”

Leon assumed Sergei’s soft chuckle was triggered by Soda Bob’s seemingly unintended pig pun.

“Lesson learned,” said Leon, acknowledging that he was the one receiving the education. “Rasputin was a crappy powder monkey.”

 

About the Author

 

A. Nybo has tried conventional methods (a psych degree and a GC in Forensic Mental Health) but far prefers the less conventional, such as the occasional barbecue in the rain, four-hundred-kilometre drives at 1:00 a.m. for chocolate, and multiple emergency naps in any given twenty-four-hour period.

Western Australian born, she has been spotted on the other side of the planet several times—usually by mosquitoes. She’s also discovered Amazonian mosquitoes love her just as much as they do in her home state.

Twitter/ https://twitter.com/anybo5 /@anybo5
DSP Publications / https://www.dsppublications.com/authors/a-nybo-108 / A. Nybo
Dreamspinner Press / https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/authors/a-nybo-1078

Check Out the Audio Review Tour for Burn (Witchbane #1.5) by Morgan Brice, Kale Williams (narrator)

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW TOUR

Book Title: Burn (Witchbane 1.5)

Author: Morgan Brice

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

Narrator: Kale Williams

Release Date: April 16, 2019

Genre/s: Urban Fantasy M/M paranormal Romance

Trope/s: New established relationship, second chance at love, hurt/comfort

Themes: Learning to trust, learning to be in a relationship, commitment

Heat Rating: 4 flames

Length: 3 hours and 2 minutes

It is the sequel to Witchbane, although it can be read alone.      

Add on Goodreads

Seth and Evan are in love, and on the run, trying to stop a cycle of ritual murders. Is their bond strong enough to stop the killers and survive to make a future together?

Blurb

One hundred years ago, a sheriff’s posse killed dark warlock Rhyfel Gremory, but his witch-disciples escaped, and their magic made them nearly immortal. To keep their power, each year one of the witch-disciples kills a descendant of one of the men in the posse, a 12-year cycle that has cost dozens of lives, including that of Seth Tanner’s brother, Jesse.

Seth uncovers a cycle of ritual murders that feed the witch-disciples’ power, and he saves Evan Malone, one of the warlock’s potential victims. Neither Seth nor Evan expected to fall in love, but when the dust settles, they find themselves on the run and on the road together, heading toward Pittsburgh, on the trail of the next killer.

Seth wonders whether Evan will come to regret his choice to stay together, now that he’s living the reality of Seth’s nomadic life and the risks that come with it. He wants Evan to stay, but he’s afraid that Evan would be better off without him, living a normal life. Evan’s whole world has been upended, but there’s one thing he’s sure of, his love for Seth. Evan worries that he’s a liability, not yet able to hold his own in Seth’s rough-and-tumble world, but determined to do whatever necessary to have Seth’s back. On the way to face the next warlock, supernatural threats abound, forcing them to learn to fight as a team.

 

Buy Links

Audible US  |   Audible UK 

Amazon US  |   Amazon UK 

 

About the Author

Morgan Brice is the romance pen name of bestselling author Gail Z. Martin. Morgan writes urban fantasy male/male paranormal romance, with plenty of action, adventure and supernatural thrills to go with the happily ever after. Gail writes epic fantasy and urban fantasy, and together with co-author hubby Larry N. Martin, steampunk and comedic horror, all of which have less romance, more explosions. Characters from her Gail books make frequent appearances in secondary roles in her Morgan books, and vice versa.

On the rare occasions Morgan isn’t writing, she’s either reading, cooking, or spoiling two very pampered dogs.

Other books include Witchbane, Dark Rivers, Badlands, Lucky Town, The Rising, Treasure Trail. Watch for more in these series, plus new series coming soon!

Join my Worlds of Morgan Brice Facebook Group! Get the early scoop on upcoming books and new series, see new covers first, enjoy insider news and special contests and giveaways! Plus it’s where I get my beta readers and launch team!

 

Author Links

Amazon

Facebook Group

Pinterest (for Morgan and Gail)

Twitter: @MorganBriceBook

Website

BookBub

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