Tag: Painted Hearts Publishing

A MelanieM Review: Pop Tart (Asian Idols #2) by Shawn Bailey

Rating: 2.75 stars out of 5

Taemin Park was once a member of the hottest K-Pop group in South Korea, but he isn’t a cute kid anymore and he hasn’t been on a stage in four years. Taemin has been blacklisted in the music world and labeled a trouble-maker for standing up for his rights. But after two years of military duty and two years of soul searching he decides to go back into show business. He offers his services to his old friend entertainment mogul Ace Reign, who jumps at the chance to put Taemin back at the top of the charts again and knows just the guy to manage him.

Aiden Reign is very popular with both the ladies and the men, but he’s never held down a legitimate job in his life. So when his father suggests he take on a job of manager of a pop-star turned R&B singer, Aiden freaks out. He’s used to his father giving him an allowance and he is perfectly okay with that. But now faced with the dilemma of growing up, Aiden decides to do give it his all, especially after he meets the gorgeous young man his father wants him to manage.

I had  such high hopes from reading the blurb but to be honest I barely made it through the story.  So many elements here made it feel like a dry, emotion free tale instead of one sweet romance of pop stars in South Korea.

One definitely was the style of writing here.  It felt entirely too talky.  Everything was over described from their meals to the main characters daily routines, dress until it felt like a checklist of things the author wanted to get into the story…over and over again.  Secondly, the romance or relationship or whatever you want to call it between Aiden and Taemin is weirdly a turn off.  Instant sex that is very all sorts of non sexy, a instant love on one character’s part that’s never really explained or given adequate background, and again just a lack of connection between the two characters so vast that the whole story came across more like a business deal than a love story.

What did I like?  The cultural elements.  I got an excellent exposure to the world of K-pop, the Korean music scene, and Korean culture.  I did enjoy how that aspect of the story made a very solid foundation for what could have been a sweet romance.  But it’s not enough to save the love story which is the main focus here.

Cover art is wonderful.  It definitely drew me to the book.

Sales Links: Amazon

 

Book Details:

ebook
Published August 17th 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing
Edition Language English

A Lila Review: The Curse (Witches of Salem #1) by T.S. McKinney

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

 

Witches. Warlocks. Hocus Pocus.

 

I didn’t believe in any of those things. To be honest, the only thing I really believed in….really had faith in its existence, was bad luck. There was too much proof of it in my life to deny it.

 

As it turns out, the bad luck that accompanies me wherever I go escalated to a heightened level following a visit form a long-lost relative I didn’t even know existed. She starts spouting nonsense about my parents really loving me (even though they committed suicide a few days after my birth), how my mother tried using witchcraft to save their lives…and how there is a curse hanging over my head that requires my death on my twenty-fifth birthday. Supposedly all the Bailey men commit suicide on their twenty-fifth birthdays due to this curse.

 

Total craziness, right?

 

Wrong.

 

A small dash of intrigue and a heaping-helping of fear cause me to pack up and head to Salem, Massachusetts – where it all started. Here’s my biggest problem: my twenty-fifth birthday is only a couple of weeks away and I’m having these very sensual dreams about a man I don’t know.

 

I might not know him, but I sure want him.

 

The Curse is a fun take on the history of the Salem Witch Trials. The idea of a family curse and its consequences is an interesting way to bring a commonly known event into a contemporary setting. There’s magic, power, and some paranormal aspects, but together, the story brings a sense of magic realism to everyday events.

 

As a narrator, Nico is all over the place, but his thoughts and attitude go well with his life as a student and his age.  His need to learn more about his past, the curse, and Salem brings him to discovered a completed new world in which he plays an important part.

 

The plot unravels slowly and through many twists.  We get a bit of history mix with the action and some open threads for the next installment. I don’t want to get into the MCs relationship to avoid spoilers, but they worked well together. Their story is lovely and some insta-love is present but it’s to be expected.

 

The rest of the cast added to the overall story and everyone had a particular quirk that made them special. I’m looking forward to the next one.

 

The cover by E. Keith is pretty and goes with the story. The colors and the vanishing areas create a magical air.

 

Sale Links: Painted Hearts | Amazon | Smashwords

 

Book Details:

 

ebook, 166 pages
Published: August 3, 2017, by Painted Hearts Publishing
ISBN: 9781946379856
Edition Language: English

 

Series: The Witches of Salem
Book #1: The Curse

A VVivacious Review: High and Dry (Mate of the Tyger Prince #5) by Shannon West

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Renard and Tallon are still at odds following the “incident” but when Tallon suggests a way for Renard to make it up to him, Renard is nervous but eager to regain their former camaraderie. But when all goes horribly wrong, will Renard and Tallon make it?

For the first time in a very long time, Davos isn’t speaking to Blake because that is exactly how pissed Davos is this time around. In all their time together Blake has never backed down and been the one to apologise. It has always been Davos. So it stands to be seen if Blake will salvage their relationship or stand by his pride?

Mikos is set on getting Ryan settled down with another baby, but he has no idea of what is cooking up in Ryan’s head…

This is the fifth book in the series and it is most definitely not a standalone. I don’t think any of the books in this series could be considered standalones but in most of the books prior to this one, the story wasn’t so reliant on already established characters and storylines. This book follows six characters – Mikos and Ryan (who were the couple featured in books 1 and 2), Renard (introduced in book 3 and featured again in book 4), Tallon (introduced in book 4), Blake (who has been a very important character in all the books of this series) and Davos. The only character who I felt I wasn’t intimately familiar with was Davos. Up until now, Davos has been the comic relief the guy who gets the brunt of Blake’s anger, so it was amazing to finally get to know him.

Mikos and Ryan are the much needed comic relief in this book though they are not written as such, they have a sweet short quickly resolved story line that helps put into perspective Blake’s rebelliousness. So even though they are not the main characters of this book their input and their storyline was greatly appreciated by me. I also loved how Ryan handled the issue of pregnancy in this book, with such humour and humility.

Tallon and Renard are one of the main couples in this story. Personally, I felt that their relationship had already developed a lot when the incident happened in which Renard left Tallon high and dry and accused him of rape, to create a diversion, to help Vannos escape and this book didn’t have much content to explore as far as their relationship was concerned. In fact, the conflict that arises in this book between thesetwo had me very annoyed at Tallon, but I was pleased with where these two ended up.

Blake and Davis stole the show. There is so much we still don’t know about Blake and Davos’ relationship, this fact is compounded by the fact that we don’t know much about Davos as a character. Thankfully this book goes a long way in filling up that hole.

I have talked in previous reviews of this series about how much I love Blake’s interactions with his children and while this book offered more of those fantastic gleams into Blake, the kick-ass omak what I loved the most was the insights we got into Davos the father. Davos is such an amazing father. His children’s reaction to seeing him went such a long way in cementing his character. I loved how for him his entire family was so important and how much he was willing to sacrifice for their happiness.

Davos and Blake are at odds but even though Blake doubts Davos’ love for him, even Blake realises that Davos still loves him. However, his uncertainty has him reminiscing about their past. One thing I especially loved was the fact that Blake willingly altered the story of how they met to protect Mikos which was just something so inherently Blake that it had a feeling of warmth rushing through me. The second one was the change in Davos during his initial days with Blake and how he goes from wanting to subdue him to just loving him unabashedly. I also loved Davos’ observation about how each of their kids was Blake’s idea no matter how convinced he was of the contrary. This was another statement that just established all that vague ideas I had of Blake and Davos’ together. I really loved Davos and Blake and getting to know these two characters as they were with each other was an unexpected delight.

Okay, so this is paragraph is going to be about me speculating about the future of this series because I have some mad theories. So this series is mostly following Davos and Blake’s children more or less in chronological order. I say more or less because Anarr and Vannos are twins and I have no idea who is the older one. So next up should be Derrick’s (whose name is spelt as Darrek in the first book and Derrick in the third one) story. Now you are probably wondering who Derrick is, Derrick is Blake and Davos’ fourth child who has been missing from most of the series because he is undergoing military training. Now knowing Blake and since this issue was addressed in Book 3, we know that Blake isn’t happy about being away from Derrick for so long. But still, the fact remains that he has been mentioned in two books out of five and all this mystery around his character has my mind going into overload because I feel that the reason we haven’t come to know Derrick is that there is a huge secret surrounding him. The wildest theory I have is the possibility that Derrick might be a girl considering Blake’s opinion on gender segregation in Tygeria this theory of mine has me going crazy because just the possibility of Blake giving birth to a girl and then having to give her up seems nigh impossible which begs the question about what would happen if Blake was indeed in such a dilemma. Yeah,crazy ass storyline but I definitely want more on Derrick, this mystery fourth son of his. Also, I feel like we will be getting to know more about Marcus Sept which I am not enthusiastic about because I want the focus of this series to remain on the Tygerian royal family and not shift to follow Marcus’ adventures in space especially if it means time off from Blake and his brood.

This book resolves the security threat that the royal family has been facing in the previous books while stilling leaving the issue of ARes open, to offer more storylines. So in a way, the next book will have lots of new things coming up in it and I can’t wait. As you can see I haven’t taken into account the fact there might not be a sixth book but I am extremely, extremely hopeful.

A shout out to Nicarr who is like the cutest six-foot nine-year-old ever especially when he is jumping on his omak and is supremely confident that his omak will wake up for him, no matter what other people say. Blake with Nicarr and Larz is like cotton candy. I especially love the imagery of Nicarr on Blake’s lap I mean I knew Nicarr was tall but the fact that he was 6 feet to Blake’s 5 feet 9 inches puts a whole new spin on Blake’s baby. Also, this series better not end without Nicarr getting his happily ever after though the series will have to flash forward a few years for that and that particular prospect has me even more excited about Nicarr’s eventual story.

I can’t wait for the next one.

Cover Art by E Connors. I am just going to come out and say it the cover is weird. But keeping in mind the fact that Tygerians and Moravians look so different from humans must make it hard to figure out the covers for this series.

Sales Links:  Amazon

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 248 pages
Published July 4th 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing
ASINB073QWC7PX
SeriesMate of the Tyger Prince #5

 

An Alisa Review: Hybrid (A Darker Hollow #1) by Shannon West & T.S. McKinney

Rating:  3 stars out of 5

 

Jax’s little brother Mason is all grown up and finds himself longing for a life of adventure. He finds it in a way he never planned late one night while walking home to the lodge beneath a full moon, when he is attacked, bitten and left for dead by a huge black werewolf. As he’s dying and all hope is fading, he is discovered on the trail and believes he’s being saved. Instead, he’s bitten a second time, and this time by a vampire.

 

Mason finds himself in the middle of an ancient war between the vampires and the Dire werewolves, and during a raid, he’s captured by the wolf who first bit him, a strong alpha named Finn. Finn is powerfully attracted to him, but Mason is changing, becoming something not quite wolf and not quite vampire—a new creature with powers of his own.

 

A hybrid is an interesting idea, made me think of Underworld, but I had some issues with how the characters acted throughout the story.  Mason has been feeling like something big was going to happen but he never expected it to be for him become something that has never existed before.  Valeran and Finn have been trying to destroy each other for as long as they can remember.

 

Valeran saves Mason after Finn’s attack and takes him as a lover and teaching him to hate werewolves.  When they finally go after Finn’s pack Mason is captured and Finn takes him as a mate and causes Mason to second guess his feelings for Valeran.  It takes a lot for Mason to start using his brain to examine his thoughts and actions.

 

We get to see all the characters’ points of view which should help to understand them better but most of the time I couldn’t help but think why is he doing that?  I didn’t like that Valeran and Finn tried to use Mason against each other for most of the book and Mason doesn’t even realize it until close to the end.  His seemingly acceptance that the essentially is suffering from Stockholm Syndrom but is determined to make everything work with both lovers is a bit wacky to me.  It takes until the very end of the story for Valeran and Finn to kind of accept their attraction to each other.  I am hoping that the series will continue with these three actually having a relationship and getting Finn’s pack back.

 

The cover art by E Keith is nice and gives good visuals of the Mason.

 

Sales Links: Painted Hearts Publishing | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 200 pages

Published: March 29, 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing

Edition Language: English

Series: A Darker Hollow #1

A VVivacious Review: Lion’s Mate (Hell’s Creek #1) by Shannon West & T.S. McKinney

Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
 
Julian finds himself right up Hell’s Creek, literally, when a wrong turn ends up with him right in the middle of Crazytown, USA. He finds himself immediately assaulted by a group of people who keep calling him kitty and keep telling him that the consequences of him ignoring the treaty will be grave indeed. As a last ditch effort Julian runs and finds himself across an imaginary border, only to faint at the sight of a lion headed his way.
 
He wakes up to find himself tied to a bed with a person who calls himself Leo and claims that they are mates. Can Julian escape Hell’s Creek before the craziness catches up to him or will this venture not only lead him on the path to love but also to answers about himself?
 
I am kind of on the fence with this book. I really enjoyed reading the book, but there was always this nagging thought at the back of my mind that I should be enjoying this book more, which I think was because I had really high expectations with this book. I love shifter romances and I love how Shannon West writes shifter romance and though I have never read T.S. McKinney before, I was really excited to read this.
 
The first thing that I found a little unbelievable was how clueless Julian is prior to Leo’s reveal. Up till that point he meets up with a ton of people who call him kitty and have weird ass notions of mates and scents and, treaties and borders. Not only that his first introduction to this oddity is violent enough to leave an impact so how is that not even once does Julian have a what if moment, I mean I would have enjoyed one and it would have made the whole thing a little more natural even if the moment were to be followed up by a vigorous refute of the notion.
 
In the first chapter of this book I stopped reading the book twice but when I did pick it up for the third time I read it till the very end. I don’t exactly know why I would stop reading but I’m pretty sure it was because of the fact that I didn’t particularly like that chapter. I mean the fact that Julian doesn’t understand what the Canis are saying and the Canis don’t believe what Julian is saying, kind of grates on the nerves. Also there is a whole lot of posturing and promises of an ill fate like every TV villain ever but when things actually boil down to action it is over very fast. Also can I just confess here that Canis is a very awkward name, what happened to the good old canine shifters?
 
Also what is up with Chloe, I so don’t believe her explanation that nothing would have happened to Leo, the Canis seemed dead set on raping Julian, and I for one don’t believe that they wouldn’t have gone through with it because then why did he have to run for his life if it was all just for fun. Moreover she knew that Julian was a feline shifter then why didn’t she try to rescue him or help him before he had to run for his life. Because after this incident she was all sugary nice and that left a very venomous after taste in my mouth. Yuck!
 
Apart from these three things the rest of the book is exactly what I like in a shifter romance. There is an amazing romance between Leo and Julian and I loved how it develops. I loved how the authors showed us a little bit of how Julian’s psyche affected their relationship and how he doesn’t believe he can be loved and how Leo has to slowly break down his walls. These two were incredibly hot together.
 
I also liked the plot of this book though everything did feel a little last minute but I am definitely intrigued as to the future of this series.
 
Cover art by E. Keith. I liked the cover. It fit the book and the genre.

Sales Links:  Painted Hearts Publishing | Amazon

Book Details:
ebook
Published May 9th 2017 by Painted Hearts Publishing
Edition Language English
Series Hell’s Creek #1