Tag: co authors Amber Kell and RJ Scott

A MelanieM Review: End Street Detective Agency Volume Two (End Street Detective Agency #3-4) by Amber Kell & R.J. Scott

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

End Street Detectives Vol 2The Case of the Dragon’s Dilemma

Dragons, battles, a Siren attack and a deal Sam may come to regret leave Sam and Bob in danger…and result in Mikhail finding a mate.

Bob and Sam take their kind-of-adopted-now vampire daughter Mal to look at new schools. Mikhail is left to babysit the last of the remaining rescued children whilst they are away.

When Sirens appear to steal her away, he is left facing the attack alone until a mysterious hero comes to his aid. Ryujin, or Jin to his friends, is a dragon shifter and his role as Captain of the Dragon Guards puts him in direct conflict with Mikhail.

The minute he sees Mikhail he knows what he wants. Now if he can only get Mikhail to see the same.

The Case of the Sinful Santa

Zephariel, the Angel of Vengeance, Nick Klauson, nephew to Santa, Christmas magic, zombies in the school and a necromancer causing chaos…and at the centre of it all-Mal.

Zephariel is the Angel of Vengeance and is tracking down his cousin Danjal for misuse of brimstone. When he walks into a bar and finds Nick Klauson drowning his sorrows, he is instantly drawn to him. Could this be his fated mate?

When Nick and Zeph join forces to deal with zombies in Mal’s school, sparks fly. Add in a demon, a wolf and a necromancer, and Sam and Bob have a hunt on their hands.

For purposes of this review, I am only going to deal with The Case of the Dragon’s Dilemma (book#3) as I have already reviewed The Case of the Sinful Santa here.  The case starts with the remnants of the last one, as most of the stories do.  Here it is one of the remaining kidnapped children that they have been unable to figure out what species she is and where she belongs.  Unfortunately the Sirens are determined to  recapture her and in the attack, her identity is revealed.  She is a dragon.

I absolutely loved the world and myth-building that went on in this story.  Amber Kell and RJ Scott went far deeper into this world, exploring the subtleties of the dragon culture politics and shifting current loyalties.  Sam and Bob, more Sam here and his familiar go along to help see the dragon child home, along with Mikhail, the half vampire/half siren (cousin to Bob) and Captain of the Dragon Guards, Jim, who recognizes Mikhail as his mate.  Mikhail?  Not so much.    The descriptions of the dragons make you yearn to see them and in fact, this whole story make you want the authors to separate it out into their own series.  Its that good.

Perhaps they will, they certainly left us with a huge, well not cliffhanger, but certainly a character in need of a  solution and a heart in need of mending.  That story has yet to be told.  I can’t wait.  This series and its characters has stolen my heart and I eagerly await each new case that arises.

Have you found this series yet?  Are you a lover of the supernatural or paranormal?  Like a mystery or two or three thrown in for good measure?  This series has got it all.  Pick them up and get started today.

Cover art by Meredith Russell.  I like these covers. The design is really beautiful, excerpt that is not my idea of a dragon, and they pull you in.

Sales Links:  RJ Scott Blogspot | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 183 pages
Published November 3rd 2015 by Love Lane Books Ltd (first published January 24th 2014)
ASINB017KW05SC
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesEnd Street Detective Agency #3-4

SeriesEnd Street Detective Agency #3-4

A MelanieM Review: End Street Detective Agency Volume One (End Street Detective Agency #1-2) by Amber Kell, R.J. Scott

Rating:  3.75 stars out of 5

End Street Detective Agency Vol 1Dragons, vampires, werewolves, fae, witches and one very confused human.

* * * *

Sam, 100% human (no, really) inherits a crumbling building and a private detective agency from his Uncle.

Bob, a brooding stubborn and ancient vampire turns up at his door and refuses to leave.

Before Sam can say ‘I only want human cases’ he’s knee deep in werewolves, dragons, vampires and witches.

Book 1 – The Case of The Cupid Curse

Sam Enderson is a human detective who inherits a building from where his Uncle used to run a detective agency. He finds himself working for paranormal creatures despite his resolve to stick with humans only. To supplement his income as a new PI Sam rents out rooms in the large house.

Bob is a vampire and turns up on Sam’s doorstep to rent a room. Sparks fly and Sam is attracted to the vampire despite himself.

Sam is cursed by a witch, and has two cases landing on his desk. Werewolves, annoying ghosts and a grumpy gargoyle are enough to drive Sam mad. But somehow in amongst all of this he has to find a missing fae and a missing shifter child.

Book 2 – The Case of the Wicked Wolf

Naiads, humans, sirens and a challenge for Alpha make up the intricate story in the race to rescue the missing children.

Sam and Bob have more than just the case of one lost child to handle. Not only is Shelby Hartman missing, but other paranormal children have disappeared. The race to rescue the children is hampered by naiads, humans, sirens and a challenge for Alpha.

Hartman Hunter is desperate to find his daughter. He turns to the demon Danjal Naamah for help. The problem is that Danjal is the only person Hartman has ever loved—the man he let go for the sake of the pack…

NB: Previously released as two separate books.
Word count for End Street Volume 1: 64,500

I started this series at book four and then had to scrabble back to the beginning and start where most readers began.  I’m not sure I made a mistake because I picked out a early pattern that has continued through all the books I’ve since finished.  With each story this series gets progressively better.  The plots deepen and the character drop what qualities I found irritating (and yes, frankly whiney) towards the  beginning of the series.  So it was probably a very good thing that I started with books where the characters had lost some of the attributes and mind boggling naivete found in books 1 and 2.

This mostly applies to Sam, a being who refuses to accept that he’s not human.  Everyone  else knows he’s not, from the fae to the  ever present gargoyle.  But Sam?  Nope, with the stubbornness that becomes highly irritating.  I mean who wouldn’t want to be able to do the things he can do in the world Amber Kell and RJ Scott have built?  And they don’t lay any real reason for Sam’s unyielding prejudice/stubborn unwillingness to see himself as anything other than human, when all the events and his powers say otherwise.

Luckily that starts to disappear somewhat or become palatable after this volume.

But I knew there was more coming.  Plus I got to see how he met Bob the vampire.  I adore Bob.  Plus all the other beings that inhabit his house/detective agency are so cool, with  very distinctive personalities that they make up for the places I want to deliver a “Snap out of it” ala Cher in Moonlighting to Sam.  What saves Sam?  He’s really cares, he’s also just a determinedly stubborn in wanting to do the right thing.  A sort of supernatural knight charging off to fix things, with a whole passel of supernatural beings running after him to help.  That’s charming and each case connects to the next, getting better and better.  You will love what’s coming next in Vol. 2.

These were my rating for the individual stories but really, don’t pass any of them up.  You need them to build, one on top of the other.

  • Book 1 – The Case of The Cupid Curse.  Rating: 3 stars out of 5
  • Book 2 – The Case of the Wicked Wolf. Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Next up, Vol 2, (dragons) and then The Case of the Purple Pearl, that’s a real winner.  I love this series and recommend it.

Art work by Meredith Russell.  Love this cover.  Works beautifully for the characters involved.

Sales Links:  All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 201 pages
Published October 5th 2015 by Love Lane Books Ltd (first published June 28th 2013)
ASINB0168MICJ4
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesEnd Street Detective Agency #1-2

 

 

A MelanieM Review: The Case of the Sinful Santa (End Street Detective Agency #4) by Amber Kell and R.J. Scott

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

The Case of the Sinful Santa Zephariel, the Angel of Vengeance, Nick Klauson, nephew to Santa, Christmas magic, zombies in the school and a necromancer causing chaos…and at the center of it all—Mal.

Zephariel is the Angel of Vengeance and is tracking down his cousin Danjal for misuse of brimstone. When he walks into a bar and finds Nick Klauson drowning his sorrows, he is instantly drawn to him. Could this be his fated mate?

When Nick and Zeph join forces to deal with zombies in Mal’s school, sparks fly. Add in a demon, a wolf and a necromancer, and Sam and Bob have a hunt on their hands.

When I started reading this story, I had three books of the series in my possession and somehow I must have thought (I mark it up to holiday stress) that this was the first.  Uh, no.  Of course, I jump into the series at book four and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Why? Because if the rest of the stories are anything like this one, then Amber Kell and RJ Scott have an engaging cast of characters and an apparently intriguing linked group of mysteries at the heart of the End Street Detective Agency.

The Case of the Sinful Santa comes to the End Street Detective Agency,run by Sam, a man who refuses to accept his clearly paranormal genealogy and the many endearing, scary and wild beings that revolve around him, including his vampire lover, Bob.  One of the things about coming into a series so late is that so many things are already established.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing here. Sam and Bob are an official couple (not so in the beginning of the series) and have a vampire child, Mal (will backtrack to that story).  This tale starts out with the focus on Zephariel (angel) and Nick Klauson, one of the many Klausons,  Santa Claus is his Uncle and he is part of the family business.

Amber Kell and RJ Scott come up with an intriguing job for Nick that sort of makes sense, in a fantasy kind of way. Nick is in town because of a darkness that Santa noticed along his flight plan. Nick is there to take care of it. But there’s more to come. Up pops a ghastly disappearance/murder mystery to solve that brings not only Zeph and Nick together but the rest of the End Street Detectives into the case. I thought there was a nice balance between the fear/mystery and the love/romance going on here.  Plus its not just the romance between Zeph and Nick but the ongoing issues that continue between Sam and Bob.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and characters, Zeph and Nick get their HFN which means we will probably see them again in this series and we get a peek at the next book to come…dragons my favorite.  Only now I need to  go backwards and see where it all started.  Stay with me, I’ll be filling you in.  Until then, if you are a lover of the supernatural or the paranormal, throw in a mystery or romance or two, this has the making of a series to delight you on every front.  I know its doing that for me.

 

Cover art by Posh Gosh. I love the cover.  It works mostly for Zeph.  Nick is missing the frosty white hair and white complexion so that is a fail.

Sales Links:   | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

Book Four in the End Street Detective Agency series

ebook, 1st Edition, 94 pages
Published November 29th 2013 by Totally Bound (first published November 28th 2013)
Original TitleThe Case of the Sinful Santa: End Street Detective Agency Series
ISBN 1781848548 (ISBN13: 9781781848548)
Edition LanguageEnglish

SeriesEnd Street Detective Agency