Tag: horror thriller

Review: Tears in Time (Arcadia Trust Book 4) by Christian Baines

Rating: 5🌈

It’s a series that starts with The Beast Without, meeting vampire Reyland and werewolf lover, Jorgas. It’s an excellent book, scary and powerful. And with each story, new paranormal characters and convoluted elements are added and explored, like The Arcadia Trust and then the horrifying Wound. Tears in Time is the fourth book in this increasingly complex and scarily powerful series.

Christian Baines has an incredible talent of writing supernatural or other worldly beings and making them absolutely credible. These are beautiful or stunningly horrifically broken creatures that bear no resemblance to human beings. Not in their reactions to events and emotions but in that they lack our standards of morality or ethics. They may understand the rules, the philosophical framework and how to manipulate them to their advantage. But actually have human empathy? Not really.

And for the reader to go in with expectations of the characters who are paranormal beings acting as humans, that’s a pitfall that should be discarded at the beginning. Because, Baines’ brilliantly written and compelling characters are not going to act like humans because they aren’t.

It might be hard to forget this but events will drive this element home. Betrayal after betrayal. Manifesting that each being and group of paranormals is operating on a different level and paths that humans find unfathomable . Such brilliant writing and amazing storytelling.

Chilling and brain breaking plot lines that connect and weave into something so shocking at the end that I’m just stunned that cable producers haven’t come running yet to put this into a show.

Tears in Time is a book whose characters and plots are so intricate and deeply detailed that a reader will have to have read the stories the preceded it. That foundation knowledge and sequencing of events is essential for a total understanding about the characters relationships and twists in the narratives that the reader will experience here.

I absolutely recommend reading this series and book if you’re a fan of paranormal fiction, horror stories, and twisted romance. But be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.

Arcadia Trust:

The Beast Without #1

The Orchard of Flesh #2

Sins of the Son #3

Tears in Time #4

Buy link Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited

Blurb

Moments have passed for Reylan since he crossed the barrier between worlds to rescue his werewolf lover, Jorgas. But on their return, nothing feels right. Faithful allies have vanished, and places that once offered solace are now derelict, filled with shadows and inhabited by evil.

How can Reylan find his friends, and who can be trusted once they’re found?

The world Reylan and Jorgas returned to has destroyed the one they left behind. In this new reality, someone is playing a deadly game with time, and their fates are its prize.

• Publication date: May 15, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 284 pages

Review: Nelson & MacIlwraith (Moon Murder Mysteries #1) by K Sterling

Rating: 5🌈

K Sterling has become a go to author for me and this book is an excellent example why. Nelson & MacIlwraith, the first in the Moon Murder Mysteries, is steeped in mythologies and cultural traditions. These myths and lores that enrich and at times horrify the characters and readers have been pulled from literary sources and the author’s incredible imagination.

To say the Celtic mythological tapestry Sterling has woven here works to enhance the themes, mysteries, and unique relationships is an understatement. It goes beyond that.

It starts with the unusual characters. FBI Agent Grady Nelson has been assigned the case of a missing girl, but told to “bury” the investigation by his superiors. Nelson, the son and grandson of famous agents, is a man out of favor with the FBI, a person they are looking to bury.

We’ve seen this type of character before but not Grady Nelson. Sterling has created in Nelson someone of unusual depths and qualities, submissive, unyielding in a hunt for the truth. Nelson is a dichotomy of traits and desires. And his growth here is unexpected and astonishing.

Nelson is paired with his complete opposite. That’s the renowned and well connected Professor Lennox “Nox” MacIlwraith. Looking like a combination of goth musician, he’s an archaeologist professor who’s consults in cases that have an occult or otherworldly nature. Which is what he has been working on. One exactly like the one Nelson isn’t supposed to investigate.

From a truly macabre starting point, Sterling launches a spectacular new series and couple. One missing girl becomes more, and the fact that each one is linked to local pagan communities and witchcraft just adds to the mystery.

Sterling builds on the men’s hugely different lives and unusual interior mentalities to craft a relationship unlike any other. This overlays an increasingly horrifying investigation with a narrow timeline.

This story is amazing, terrifying, haunting, and extremely suspenseful. It’s no surprise that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

I can’t wait to see how the next episode in the men’s relationship and journey will go.

If you love a fantasy story with highly developed and compelling characters and a world that’s equally layered, this is for you.

Moon Murder Mysteries:

◦ Nelson & MacIlwraith #1

Buy Link :

Blurb:

No one wants a witch for a partner.

Time is running out, and the deck is stacked against Professor Lennox “Nox” MacIlwraith. Six girls have been abducted, but the FBI doesn’t realize they’re connected. There’s also the matter of the dead girl in New Castle. She was found tied to a tree and Nox suspects one serial kidnapper and killer is responsible. An unorthodox expert on the occult, Nox is rumored to be a psychic and a witch. And a crackpot. The wily young professor has to prove he’s not batty—or possibly a vampire—and that the cases are linked before the next full moon. If not, he fears the remaining girls will be sacrificed to a mythical god-king.

Everyone in the FBI hates Agent Grady Nelson. He’s failed to live up to his legendary father’s reputation within the bureau and is almost universally despised for being an uptight do-gooder. Nelson’s ready to kiss what’s left of his career goodbye when he’s ordered to work with the “sketchy professor” on what should be a nuisance case. The investigation turns into a professional minefield when Nox claims it’s connected to an ancient Celtic cult. Rules are broken and lines are crossed as Nelson falls under Nox’s spell and begins to suspect his partner might be a real witch.

Nox is a little bit witchcraft. Nelson is a little bit Federal Bureau. Together, they’re a wickedly good team, but can they find the missing girls before it’s too late? Nox is prepared to sacrifice his own career and his life to save them. He’d also like to save Nelson, but is Nox ready to sacrifice his heart too?