“Romily asked me to do this, and I would do anything for that cute, fiery ball of optimism and silver linings except share him. He’s mine and I will fight you for him. No exceptions.”
— Fox Recruits a Mute Boy (And Falls in Love): A Short Story MSMD 1.5 (Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees) by Jennifer Cody
This cute short story is wonderful to read right after The Trouble with Trying to Date a Murderer #1. Whereas that story is narrated by Romily, this is narrated by Arlington Fox, with interruptions by Romily. It’s a quick look at their beginning, and soulmate connection, from Fox’ perspective.
If you were wondering why Fox was so quick to go along with Romily on all those occasions? Here’s your answer!
Love it! Recommending it. Need the other book to know what’s going on.
It’s also available free if you subscribe to the author’s mailing list.
Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees series to date:
✓ The Trouble with Trying to Date a Murderer #1
✓ Fox Recruits a Mute Boy (And Falls in Love): A Short Story MSMD #1.5
✓ The Trouble With Trying to Save an Assassin (Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees Book 2)
Romily: Are you wondering what meeting me was like for the love of my life, Arlington Fox? Well, as Fox tells it, it was magical. Obviously.
Fox: Romily asked me to do this, and I would do anything for that cute, fiery ball of optimism and silver linings except share him. He’s mine and I will fight you for him. No exceptions.
Fox Recruits a Mute Boy is a 5k word short story as told from Fox’s point of view about how he met his soul’s mate. Content Warning: blood, gore, flying limbs, and ridiculous requests from polyamorous fathers.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
E. Broom is a new author and I picked up this novel based on the reviews. It’s basically a light, humorous supernatural fantasy romp.
Nothing to take too seriously, but it has fun with its characters, using the typical trope of witch/werewolf instant mate elements, along with a hint of fairytale overlay!
Low on the angst, quick on the action and relationship, and it’s warm-hearted to boot.
There’s a bookstore that’s the center of a small village with all sorts of magical goings on. Naturally.
Ernest Turnball gets fired from one job then decides a change of career is needed. He answers a ad for help needed in a bookstore and finds himself in Cadenbury. A quaint village full of welcoming if a bit odd people and a terrific job at The Crazy Bookshop.
In the matter of one day, his perception of the world goes sideways and upside down. What a marvelous thing to happen.
Ernest is rather unflappable. He’s kind, and rather funny.
And it turns out he’s got a rather unique set of connections to Cadenbury. Not the least of which is the sparks going off between him and the hunky Mayor!
There’s a mystery, lots of magical fun, family, and a growing cast of characters to enjoy.
I found the story very entertaining and a quick read.
There’s a second novel out so I’ll head over to see what the author has in store for Titus.
If you like all the above elements mixed together for light fun fare, this might be the book for you.
Who knew when I threw a latte in my boss’s face, my life would change forever?
After being fired from his job for Gross Misconduct, Ernest Turnball decided to try something different and applied for a job at The Crazy Bookshop.
Starting his new life as a bookshop assistant, Ernest meets some interesting characters, like Mollyanne, who looks like the wicked stepmother from Snow White, when she turns into the crone, but without the big nose. What she does have is a crow, owl, fox, and German shepherd. One of whom is always with her. Or his new boss Alfred, who reminds him of an excitable puppy.
A prediction from one of the town witches puts the town on it’s guard, but strange things are still occurring. It seems someone is spell casting and causing havoc to the town and its people.
Having found out he is a witch, Ernest is determined to find out who is behind spells, and if the town mayor and Alpha wolf shifter, Adhan Stone, wants to help him, who is he to say no?
With the town looking on, scorecards at the ready, can Ernest and Adhan save the town, and reach a perfect ten score?
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
Werewolves and mages just seem to be a great match! So I always gravitate to any story and series with these elements to check out what the author’s take will be.
The Alpha’s Warlock (Mismatched Mates #1) by Eliot Grayson was a story I thought was very entertaining, and had characters I enjoyed reading about.
It certainly opens with Warlock Nate Hawthorne in the worst possible situation. Running for his life.
“It had been years since I set foot in the Armitage pack’s territory, and I’d hoped to keep that winning streak going for a while longer. Of course, being kidnapped and cursed had a way of changing your plans.”
— The Alpha’s Warlock (Mismatched Mates Book 1) by Eliot Grayson
Immediately, we are seeing the story, and immediate scenario, from the perspective of a very human and hurting Nate. He’ll give us a lot of the history on the backgrounds of the beings we meet and their relationship dynamics.
For the most part.
The others are the Alpha werewolves of the Armitage pack. Head Alpha Matthew, who you initially think is the one referred to. And Ian Armitage, Matthew’s brother, also a Alpha.
That I found really interesting, as other authors have packs as a one Alpha structure. Having 2-alpha pack, with brothers as a supportive structure is a great idea.
There’s a huge discordant past relationship between Ian and Nate, one that never fully gets explored in terms of the misunderstandings and history. I wish we got a more layered picture of that weird start but I have the feeling the author may intend to use it in future books.
It means their relationship is always a little unbalanced in terms of equality. That’s probably realistic in that Ian’s a were, Nate’s a human, while still a warlock. It’s a status that seems to be a element that’s a factor going forward that at least one is aware of, in terms of what they want in their future plans.
Nate’s a character dealing with serious emotional and physical issues due to a traumatic past. Having to “mate”, his choice taken away is a topic that’s brought up and continues to be addressed. I appreciate that this wasn’t romanticized.
The themes of forced mating, the right of personal choice, trust. All not only big storylines here but ones used throughout the series.
Grayson’s story gives us romance, suspense, elements of horror, touches of humor , and a great plot that leaves plenty of room to explore new territory and characters ahead.
That’s certainly true for the way it’s left for a main character here to lead into the next novel.
I’m on my way there.
If you’re a lover of shifters, magic, and paranormal romance, here’s a series and book to add to your list. I’m recommending this!
Mismatched Mates:
🔹The Alpha’s Warlock #1
🔹Captive Mate #2
🔹A Very Armitage Christmas #2.5
🔹First Blood #2.6
🔹The Alpha Experiment #3
🔹Lost and Bound #4
🔹Lost Touch #5
🔹The Alpha Contract #6, only loosely connected to the above series
Cursed, mated, and in for the fight of their lives…
Warlock Nate Hawthorne just wants a cup of coffee. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Because instead of precious caffeine, all he gets is cursed by a pack of werewolves who want to use him for his magic. Now the only way to fix the damage is a mate bond to a grumpy and oh-so-sexy alpha in the rival pack, who happens to hate him. This is so not how he wanted to start his day.
Ian Armitage never intended to take Nate as his mate. The Hawthorne family can’t be trusted. Ian knows that better than anyone. The fact that he’s lusted after the way-too-gorgeous man for years? Totally irrelevant. Ian’s just doing what is necessary to protect his pack. This whole mating arrangement has nothing to do with love and never will. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.
Nate and Ian will have to work together if they have any hope of staving off the pack’s enemies and averting disaster. That’s assuming they can stop arguing (and keep their hands off each other) long enough to save the day…
The Alpha’s Warlock is an explicit M/M paranormal romance featuring a snarky warlock, a brooding alpha werewolf, knotting, enchanted socks (long story), and a guaranteed happily ever after. This series does not contain mpreg.
I sometimes wonder if you can really love a story when you spend so much time cringing in anxiety over the anticipated horrors you know will be visited upon the characters you’re coming to connect with and the found family that’s being constructed. Somehow I’ve found a way. It’s just that great.
The Shackles That Hold Us is only the second book in Michele Notaro’s fantastic dark fantasy series, The Magi Accounts, but already it’s served as both a outstanding foundation for the characters but also as a warning for this horrific, grim universe where several species of beings are seen as nothing less than disposable tools, or worse.
Tagged, tortured, served up as war fodder , born in breeding camps. This is the nature and foundation of the Magi. And the Shifters have it only marginally better. Be warned. The torture scenes happen on page. And to characters we have come to care about.
And because dyad pair magi Madeo and Jude Driscoll are magically powerful, they are targets so any “misbehavior “ will see them collared and taken to a compound for punishment.
This is a utterly brutal world and Notaro makes us feel every inhuman rule, every legal enforcement that uses to pain to degrade and in some instances kill those that would fight back against humanity and those that are oppressing them.
Each story dives a little further into the heartbreaking , cruel conditions under which the humans have managed to contain and imprison all magi for decades. Compounds become breeding camps, children removed to become tools for war. All seen slowly through the tortured memories of Mads and Jude when they’re able to emotionally to look back at what they’ve endured.
This includes, and will probably continue to bring up instances of child sexual abuse.
As I said this series is a dark fantasy fiction and each book will fill the reader with dread as the stakes build higher for all the characters as the events point towards even more deaths and battles to come.
The characters here. The magi, and all the members of the pride are so perfectly layered. Each has a well developed personality and each shows growth as the Pride and the three magi, Mads, Jude, and Logan (all part of the Pride) face greater challenges to the multitude relationships forming and the ones hitting them as a team.
Notaro’s storylines continue to build a series arc that carries a potential for horrific events and further deaths to come.
I’m both highly anticipating the next book and highly afraid for all the characters.
If you love fantasy, read this. But only if you read the trigger warnings first. You decide what you’re comfortable with.
Here’s the series. They must be read in the order they were written to understand the events and relationships.
As if crushin’ on a shifter wasn’t bad enough, I had to go and date one.
A mage and a shifter walk into a bar… No, that’s the whole joke.
Magi and shifters don’t mix, and yet I find myself in a relationship with Cosmo, a lion shifter. And on top of that, Cosmo, and all his pride members, consider my brothers and me to be a part of their pride. Three magi in a shifter pride. Who would’ve ever thought?
Navigating our connection while trying to figure out what’s going on in the world isn’t easy. Trusting that Cosmo means forever when he says it? Even harder. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned since meeting the Ono-Nais, it’s that taking a risk with my heart will be worth it to be a part of their lives.
The Shackles That Hold Us is a 113K novel and the second book in the MM urban fantasy series, The Magi Accounts. It’s recommended to read the series in order because it has an ongoing storyline.
*Intended for adults only. Please read the trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel.
“I considered the Arcana, wondering if it had some healing properties. Decided to not try or suggest such a thing. I didn’t know what was inside me, what it could do. Just because it whispered things at me, we weren’t joined at the hip.”
— Night Tricks (Midnight Magic Book 1) by Richard Amos
If reading that made your brain hurt, you’re not alone. That’s Clayton or Clay as he prefers to be called, warlock and the POV of the novel and series.
This novel has some promising elements to its plot, and overall series arc. It has some interesting secondary characters like the button-eyed demon. But to get to those and others, the reader must have an either a love for certain clichés story elements, a character that’s so unbelievably dimwitted, that he repeatedly does the wrong thing , leaps into sex, hides who he is but doesn’t really know who he is, does amazing things NO One can do but has basically a meh , that’s sorta neat, attitude.
Anyway see below:
Cliché:
🔹Rift in universe caused by magical war. Literally called The Rift. Soo many books with exact element down to that name. Please find another name, someone.
🔹Billionaire Vampire with black rose tattoos, because dark beauty with thorns. Yep. Complete with alabaster glowy body.
MC is hard to read as the book is from his POV and he often comes across as someone with the emotional maturity of a tweenage valley girl. There’s a lot of EEKs everywhere! In that exact manner.
As in “I mean…EEK!”
At the end of the first quarter of the book, I was seriously thinking of not finishing.
Tae Frost and Clayton Christmas’s relationship is along the lines of I want you, let’s have sex. Oh, no, it’s you, not me. Let’s have sex. More woe is me. More, sex. Oh , no. Look what we did. More woe. Rinse , repeat. Add lies, weepy history, lies.
You get ready at one point to say to any villain “have at them”.
By the end, the author has telegraphed who or where the villain of the plot is. And they are on the run with the hero still lying his brains out.
If I continue on, it will be only to flip through the pages to the end to see if I’m right.
No more EEK for me.
For fans of this author, I’m sure you’ll already have found this book and series.
For other lovers of magic and Urban Fantasy Romance fiction, I’ll leave it up to you.
They say warlocks are lesser beings. I’m about to prove them wrong.
The streets have been my home for as long as I can remember. To get by, I use my magic tricks, bringing smiles to the faces of adults and children alike.
As a warlock, my powers are limited. Nothing like a witch’s magical skills. Basically, I’m a glorified magician as well as a second-class citizen. Fine. It doesn’t get me down. I have my cat Fizz and Kylie Minogue’s music to keep me going as I dream big.
I know there’s a better life out there for me.
When I accidentally summon the lost magic of arcana, something not even a powerful witch can do, my world is turned upside down.
Enter Tae Frost. Mysterious billionaire vampire. Deliciously handsome and brooding. Able to set my pulse racing with just one look. A man who offers to change my life for the better. I just have to move into his penthouse and help him hunt demons first.
Hmmm. I have a big decision to make. Do I take this Cinderella-like opportunity? Especially with the dangerous secret I’m hiding from the world. And if the witches discover I’ve summoned arcana… Well, it won’t be fun to be me if they do.
There’s a demon making a big impression—a creepy, button-eyed man spilling blood across London. Seemingly uncatchable, as well as unhinged. The city is trembling in the wake of his shadow.
With my new powers, I’m the only one to stop him.
Damn.
Night Tricks is the first book in an Urban Fantasy Romance series packed with magic, demons, action, and steamy moments. Step into the world of a warlock who always tries to see the sunny side of life, and the sexy vampire who makes his knees go weak.
A combination of adorable cover, new author, and fun title lead me to How To Summon a Boyfriend by Aja Foxx . It was everything I had hoped for.
Foxx actually had me at the idea of someone summoning a potential fake boyfriend but throw in the moniker Herby for the cute guy in need ? I’m all in.
A two person POV, we get a wide-eyed Herby who definitely sees things through a uniquely wonderful “Herby” perspective as well as a bored Hades, who’s role as the Ruler of the Underworld had gotten a tad tedious. It’s Herby who’s arrival shakes things up fundamentally.
The characters are well done, the dialogue snappy and the plot extremely well paced.
There’s so many terrific secondary characters from Lionid, to Abigor, Cerberus, and other figures of mythology.
I wish there was a bit more about Herby’s family, and those books. But it’s shorter length works against that.
I’m still so happy to have read this book. It was entertaining, a fun romance, with an exciting storyline.
I look forward to reading more from this author.
I’m recommending How To Summon a Boyfriend by Aja Foxx !
Herby I needed a boyfriend to keep my father from marrying me off to a man handpicked by him. What better way to get one than to summon a demon? When I found a book of shadows in my grandfather’s attic, I knew I’d found the answer, but something went wrong. Instead of summoning a demon, I ended up in hell. What was I supposed to do now?
Hades Judging souls was boring. Ruling the underworld was boring. Everything was boring. I needed something to happen to keep me from going insane. I never imagined the fates would answer my unspoken prayer by dropping a human into the underworld, and I’d certainly never met a human quite like Herby. He confused me, amused me, and drove me crazy. Why else would I agree to be his boyfriend?
Note: This story was originally part of the Fate’s Call Anthology – Manlove Edition. It has been revised and extended by 21,000 words.
Warning: Gay erotic romance. The material in this book contains explicit sexual content that is intended for mature audiences only. All characters involved are adults capable of consent, are over the age of eighteen, and are willing participants.
What an absolutely hilarious, sexy, thoughtful, fantasy mystery romance. The Dragon Experiment really has it all here. Starting with the confidently engaging Fabian Draco, the dragon species historian who’s constant search for knowledge of all types is only equaled by Fabian’s enormous amounts of sexual encounters. Of all types, of all genders , species and areas of play.
When Fabian’s straying attention can be pulled towards any one subject or being at any given moment. Fabian’s brilliant brain is more likely to be off wandering through the amazing dragon archives then focusing on the car about to hit him.
This incredible character is a true joy and such a source of so many emotions here. For both the reader and Dr. Rhys Griffith. Or Dr. Rhys as Fabian will call him at first .
They met during a confusing encounter, at least for Fabian’s pov, at a mall, where Fabian thought he was getting a very pretty “purity “ ring from someone handing them out at a booth (The Professor’s Dragon #2).
Flash forward, the ring isn’t coming off Fabian’s finger, (not that’s he’s the one concerned) ,and it turns out it’s actually a medical gathering instrument for a research project headed Dr Rhys Griffith
Rhys is a sorcerer who’s research, involving sexual energy and metaphysics just might be more important then anyone expects.
This story is a romance, and a mystery, one that carries huge implications for all races. How it’s researched and resolved is as satisfying as how the romance grows into a solid relationship.
It’s funny, strong with multiple characters and storylines. There’s several hints about the next book and the character who so badly needs his story told.
I just adore this couple, especially Fabian. He’s right out of that fabulous school of brilliant absentminded Professors. Only this time he’s a sex positive dragon. Be still my heart.
The Dragon Experiment is a well written fantastic novel , filled with engaging characters and a plot that adds so much to the series foundation as well as overall arc the author is building.
Read all the stories in this universe so you’re familiar with the events that have occurred and the characters and relationships that are referred to.
I’m highly recommending them all, including this one.
Who knew sleeping around could save the entire species?
I’m a simple dragon. Give me knowledge, give me research, give me rings for my hoard, and give me athletic men who want to get sweaty between the sheets… or anywhere else. Those things make me happy. Other things… well, who cares about those?
Turns out, I should have cared. Or at least paid attention. Because I somehow signed up for a scientific study run by a shy, nerdy sorcerer with the body of a god. And the study just happens to be about my favorite form of exercise.
It doesn’t take long for me to know I want to do more than science with Rhys. I’ve never been the kind of dragon to mix feelings with fun, but Rhys could be the one person who meets all my needs, even if he won’t wear a ring on every finger.
But when his research becomes more important than any of us could have imagined, our relationship enters a new phase. Now it’s up to me to show Rhys how much he’s worth… both to me and to the future of his species.
The Scars That Bind Us, the first book in Michele Notaro’s urban fantasy series, The Magi Accounts, takes in a scary, horrific universe, especially if you’re not human.
Here , the revelation that mages and shifters existed along side humanity did not go over well. WWIII happened, countries, governments, peoples and environments were devastated and divided. So too were species. With shifters and the magi at the bottom of the species pile.
I won’t recount it here. You can read it. People so fearful of those that make them feel less powerful ,the prejudice. So they relegated to a status as “others “ ,as less than equal. Easy to control, confinement to compounds. Tagged. Registered.
Notaro ‘s has the ability to bring the ability to transfer these devastating elements to this universe and the lives and conditions the shifters and magi now live under.
It’s very emotional reading when the narrator is magi Madeo Driscoll, compound born, paired to another mage Jude Driscoll, almost since birth. A dyad. Paired magi which increases their magical strength . Which for the government meant sending them out to fight in wars when they could barely walk. More tools than people, or children in this case.
The anger, trauma, and damage Mads (for Madman) carries within him and in the enormous amount of scars on his body is there in his words and actions throughout the story and events.
Jude, his soulmate and brother, whose presence has seen everything Mads has and been there to help heal him, is as quiet and powerful a man as Mads is verbally and emotionally angry. Yin and Yang. So great a couple and yet there’s no romantic attachment. It’s a brotherly love and bonding.
The other love is coming in the form of Cosmo Ono-Nai , alpha of a pride of Lion shifters and the new team Mads and Jude are supposed to work with.
The story has a wonderful found family element with another young magi, Logan Torres, that was rescued from a brutal attack by Mads and Jude. As well as the overall arc and storylines that stem from the tears in the universe that a mysterious group on Earth keep opening up and the monsters that pour through.
Notaro manages to build a continuous atmosphere of anxiety and suspense due to the unstable nature of the status of our characters. They basically have no rights, no say over their future so when we or Mads start to get invested in a relationship, any of their relationships, it comes with a equal amount of trepidation and fear.
It ends with a uneasy HFN.
Which makes me want to grab for the next one immediately.
There’s a trigger warning at the beginning of the story. It’s about assaults that happened in the past, off page. But even without them happening in current time, there’s enough emotional content that it’s intense , and might make some people feel very uncomfortable. Please read the warnings so you can make the best decision for yourself.
Tremendous storylines, great characters and amazing world building, as awful and believable as it feels.
What kind of mage would be crazy enough to crush on a shifter? Me. Apparently me.
The world is a messed-up place. Especially for those of us who have magic, and I know just how terrible it can be firsthand. Which is one of the reasons I try to stay away from people… humans and shifters especially.
Unfortunately, the NHSO forces magi to work alongside shifters to help protect the humans from taragorians—scary beasts from another realm. Which means I’m thrown onto a new team and forced to work with Cosmo Ono-Nai, a lion shifter.
And for some reason, I can’t keep my eyes off him.
The Scars That Bind Us is a 115K word novel and the first book in the MM urban fantasy series, The Magi Accounts.
*Intended for adults only. Please read the trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel.
Dragon It Out, the third installment in Arden Steele’s Blackhaven Manor series, is my favorite yet. Fated mates is central to this series but instead of the quick mating of the previous novels, this is a slow mating romance, in a novella.
Surrounded by a mystery and full of suspense, with just a fantastic couple at its heart.
Uriah Maddox, dragon shifter , brother to siblings, Skye and Thade, is half of our fated couple. He’s thousands of years old, yet still mired in guilt over a past loss. One that’s keeping him from moving forward with his life, even when he meets his mate.
That’s Kit Meyers, human, and someone clearly in trouble. He arrives at Blackhaven Manor in at most inauspicious way. His car breaks down in the parking lot and he doesn’t have the funds to repair it.
Odd how things meant to be happen at Blackhaven just when they need to.
Scared Kit and huffy Uriah, in full out surly mode, are a great couple. One , a human, in survival mode, the other, a dragon, attempting to flee at every second, avoiding the being he knows to be his mate. Plus two exasperated siblings watching it all.
Combined with a very serious danger to Kit in a past that he’s on the run from? And Dragon It Out is just a great exciting fantasy romance, with a touching romance, and a suspenseful side element.
Steele’s ability to add small scenes with secondary characters in a diner, just make this story that much richer.
I enjoyed everything about this. As I said my favorite so far. And loving this series.
Smooth flowing, well crafted, and really quick romantic reads.
As some of the last remaining dragon shifters in the world, Uriah Maddock and his siblings are regarded as something akin to royalty in the paranormal community. It’s one of the main reasons their hotel has become such a coveted destination for Otherlings. All he wants, though, is to be left alone. He’s not looking for love or romance. In fact, he actively avoids relationships and all their damning consequences. Too bad his meddling sister didn’t get the memo.
Kit Meyers is pretty sure he’s hit rock bottom when his car breaks down in the small, mountain town of Echo Falls. He has no money, no place to live, and no prospects. When a not-so-chance encounter leads him to the infamous Blackhaven Manor, he figures he’ll stay for a few weeks, earn some cash, then head back to the safety of the road. But all that changes when he meets a surly dragon shifter with wounded eyes and even more baggage than himself.
Uriah can’t commit to a houseplant, let alone to being someone’s mate. Convinced that Kit is better off without him, he’s prepared to leave everything behind if that means the skittish human will be safe and happy. Yet, as the days pass, he keeps finding new excuses to stay, until he’s finally forced to admit that he’s not going anywhere.Especially when he realizes he’s not the only dangerous person in Kit’s life.
You know how, somewhere in a series, you always find one story that’s just it for you? Even in a series you adore? It hits all your buttons, emotionally, just satisfying AF in every way?
That’s Aleron for me, the third novel in Macy Blake’s fantastic Chosen Champions series. This is a series that exists within a multi-connected series universe. I believe there’s four that has The Chosen One as it’s foundation. Each interacts with each and has a overlapping arc which is developing in a nicely layered way here.
Aleron is Aleron Eastaughffe, a immensely wealthy griffon. We’ve met him and his cousin, Victor (Magical Mates) previously. But here Aleron shines like a griffon should.
Blake gives us a romance between two completely different beings, complicated men who have existed in such opposite circumstances, mentally and emotionally, that’s it’s almost impossible to think of them together. Except that they are immediately,hopelessly , and inarguably drawn towards each other.
Each is at a loss to explain the attraction, or know what to do about it.
Aleron lived as a fabulously rich hedonistic player. A lifestyle of one. Until he was pulled into Logan’s pack. Where he’s been accepted, needed, and enveloped into the pack structure. Now Aleron is firmly established as pack. A griffon with two families, one of blood and that he’s found within the pack structure.
Blake , through the two person perspective, brings us into Aleron’s mind and emotional state about his changing status and potential new feelings about Spencer Walsh.
Spencer Walsh. He’s the hedge witch the pack has brought in to help solve the latest mysteries with the strange runes associated with the evil mage who kidnapped/tortured Raj and his friend. The same dark mage that’s causing harm throughout the city.
Spencer is such an amazing character. He lives alone, in a forest, drawing his power from the land his family has lived in forever. He’s socially not just awkward, but even unaware, so focused on books and learning. His lives always by himself, loves the quiet which lets him focus. His only friend, another witch, Merry (another fabulous person).
Watching the interactions and slow burn between such opposites is one of the best elements here. It’s so well written, each person trying to figure out why they can’t get the other out of their brain. Perilously close to both humor and pathos. It’s charming, heartwarming, and lovely as it slowly proceeds from confusion to reflection to recognition of their emerging relationship and deep feelings.
All that complicated thought processes happening while the overall arc continues with some great action and plotting.
This is a real pleasure to read . I will re-read to savor all the elements and characters again.
Plus I have to wait until January of next year until the series finale is out. Sigh.
Until then, read the series in the order they are written for plot and character development.
Plus if you’ve missed out on any of the connected series, I listed them as well. Dive into them and the whole Chosen One universe! It’s a winner.
I’m highly recommending it.
Chosen Champions:
✓ Logan #1
✓ Gideon #2
✓ Aleron #3
◦ Scout #4. – January 31, 2023
All part of The Chosen One Universe connected group of series:
Aleron Eastaughffe is a billionaire griffin who knows what he wants…
Namely, a gorgeous city penthouse, a life of luxury, and the respect and admiration of his peers-–all the things he’s come to expect as one of the Eastaughffes. But when Aleron finds himself connected to a rag-tag group of shifters and forced to work alongside the most awkward yet utterly captivating human witch in all the realms… he realizes he might want something very different after all.
Spencer Walsh is a witch who knows where he belongs…
And that is alone, in his remote cabin, where there are no annoying people around to give him strange looks when he spends his days reading, or to complain when he gets hyper-focused on research and forgets they exist. But when an old friend needs help researching a mysterious set of runes, Spencer joins forces with a group of shifters–and one gorgeous, provoking griffin–and learns that the world might just be more accepting than he thought… and more dangerous than he ever dreamed.
If Aleron and Spencer want a chance at a future together, they’ll have to let go of what they think they know, and face some hard truths together…
The truth about the runes and the magic they hold.
The truth about what love and belonging really mean.
And the truth about how much they’ll compromise to make each other happy… and how hard they’ll fight to keep each other safe.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 