Review: Wild Fire (Drake Security #3) by Mika Nix

Rating: 4.75🌈

This series just got immeasurably better. Wild Fire, the third in this series about a clutch of dragonshifter brothers finding their fated mates, is my favorite to date.

It’s not that I find the authors, K.M. Neuhold and Mia Monroe, have just written two really fascinating characters, it’s that I don’t remember reading anything that resembles them in another book before. And that’s even more compelling here.

A dragon who’s uncaring about assembling his own hoard , and thrives in the cities and masses away from the smothering isolation of his brothers. And a wolfshifter who has a compulsion to amass a hoard , who needs his space away from his pack, who’s more interested in his own world than his pack’s. A yin looking for their yang.

This switch in characteristics is unexpected and so narratively rewarding.

It makes for a sensational journey or hunt when both Arson Drake and Draydon start on their remarkable continental quest for art treasures and find themselves falling into a surprising relationship with each other. One that carries definite overtones of Romeo and Juliet, as dragons and wolves are enemies up to this stage.

The two person perspective works so well as Arson and Draydon fight the attraction that pulls them together from country to country, their inner beasts empowering their decisions as well. The authors writing as Nix have given the reader two powerfully defined beings that are unique and unable to stay apart. And are trying to explain to themselves why, and if it even matters anymore.

Anything outside of that narratively has to come across as being less interesting because of how rich and powerful these two are.

The elements with the vampires are necessary for being the tool to bring the Montagues and Capulets together, I mean , dragons and wolves , but it comes across as just that. A narrative tool.

Could have been anything, unless it’s going to be included in another story.

Which is set up here by bringing in a new character and younger brother from another “clutch” who’s in trouble.

Interesting but there’s still a couple of unmatched brothers from the original group needing mates. Guess Lord and Tino will have to wait.

Anyway, Wild Fire (Drake Security #3) by Mika Nix is a sure fire winner. Fabulous characters, marvelously plotted romance, and twisted personality traits I really appreciated.

It helps to read the series in order to understand the characters, the events, and the relationships. Lake especially. He’s so over the top divine!

Highly recommended!❤️

Drake Security:

✓ Hot Head #1

✓ Smoulder #2

✓ Wild Fire #3

Buy Link:

Wild Fire (Drake Security Book 3)

Description:

He’s my nemesis, my rival, and the man I can’t get out of my head. We may be star-crossed but there’s enough heat between us to start a wildfire.

I’ve never been one to follow the rules, but sleeping with a wolf shifter might be over the line, even for me. So, why can’t I get him out of my head? Or his scent out of my nose. Even on the other side of the world, I swear I can still smell him.

Everyone has a hobby, mine just happens to be stealing from the rich and powerful to give back to the rightful owners. A native art exhibit in Sydney is the last place I expected to see Draydon again. I can’t shake the feeling that he’s here for the same reason I am… and here I thought larceny couldn’t get any more fun.

I’m a dragon without a proper hoard and he’s too jaded to even trust his own pack. But we’ve already lit a fire that’s getting out of hand.

Stealing Draydon’s heart might be my most impossible heist yet.

Review: Gateway Catastrophe (Ghostly Guardians, #4) by Louisa Masters

Rating: 3.5🌈

Gateway Catastrophe is the almost finale for Louisa Masters Ghostly Guardians series and it had a lot of ground to cover for a book about the end of the world.

At the end of Conduit Crisis, a higher demon, Marc has arrived from the Otherworld, as they are calling the realm trying to break through to Earth through the portals. He’s here to save his realm’s species and world from the mad leader, Cato, that’s coming for Earth.

Marc has a complicated and messy relationship with quite a few of the people at the estate as he’s been back and forth between his world and theirs often trying to figure out how to stop the planned invasion.

Masters has brought in all the couples, including the young brothers of Connor and Gabe, Ian and Matt, who’re studying at Franklin U (Mr Romance). We have the great ghosts, now including Tom’s Italian grandmother added into the mix, a few new disposable hunter characters, the odd townspeople, and the cast is about at overflow levels.

Sometimes that’s great here but occasionally it’s a bit too much for the storylines to handle for clarity sake. The main pov’s here are Gabe the demon hunter, and Tom, the part-time cab driver with the ghostly Italian grandmother who rides with him . Tom (a childhood friend of Skye) has been unaware until recently of the existence of the paranormal world that now threatens theirs. Tom had a terrific backstory that we don’t get enough of, a homophobic Italian family, a childhood deep friendship with Skye that includes Skye’s father’s basically “adopting” him into their family. A closeted adolescence for Tom that almost destroyed him. That’s a lot of emotional baggage to unpack.

That it’s a end of the world quickly dealt with conversation is understandable but, hmmmm, it’s an example of the types of narrative choices Masters had to make here when looking at the huge amounts of information, storylines she’d created (sabotage, mysteries, betrayal, paranormal universes, chemistry problems, wars, good vs bad vs grey, portals etc) , the need to complete college degrees if the world might be ending, and romance!

Sometimes it’s successful and other times it’s too many people, too many voices , and situations that are overpowering the very huge theme . The baddies are coming, the world is ending. What are we doing?

The suspense and anxiety should be over the top here towards the end, the reader on the edge of their proverbial seats. But, for me , at least, it starts to head the other direction.

By the time Cato, the high demon who’s the bigger bad, it’s almost anticlimactic. When the battle is engaged, we see what’s happening from Gabe’s perspective , which deals with the portals. The actual battle and fighting? The stuff that makes the adrenaline rush and the heart rate spike? Nope, that a “as told to” afterwards.

That’s my biggest issue with this story. It’s the popped balloon we were hoping to do ourselves only for someone else to get to it before us. The element of anticipation that is never going to happen.

When we get back to the scene it’s over. And the characters fill other characters (and the readers) in on what happened.

From an author’s standpoint, I can see where writing about this part of the story might have meant that the book went on for several more chapters. But wouldn’t that have been worth the payoff? Emotionally?

Or less portal, more the actual physical fighting?

I don’t know. The climatic scenario and the revelations felt unbalanced. And unsatisfactory. After all that hefty exposition, all that tons of information and huge cast of characters, that’s the way it ends? With a battle off the page? A narrative whimper?

There is a sweet payoff for everyone involved but it’s still not grounded enough in the narrative to be an emotional element. To have that kind of reaction you need to have the reader be involved in the actual situations that require a resolution. We weren’t.

A plus here is the romantic relationship between Gabe and Tom, with the “end of the world “ supplying the necessary energy for them to get themselves together and go for the chance of a life together. And Tom, he was a great surprise and success as a character. I wish we could have seen more of him. Supplying Tom with being a Tendo master and then not utilizing this fully in the climax seems like a waste.

That’s this story. Sometimes too much, and sometimes not enough. Often at the wrong times.

And there’s another book coming because Masters isn’t finished yet with these characters and universe. It’s with Ian and Marc.

So does that make this an almost finale? Or the new book a side story.

Not sure but it’s seems about right for the series and Gateway Catastrophe, a story that doesn’t really seem to have an core ending in itself.

So overall, it’s a jammed packed paranormal end of the world story, with a lovely romance. Tons of interesting elements, some great characters (as always adore the ghosts and the insufferable higher demon Marc), but I felt that some of the immense complexity of that theme (nothing bigger than ending the world) got lost in the shuffle.

Perhaps it was who got chosen as the final narrator (Gabe versus Tom) or which field of action the author chose to concentrate on, either way, it’s my personal opinion it was the less interesting path to go down.

I’m still recommending it for those fans of this series and the author. If you haven’t read the series, then this book will probably not make any sense to you. This series must be read in the order that they were written for the events, relationships, and situations to make sense.

Ghostly Guardians:

✓ Spirited Situation #1 (Josh and Ewan)

✓ Vortex Conundrum #2 (Kieran and Conner)

✓ Conduit Crisis #3 (Skye and Daniel)

✓ Gateway Catastrophe #4 (Gabe and Tom)

Buy Link:

Gateway Catastrophe (Ghostly Guardians Book 4)

Description:

It only took seconds for my world to change…

I live a simple, small-town life. Helping with the family restaurant, my side gig as a ride-share driver, hanging with my best friend, making the most of the extra time with my ghost grandma. The only exciting thing to happen to me in the past year was when Gabe moved to town—too bad Nonna scared him off. It’s hard to impress a guy when your dead grandmother calls him the devil.

The last thing I expect when I pick up a ride-share client and take him to Mannix Estate is that he’s a demon. An actual, breathing, can-kill-me-with-a-thought demon. That night blows my simple life apart and changes everything. Turns out, ghosts aren’t the weirdest things out there, my best friend and Gabe are both part of this alternate world, and there’s a big bad demon who wants to end us all. What’s a small-town boy to do but roll up his sleeves and join the fight to save the world?

Working side by side with Gabe reminds me just how much I liked him when we first met… and the feeling’s mutual. As the clock counts down and we both struggle with personal issues, it’s good to know there’s someone to lean on. But I don’t know if our tenuous connection can survive the hell that’s coming and see us through to the other side.

Review: Beefcakes (a Culinary Creatures novella) by L. Eveland

Rating: 4.75 🌈

A sequel to Brimstone, Beefcakes expands on the original by making the focus the short notice celebrity wedding of the famous chefs of the first novel. But while we get those characters and the event, they are peripheral elements here.

Our new characters and romance are fantastically , in a twist, in the “supporting” roles to that event. Ones the wedding planner and the other the wedding baker.

L Eveland really goes all in here with Beefcake and gives us a romance of surprises, depth, and remarkable storytelling. It’s cupcakes, minotaurs, anxiety, porn, kink, and true love. Really, the elements contained within this storyline should overpower each other but instead Eveland uses them to enhance each character’s depth of personality.

The author also uses them to chart the relationship development of Ezra Higgins, highly anxious human wedding planner, and exuberant Minotaur Matteo Reyes, wedding baker.

I absolutely loved these two characters, so completely different, disregarding their species for the moment, but matching in their emotional needs for each other and in their chemistry.

Eveland has two areas of special significance here. One is the treatment of Ezra’s social anxiety disorder. We get to see its origins in his mother’s death, how it took over his life, and how with the help of his therapist, he has been able to get back to running his business. It’s a sensitive subject and the author does a terrific job in giving the reader a small glimpse of what it might be like living with the disorder.

The other element is Matteo’s kink that involves cooking and voyeurism. I really won’t go further with the explanation except to say I was wondering how the author would resolve this situation between Ezra and Matteo myself. What a fabulous solution! I loved it!

I throughly loved this entertaining tale of paranormal romance and a stressful wedding to end all weddings. The only reason it didn’t hit the 5 rating was that while all the other characters were passionate about their careers, Ezra wasn’t about his. He was only doing what was expected of him. And at the end , he was extending his time with Matteo without saying exactly what he was doing.

That left a great an impression of things being unsettled a bit . I wish Eveland had been a tad more finished here. But maybe that because there’s a third book in the works. Bluz, is coming. Werewolf BBQ anyone?

So I’m happily awaiting the third in this wonderfully wacky culinary series. Definitely recommending this and the one prior. Read them in order to understand the characters, relationships, and universe.

Culinary Creatures:

✓ Brimstone #1

✓ Beefcake #2

◦ Bluz #3 – December 31,2023

Note: don’t miss out on the recipe at the end!

Buy Link:

Beefcakes: A High Heat, Low Stakes MM Monster Romance Novella (Culinary Creatures Book 2)

Description:

Wedding planner Ezra Higgins is having a bad day. He’s lost his phone, he’s got six weeks to plan the biggest wedding of his career, and now the minotaur baker won’t stop flirting with him.

It’s enough to make anyone’s anxiety spike.

But the minotaur owner of Beefcakes bakery, Matteo Reyes, has an oddly calming effect on Ezra, and he can’t stop thinking about him, no matter how hard he tries.

Matteo is sweet as salted caramel and twice as hot, but he’s off limits, especially since they have to work together.

Pulling off a televised celebrity wedding in less than ninety days? Doable. Resisting Matteo’s candy-coated charm in the process? Ezra can’t have his cake and eat it too…or can he?

Review: Lost and Bound (Mismatched Mates Book 7) by Eliot Grayson

Rating: 4.5🌈

Lost and Bound has to be one of my favorites of this series so far. It’s got a horrifying beginning. We get dropped into a nightmare where a character previously thought dead is imprisoned, tortured, and experimented on.

Jared Armitage, a problematic character who’s caused no end of heartbreak and issues for his own family and pack is now close to dying. He’s cognizant that he’s made many wrong choices to get where he’s is but doesn’t want to die.

I like that Grayson’s creation of Jared reflects the fact that Jared’s made enormous mistakes and that he realizes exactly why he made them, the flaws in himself that made his betrayals possible. Jared is such a tortured , damaged soul but his acceptance of his guilt lays the way towards his forgiveness and acceptance.

Calder is a striking figure. From the first dark, fearsome impression of a starving monster to the being that we continue to see grow beyond our understanding, he’s such a formidable force. And my favorite.

Watching these two together, as they work through traumatic events, family disputes, and further emotional devastation, well, it’s gripping, sexy, and deeply satisfying.

More about these two please because I feel their story is far from over.

Arik and Matt, Ian and Nate make strong appearances here. But the book belongs to Jared and Calder.

I’m highly recommending it. The series too. Read them mostly in order . Skip First Blood. For many reasons.

Mismatched Mates:

The Alpha’s Warlock #1

Captive Mate #2

A Very Armitage Christmas #3

First Blood #4

The Alpha Experiment #5

Lost and Bound #6

Lost Touch #7

The Alpha Contract #8

Twice Bitten #9

Buy link:

Lost and Bound (Mismatched Mates)

Description:

Kidnapped, imprisoned, and experimented on for two years, Jared Armitage has lost the will to live. When his captors give him to another prisoner, one who can and probably will take Jared’s life, he comes face to face with the most terrifying thing of all: hope.

Calder’s warlock captors meant to turn him into a monster, and they nearly succeeded. Starved, desperate, and filled with rage, Calder hasn’t cared about anyone in years. Until Jared. Together they have a chance at escape and Calder has someone to fight and kill for. To cherish. Someone he doesn’t want to hurt.

Life after captivity isn’t easy. Jared never wanted a mate like Calder, but he craves Calder’s intense attention, his ability to take Jared apart…and then put him back together again. Even if their mate bond is only temporary.

But Calder’s made a promise—one he’ll die before he breaks—never to hurt Jared or let him be hurt. Unexpected enemies are lurking, targeting Jared, Calder’s one weakness. Their intense bond—and maybe even love—are worth everything, and they’re both willing to fight for it…or die trying.

Lost and Bound contains dubcon and graphic violence. It also includes a monster who torments his mate by being too gentle, the werewolf who can’t stop craving him, and knotting—and a guaranteed HEA. The book has new main characters, but it is best read in series. This series does not contain mpreg.

Review: The Bones in the Yard (Beyond the Veil Book 5) by KM Avery

Rating: 4.75🌈

Beyond The Veil series continues it’s excellent journey into the macabre and magical with The Bones in The Yard. KM Avery’s series is slightly divided into sections of three, each focusing on a specific main character and couple.

The Bones in The Yard is the second of the group of stories about the elf detective, Valentine “Val” Hart. Val, now private investigator with Beyond the Veil , a firm owned by Mason and Ward , a orc witch and human warlock who deal in all things magical, arcane and the dead.

Avery’s book picks up after the events in The Dog In The Alley, the story that introduces Val to Taavi Camal, Xoloitzcuintli shifter who is a rare born Arcanid. Taavi, in a fascinating twist, spent much of that story and their time together in his dog form (through trauma) , which prompts a lot of mixed emotions and deep questioning from Val over how to deal with Taavi on different levels. It’s a great element and one whose impact continues through to this story.

Avery has ,through five books, demonstrated an exemplary ability to craft believable traumatized characters, ones so complex and compelling that we can understand all the layers of denial they are putting between them and the reality of their existence. These are brutal books, dealing with death through evil, horrific acts. Some from past history that Avery brings tragically, furiously to life through the ghosts Ward talks to. Others through the vicious, ruthless events of modern life, from the magical world or against it.

The Bones In The Yard attacks the seemingly unflappable elf on every level. Avery uses this book to narratively open up Val emotionally, flay him for his own introspection about his life, and the shifter he’s not sure how to love. The same shifter who’s trying to get Val to see that Val is showing all the signs of some who has PTSD. Which Val does. Most of the beings here are under constant threat of violence or have been physically / mentally/ magically assaulted. Or been somehow effected by it. It’s a very harsh reality.

The shifter, Taavi Camal, a Xoloitzcuintli dog (among those commonly known as Mexican hairless) , has been recently injured and Arcanids are being ritually murdered, another scary fact for him and Val.

Avery layers on fascinating Maya and Incan mythology to go with terrifying discoveries and murders. All the marvelous found family of the Beyond the Veil is highly visible and involved as well as Val’s best friend from Wisconsin.

Elliot is important because a huge

part of Val’s identity is his Wisconsin family and heritage. He’s still that nondescript , 5’7” brown haired boy that no one wanted to date. The one that likes his baked goods and family before the Arcanavirus changed him into a 6’2”, gorgeous elf with long silver hair that continues to grow. There’s a constant struggle between the being he’s become , how he’s now perceived as this luminous beauty and the real person he’s inside. Again, a great element of this story and series. The new beings created , the ones that survived, by the Arcanavirus and society’s response to them.

Avery is constantly expanding this universe, coming back to the original threads which made it so imaginative. Here Taavi is a rare born Arcanid, instead of someone changed. He’s never been anything else, with implications for that. He doesn’t understand what it’s like to be human.

I’ve been distressed, constantly amazed, frustrated, appreciative, totally invested and always looking forward to the next chapter in the lives of the beings here.

I’m highly recommending this book but this is a series that must be read in order for the reader to understand the characters, the events that happened to them.

Beyond The Veil :

The Ghost In The Hall #1

The Boy In The Locked Room #2*

The Skeleton Under The Stairs #3

The Dog In The Alley #4

The Bones In The Yard #5

• Pls read reviews and trigger warnings about book 2 and Chapter 19, a chapter which deals in a sexual assault.

Buy Link:

The Bones in the Yard (Beyond the Veil Book 5)

Description:

I… have issues.

I know. Who’d have thought that a jaded ex-cop elf would have problems with emotional commitment and self-esteem?

Yeah, me, too.

I’m trying to work on that. I’ve also got a new job, new boss, and a pile of bones I’m trying to identify while not stepping on too many official police-business toes. To top things off, it looks like the Antiquus Ordo Arcanum aren’t the only murdering cult making my life a living hell.

I’m in the middle of a battleground between not one, but two cults and a group of people who think that witches, warlocks, and people like Ward and me shouldn’t exist. And as if that weren’t enough, I’m struggling to find time to work on self-improvement and maybe manage to go on a date or two in the mean time with a certain shifter who is just way too adorable for words.

I’m pretty sure he’s going to dump my ass. But I really, really, really hope he doesn’t. At least not before I can solve these murders and get my life a little more together than it currently isn’t.

Beyond the Veil Book 5

Part two of Hart’s story

Beyond the Veil 1-3: Ward & Mason’s story

Review : Keep It Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 2) by Shelby Rhodes

Rating: 4.75🌈

“I, Detective Octavius Evander, continues! To start off on a positive note, prepare to be amazed my precious human, Turney,”

The adventures and romantic journey of the ancient vampire Octavius Evander and his human companion, the wonderfully named Turney Pimms, continues in Keep It Together.

This series starts with Octavius deciding to open a paranormal detective agency, with nothing but money, whimsy and time behind it. As the first book progresses past a strangely endearing flyer, The Undead Detective Agency begins to accumulate its unique employees and accept cases. Among its employees are Turney Pimms, Cormac the werewolf ,Scarlett the zombie , and Min-ji the powerful witch. Each finds their way to working for Octavius in an most unlikely scenario.

But it’s Octavius himself who’s the paranormal puzzle at the heart here. He’s ancient, incredibly intelligent, lost more knowledge than anyone around while accumulating more powers, and yet he’s still not the figure you’d expect.

And this is where Shelby Rhodes does the hardest work narratively and the best that’s threaded through out the series to date. It’s in creating a character so lovable and endearing that we pay little attention to the darker aspects of his story the author’s hinting at.

Honestly I’d pay just for the fabulous sketches of the character of Octavius at the beginning of each chapter. He’s just that winning a personality, especially in his costumed fruit bat form.

So as Octavius runs around chasing his favorite types of glitter, or between cases, has sexy romps with his Turney, the author starts to smack the reader with a clue. Then it’s back to silliness. Then a harder smack to make us pay attention, then notice something about Octavius, then everything isn’t quite so simple or silly anymore.

That perhaps it’s deep trauma and a shattering experience that’s brought about a need to shy away from looking at things too hard and instead concentrate on glitter and scrapbooking. Suddenly the character of Octavius takes on another troubling aspect and damaged perspective of someone who’s been abused.

The ending is both something the author is preparing the reader for and is still unexpected. It’s a cliffhanger.

I have such a deeper appreciation for the layers the author is writing into the story and characters here that I wasn’t aware of in the first book. I’ll be rereading it again soon to see what I missed.

I’m highly impressed by the story and plots . I’m recommending it. There’s a character death. That’s not a spoiler as it’s mentioned in the description.

Part of me thinks that there should be a trigger warning for trauma but I can’t think of how I’d word it at the moment. It’s that sort of story.

The Undead Detective Agency:

✓ Get It Together #1

✓ Keep It Together #2

◦ In Death Together #3 TBD 2023

◦ Forever Together #4 TBD 2024

Buy Link:

Keep It Together (The Undead Detective Agency Book 2)

Description:

Back again, I see. Well, you are in luck, for the story of, I, Detective Octavius Evander, continues! To start off on a positive note, prepare to be amazed as my precious human, Turney, falls into my hands!

Okay, technically, I already had my hands on him—all of him—but that didn’t make him mine, mine. But now it is time to show how I captured his heart with my lovable personality! No doubt my adorable and sparkly new hobby had something to do with it as well!

But enough about the gooey emotions. On to the cases! There will be a new adventure or two with my team to entertain. Though the adventures this time, well, not all end as pleasantly as one might hope. While I would say to prepare for the return of old faces, none of you have seen them before. Just know that their reappearance in my life leads to an unfortunate event. But in the paranormal world, fun and death go hand and hand, does it not?

CONTENT WARNING: This is a M/M paranormal romance book that ends on a cliffhanger. There will be violence and a main character death—a temporary death.

Review: Little Pest (Once Upon A Bite Book 1) by Charity Parkerson

Rating: 4.5 🌈

If you’re in the mood for a cute kinky adult bedtime story, I’ve got a new trilogy for you! Author Charity Parkerson is offering up a trio of short adult paranormal tales, a mixture of fang, kink, and love done weird vampire style.

Little Pest’s unique bag of elements include BDSM Daddy play, amorous tiny bats fielded by a fly swatter, a lonely ancient vampire who loves Vegas, and a sad young man who picked the wrong night to be brave and find a Daddy.

As odd a group as this sounds, as a short story, it comes marvelously together. Even if Daddy play or BDSM isn’t a trope you read, the way it’s written is done well and easy for a reader to understand why it fills such an emotional need for Tate.

The ancient vampire? Draco, lonely in Las Vegas and unaware of how his long undead life is about to change. A terrifyingly good vampire and terrific character. I always suspected magicians were vampires anyway.

Tate is, uh was a vulnerable young man with a short unhappy life behind him. Parkerson creates in Tate a character of such bravery, self knowledge, and honesty that it’s impossible not to root for him and love him. Onesie and all.

And turns out he’s actually perfect for Draco, if only he can get past the ancient fears.

Little Pest is a quick fun Paranormal romance. It’s quirky, gives the reader a new slant on types of vampires (pesky young things), and mild kinky romance.

I’m looking forward to the remaining two tales. They look to be equally weird , different, and daffy while fangy and romantic. Gotta love that!

Once Upon A Bite:

✓ Little Pest #1

◦ Cosmic Cardio #2 – April 25,2023

◦ Must be Clowning Me #3 – May 8, 2023

Note: love these covers!

Buy Link:

Little Pest (Once Upon a Bite Book 1)

Description:

Draco is the oldest vamp around. Tate is the newest and possibly the most annoying. They’re the perfect pair.

As one of the oldest living vampires, Draco has seen a lot of history. He’s also extremely powerful. With that power comes an allure that draws younger supernaturals to him like flies, hoping for a taste of his… expertise. Draco wants none of that. He lives a quiet life as a magician at a casino in Vegas. It’s a fun gig for a retired vamp with no real responsibilities left to his name. Then Tate flies into his life. Now nothing is the same.

Tate is a little hapless. He’s a little everything, actually. In fact, that pretty much sums up his personality. He’s a Little. At least, he was before some dude bit him in a nightclub and now Tate is stronger than ten men, can control minds, and turn into a bat. He has no clue how he’s doing any of that. No one taught him how to be a vampire. In fact, he doesn’t know how to survive. Without Draco’s help, he won’t. If it means Tate has to make a pest of himself to get Draco to notice him and teach him the how-tos of his new life, then so be it. Falling in love, that was just another one of Tate’s little mistakes, but it might be his best one yet.

Little Pest is the first book in Charity Parkerson’s Once Upon a Bite series. These books are meant to be short, fun paranormal romps to brighten your day.

Review : Faeted Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 1) by Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn

Rating: 4.25🌈

Faeted Under Fire was a wonderful find. The vibrant cover caught my attention and the imaginative storytelling is just so well done. Both authors are new to me, so I was excited to see what they brought to paranormal fiction.

The universe building is sparse as far as how human beings and the paranormal realm came to exist together. The authors deal with this question in smattering of sentences that raise more questions than answers. Where they spend their narrative energy and enthusiasm is in the creation of the paranormal “section’ of the city much like we have a Chinatown or Little Italy. Only more as in the past when the cities were more racially segregated.

It’s a lively, culturally diverse community, with food trucks and bars owned, and run by the various paranormal species. It feels alive. Sometimes grungy and a perfect fit for the pod or group of paranormal investigators to run through or hang at .

O’Connor and Lyn spent considerable time as well as in creating engaging personalities for their main characters. One is Tristan James, a human cop, who’s prejudiced towards paranormals, and then has to undergo a psychological and physical traumatic change when he’s attacked. Tristan is an amazing perspective for the reader into paranormal life as he’s a fresh viewpoint. I adore him. He’s a good cop and someone trying to be a good person, whoever they may be.

His partner, half orc/half Fae, with prejudices of his own, is Maddox Smith. This character has layers, which continue to get peeled back throughout the story and into the next. He’s one whose character consistently deepens and matures to accommodate changes in the relationships around him.

This is the first story so everyone is still learning about each other and getting settled into their new roles.

O’Connor and Lyn kept me involved in the paranormal and human investigations and emotional stories playing out throughout the novel. If I had a bit of a quibble it was that I recognized the villain early on. Not the motivation for all the events, but who it must be at least behind one attack.

However, I do admit that mysteries and crime investigations have been my jam since early childhood. So take that for whatever it may be worth.

In total, Faeted Under Fire (Paranormal Investigative Service Book 1) by Cassidy K. O’Connor and Sheri Lyn is a exciting, immersive journey into a new partnership and journey towards a romantic relationship for two memorable people . I’m absolutely thrilled with my find and recommending it to others.

Paranormal Investigative Service series:

✓ Faeted Under Fire #1

✓ Stitched Under Fire #2

◦ Taken Under Fire #3 – June 8, 2023

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Book 1 of 3: Paranormal Investigative Service

Description:

A human cop, a paranormal agent, and nine missing kids. Prejudice aside, they have to work together if they want to stop number ten.

Tristan James didn’t know he had a latent paranormal gene in his body until he was attacked on the job as an officer with Tampa PD and killed. As a phoenix shifter, he rose from the ashes and came back stronger than ever. Unfortunately, he was no longer human, this meant no job, no home, no friends. New purpose finds him with the help of a paranormal federal agency offering him a job. He has to put his own learned hatreds aside and accept the paranormals he was now one of.

Maddox Smith loved his job with the Paranormal Investigative Services. He knew what it was like to have no one looking out for you and that’s what made him a good agent. Someone is taking paranormal kids and he has no leads. When a recently turned human is booted from the police and brought to P.I.S. and partnered with him, Maddox wants nothing to do with him. What had the humans ever done for their kind?

Can they forget their biases and solve the case before there’s a tenth?

Review: Stone Skin (The Gargoyles of Arrington, #2) by Jenn Burke

Rating: 4.5 🌈

Its been a year since the first book in The Gargoyles of Arrington series by Jenn Burke so I needed to get reacquainted with the arc storylines and particulars before diving into Stone Skin, the novel that’s centered around brother Rian O’Reilly. He’s one of the three remaining O’Reilly brothers who were cursed with turning into Gargoyles and eventual stone death until a witch aunt altered the curse just enough that finding true love would break it.

There’s just two now with the curse hanging over them. The others have either died or met with their true loves.

I admit I connected with this story more fully than I did with Drew and his human mate/lover from Stone Wings. That book had to set the foundation (a lot of information), and lay out the mysteries of the curse and O’Reilly family. It then had even more important details to be worked into the narrative such as a invasion of mountain lion shifters, then a wolf shifter pack element. All that put the fake boyfriend romance under a smaller spotlight, bookwise.

But from the beginning, I was highly invested in the lives of Professor Logan Davis, a person haunted by loss, and Rian, the tattoo artist brother, who’s determined to find a way out of the curse for himself and his remaining brother before it’s too late. And hoping that the unknown professor of legend and mythology will help him to find a clue in the past to unravel their ancient mystery.

Burke shows us so clearly how Rian is desperate to find the cure. We watch as the effects of the old magic falter and he’s sure he doesn’t have much time left. It’s hits us as hard as it does him and his family.

Then we shift to the Professor and a portrait of grief that’s raw and real.As the Professor isn’t even emotionally or mentally available in this world, traumatized by recent events. The author has made us care for him, for Rian, and now the reader is committed to solving the mystery and to the couple to finding their own happiness.

There’s multiple plots also brought forward from Stone Wings that get futher development. I enjoy a found family trope and this one is coming together beautifully.

While all the side storylines are still continuing, they take a secondary role and leave the relationship between Rian and Logan as the main focus. It works perfectly to let the reader understand the overall arc theme is coming together towards a resolution and yet still gives us enough information about the third brother to make us want to continue following the story into the next book.

The drama isn’t over yet.

I’m eagerly awaiting Stone Heart , the last in this series. Love a paranormal hurt/comfort love story? Then I’m recommending Stone Skin and the beginning novel, Stone Wings. Read them in order before the final book in the trilogy comes out.

The Gargoyles of Arrington series:

✓ Stone Wings #1

✓ Stone Skin #2

◦ Stone Heart #3 – June 27, 2023

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Stone Skin: An M/M Paranormal Hurt/Comfort Monster Romance (The Gargoyles of Arrington Book 2)

Description:

Can he break his curse before time runs out?

Despite being cursed to sleep as a gargoyle for a hundred years, and awake for only twenty-five, Rian O’Reilly is an optimist. He knows he can find a way to break the curse through the tattooed runes he’s spent years mastering. No need to wait for this true love crap. But he hasn’t found the right combination of magic and his time is almost up. Rian isn’t ready to lose everyone and everything. Again.

Professor Logan Davis knows about loss. In the past year, he’s lost his mother, his twin, his werewolf pack, and he’s on the verge of losing his mind. So when he’s invited to Arrington to learn about a legend he’s never heard of, he jumps at the chance for a working vacation. He doesn’t expect to find a handsome gargoyle who needs his help to break a centuries-old curse—and he certainly doesn’t expect his grief to finally overwhelm him.

As Rian comforts Logan, he starts to wonder if there might be something to this true love crap after all. He’d give anything to help this gentle giant of a man, but Logan needs time to heal…and time is the one thing Rian doesn’t have.

STONE SKIN is a male/male hurt/comfort paranormal romance featuring a magical tattoo artist gargoyle who doesn’t want to go, a werewolf professor who needs time to rediscover himself beneath his grief, and a budding love that might be the answer to everything…if only it has time to bloom.

Review: Conduit Crisis (Ghostly Guardians #3) by Louisa Masters

Rating: 4.25🌈

I admit I wavered here with the rating. Conduit Crisis ends on a cliffhanger. A really good one, but still a cliffhanger which isn’t my favorite way to end a book. Unless I know the series is complete and I can binge read each novel through to the finale.

That’s not the case here.

Conduit Crisis is building the series storylines to a sense of overwhelming dread with the portents of imminent doom. Masters interlaces the gathering of paranormal facts about whatever incoming dangers the characters (human, spirits or whatever) are facing with a romance between Spiritual Conduit Skye and the manor’s living history farmer, Daniel.

Long time friends, Skye has been nursing a crush on his straight friend, something Daniel is clueless about.

Skye and Daniel’s relationship turns into a romance that includes a bisexual awakening along with a touch of fake boyfriend element before they settle into a HFN partnership. It would seem rushed except for the fact that these men have been in a steady solid relationship with each other since the beginning of the series.

So it’s a matter of a change in perspective which is believably written by Masters and grounded by their actions and words leading up to this story.

The newest paranormal biggie introduced is fascinating. I can’t wait for the rest of his/it’s story to fall in the upcoming Gateway Catastrophe.

Until then, I’m recommending Conduit Crisis. But make sure to read all the stories leading up to it. This series must be read in the order they are written in order to understand the events and character development.

Ghostly Guardians:

✓ Spirited Situation #1

✓ Vortex Conundrum #2

✓ Conduit Crisis #3

◦ Gateway Catastrophe #4 – June 21, 2023

Related to the series:

◦ Eternal Luck, the prequel

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Conduit Crisis (Ghostly Guardians Book 3)

Description:

Being in love with my straight friend isn’t easy…

I thought pining for Daniel was an epic tragedy, but then I found out I’m a conduit—someone who can communicate with beings from the otherworld—and my unrequited love for one of my best friends seems less of a problem.

So when a spirit is destroyed while trying to warn me of an approaching disaster, it makes sense for Daniel to step up and help me search for more information. Or it does until my mom turns up twenty years after abandoning me and Daniel turns into Mr. Protective. One thing leads to another, and somehow the whole town now thinks we’re dating.

As if all that isn’t enough to deal with, Daniel’s having a bisexual awakening, and he’s looking to me, his gay friend, to guide him through it. I’d do anything for him, but the thought of being with him and then watching him move on to another guy… I don’t know if my heart can take it.

But I have to toughen up and get on with it, because whatever’s happening in the otherworld is spilling over to here, and it’s going to take everyone we’ve got to keep humanity safe… if we can.

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