Tag: series finale

Review:  Phase Shift (Chaos Station Book 5) by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen 

Rating: 5🌈

Phase Shift brings the epic saga of the crew of the Chaos, specifically that of the damaged super soldier Zander Anatolius and his partner, Felix Ingesson. Felix, former prisoner of war, engineer and co-owner of the Chaos, carries his own trauma from the war inside, mentally and emotionally, and on his body. 

After all Felix and Zander have been through, along with the rest of the crew of the Chaos, it’s far from over as Project Dreamweaver, the failed AEF super soldier experiment that continues to haunt Zan, rises up to threaten them all again. 

Characters Qek, Elias and Ness who are such a fantastic, integral part of this series and as Felix’s found family, are here in their own emotional roles. The Guardians, an enigmatic race that’s a guiding force for the known species introduced here, seem more relatable by the dramatic impact brought on by the circumstances as created by the authors and wrought by the human race’s need for more. 

As we know, the emotional, damaged and highly complex nature of the men involved and the very nature of the themes involved in the series makes finalizing all the threads and storylines a complicated process.

But in this action packed, grab your tissues, heart pounding finale, Burke and Jensen bring their couple and series to a resounding satisfying conclusion.  And then gives the reader a fabulous honeymoon short story to go along with it at the end. 

There’s a few things that I wanted a tiny bit more exploration but this universe is so vast, the potential for more stories so full that it’s never really going to be enough. At least for this reader. 

But for now, I’m happy.  Especially after that gift of a short story where I even got to see my favorite aliens, the Resonance, one more.  

So satisfying and this one is a series and book that’s definitely on my recommendation list.  Happy reading!

Series – read them in the order below:

  • Chaos Station 1
  • Lonely Shore 2
  • Skip Trace 3
  • Inversion Point 4
  • Phase Shift 5 – series finale 

Buy link:

        Phase Shift (Chaos Station Book 5)

    

Blurb 

Zander and Felix’s relationship has always pushed boundaries—personal and professional alike—but their love and commitment is stronger than ever. So strong that Zander’s ready to ask commitment-shy Felix the question of a lifetime when he’s interrupted. The Chaos is being hacked, and crucial, top secret information about the project that created Zander—and his fellow super soldiers—has been leaked.

Neither man could have expected the enormity of what’s discovered at the end of the data trail: an entire colony of super soldiers run by the very doctor who changed Zander’s life forever. And now she needs them both—Zander to train her new crop of soldiers, and Felix’s new crystalline arm to stabilize their body chemistry.

With help from the unlikeliest of allies, Zander, Felix and the Chaos crew must destroy the project and all its ill-gotten information. But when the team is split up and Felix is MIA after a dangerous run, galactic disaster is a very real possibility…and Zander may have missed his chance to ask for forever.

  • Publisher: Ghost Ship Books; 2nd edition (August 27, 2024)
  • Publication date: August 27, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 352 pages

Review:  Burned (Drake Security Book 5) by Mika Nix

Rating: 4.25🌈

Burned is a fitting way to end the Drake Security series, with Lord’s story and his tortured enemies to lovers, fated mates romance. 

Lord’s been that character with the older brother syndrome. Stolid, serious, constantly in control and ever watchful over the family business as well as all over the family, including his brothers, their mates, and younger clutchings. 

So it makes sense that his story is the very antithesis of his life and nature. It’s dramatic, compulsive, and absolutely terrifying, the opposite of how he’s been living and taught.   

Mika Nix , aka authors K.M. Neuhold and Mia Monroe, mirrored his impulsive acts toward a specific target, his fated mate who happens to be his worst enemy, a dragon hunter. That’s a fatally wounded Alrick Havaror, a young Viking from a notorious dragon hunter family.

Lord and Alrick have matching angst filled emotions towards each other as they fight their own battles with the bond and their backgrounds.  I really enjoyed this element of the story. They were well suited and their journey was full of chemistry and communication.

While we are very familiar with the Drake family and their mates, Alrick’s history and family background could have used more development, especially given that ending.  Considering the foul deeds his father, older brother, grandfather etc have committed, that end wasn’t exactly satisfying, even with the overlaying factor of kinship.

New wonderful characters included Viggo (middle brother of Alrick’s), and Xanthis, a powerful Scottish dragon mage who promptly flirts with Dahlia. And while the authors let us know what happened with the two women, Viggo, who had an important role and his own journey here, oddly vanished from the story. After being told he was from now on a permanent member of the Drake family. SMH

If they say he went home with good old dad and brother. No. That doesn’t track as both authors had him say he wanted to remember the events and what they had done and everything that had occurred. So no.

Big narrative hole here and missing character. 

So Burned ends up a good story but not a great one. I enjoyed the couple but there’s quite a few stumbles narratively speaking that keeps this shy of 5 stars. Still a lovely series and one I’m recommending.

Drake Security series:

  • Hot Head #1
  • Smoulder #2
  • Wild Fire #3
  • Inferno #4
  • Burned #5 – series finale 

Buy link

        Burned (Drake Security Book 5)

    

Blurb

Of all the creatures I could have accidentally mate bonded with, did it have to be a dragon slayer?

I never let my dragon take control. Never. Distraught after the death of a friend, I made a mistake…

Finding a beautiful, broken viking on the verge of death in the middle of a forest, all of my instincts screamed at me to save him. My dragon wouldn’t have it any other way. For two-thousand years I’ve saved my mating fire, waiting for fate to bring me true, binding love. But with this stranger only a breath away from the afterlife, I didn’t have a choice.

I can’t really be mated to a dragon slayer, can I? There has to be a way to break this bond before his brothers come looking for him or mine realize what I’ve done.

The only problem is, the more time I spend with the captivating, big hearted man, the more I think that fate might have had a hand in things after all…

Is he feeling it too, or am I about to get burned?

  • Publication date: October 16, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 254 pages

Review:  Humility (Damned Connections Book 4) by Lark Taylor 

Rating: 4.5🌈

Humility is the finale book to Lark Taylor’s Connections series and it’s definitely worth the tissues needed to read it.  

While on the surface, it’s about two commitment phobic best friends finally understanding each is the others HEA, the underlying issues, a heart wrenching event, and the backstories are the reasons that will have you reaching almost nonstop for the tissue box. 

Riley, human with a history of a human stalker and dysfunctional parenting, is a series staple as he’s a best friend of Matty (Justice #2).  Danny, wolf shifter firefighter, is a wounded soul with a broken history that’s revealed in this book.  He too has had many scenes throughout the series as a best friend/ co firefighter with Leo (Patience #1). So we’ve been given glimpses of both characters in the preceding novels as they helped their friends through to resolving their problems and getting their mates.

 With Riley and Danny , they meet, immediately click before having intense sex. Best ever. But because of various factors, each has resolved to stay commitment free.  So it’s buddy only.

Until it’s not. 

Taylor skillfully leads the characters through a heart wrenching and life changing event. The aftermath of which forces revelations of the past, old wounds come to light, and they journey back to Scotland where it all began for Danny , in his pack.

Lark creates a number of new and interesting characters to inhabit this new location in Scotland, and perhaps, one that will travel back to England to meet the rest of the paranormal group that resides there. Logan is an amazing shifter. 

This ends one series but launches two more. One about the Seraphim and one about the wolf shifter we met in the book.  

There was an absolutely wonderful epilogue that I hope gets a follow up in some way to let us see what happened next. With everyone.

Put this series on your list, including the finale. But read them in the order they are written.

Reckless Damn Series – first series 

  • Devil’s Mark #1
  • Devil May Care #2
  • Deal with the Devil #3
  • Luck of the Devil #4

 

Damned Connections – sequel 

  • Patience #1
  • Justice #2
  • Temperance #3
  • Humility #4 – finale

Hopeless Blessed – Seraphim sequel series 

  • Conflicted #1 -Sept 5,2024

The Wild Edges (wolf shifters sequel series)

  • Finlay #1 – July 10, 2025

Buy link

        Humility (Damned Connections Book 4)

    

Blurb:

Two commitment-phobes. One ridiculous plan. A decision that changes everything…

Riley

If a no-strings hookup is required, then I’m the perfect guy.

When I meet Danny, I can’t believe my luck. A sexy wolf shifter who’s also a fireman? Who runs from relationships just as fast as I do? Sign me up.

The night that follows is one for the history books, and the best part? Neither of us is looking for a repeat.

That doesn’t mean we don’t see each other again. Without even realising it, we become friends. Friends who do everything together.

Everything with Danny is perfect, but when I start to yearn for more from my hookups, I know something needs to change.

So I come up with a plan. A genius plan. I sign up for an app that arranges anonymous encounters. No names. No faces shown.

No danger of pesky feelings getting involved.

What could possibly go wrong?

Danny

Unlike Riley, my desire to avoid a relationship has nothing to do with commitment issues.

Taking a mate would mean returning to the clan who betrayed me. I’d have to leave behind this life I’ve built, a life I’m very happy with. One where Riley occupies most of my free time.

Everything is going swimmingly until Riley tells me his plan. His genius plan, he calls it. He can’t see it for what it is—an idiotic idea that’ll land him in danger.

I can’t let him go through with it. My wolf won’t allow it. Problem is, Riley’s as stubborn as they come. Once he’s decided on something, there’s no changing his mind.

Not wanting him in danger, I realise there’s only one thing I can do. One thing that’ll keep Riley happy while also keeping him safe.

I can be his anonymous hookup.

It’s idiot-proof. At least, it would be, if I wasn’t an idiot.

Turns out Riley isn’t the only one who should be scared of hooking up and realising you want more.

Humility is the thrilling fourth instalment in the Damned Connections series and can be read as a standalone. Featuring a wolf shifter x human pairing, this spicy MM PNR romance will make you laugh and cry. Each book follows a different couple with a guaranteed HEA.

  • Publisher: Lark Taylor (July 31, 2024)
  • Publication date: July 31, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 408 pages

Review: The Soul of an Angel (Supernatural Affairs Book 5) by F. N. Manning

Rating: 4🌈

F. N. Manning’s urban fantasy series. Supernatural Affairs, draws to a close with The Soul of an Angel.

Manning’s story is a good finale in that the reader has some important questions answered about the main characters and their relationships. The author also supplies further exploration of the universe and adds on to the series world building/mythology already established.

Does everyone get a HEA? No. A HFN , which is more in keeping with the storylines and newness of the main couple’s relationship. That actually makes sense, but for a finale novel some people might not be satisfied.

Manning has a number of larger series elements that need in-depth exploration and themes that require more heavy lifting, narratively speaking, than a book 195 pages long can provide.

Frost, a Angel hiding from Heaven, revelations about the true nature of the inhabitants of Heaven and Hell, their relationship with Earth, the past and current history between the three realms, a hidden political conspiracy, complete with battle and that’s just what is basically happening.

Let’s then throw in internecine family dynamics, and a main character in danger who’s the fated mate of Frost. Nathan Clinton is someone who is being hunted down and that’s what brings him to the attention of Frost because of what is hunting him.

I liked Manning’s characterizations of both Frost, who we’ve seen before, and Nathan, a very frightened man on the run from demons and a supernatural world just revealing itself to him.

I think that my issues here are that there’s little time for any real development in this relationship because there’s so much more that Manning needs to pay narrative attention to and does. To the detriment of this couple.

A fight for Earth. Yes, super important and that would necessitate a lot of new information and elements to be added. Which they are. Aliens who aren’t what they appear? Yes, more exploration and more details required. So much more.

Probably see where this is going.

There’s really not enough time within the pages to lay out all the really interesting and imaginative content that Manning has written for this story and series. So in trying to get it all done, it all feels as though the author has made sacrifices and nothing has the layers and dimensions expected in a finale or book with this many storylines.

It’s got a lot of potential. I enjoyed the characters, and some of the relationship dynamics. I just wish there had been more length or another book to make that work.

The author does mention the idea of another sequel series which perhaps would tie up some of the many loose ends left behind here. And let us see what happens next to those characters without partners or just getting a start with theirs. That would be lovely.

If you’re interested in paranormal romance or urban fantasy stories, here is a series for you.

Supernatural Affairs series:

The Werewolf’s Heart #1

Shifter for Brains #2

Crazy Like a Fox #3

Body By Mage #4

The Soul of a Angel #5

Buy link

The Soul of an Angel: Gay Urban Fantasy (Supernatural Affairs)

Blurb

In a battle between Heaven and Hell, two lovers must fight to stay together and save the world.

Frost the angel takes pride in protecting others as an agent with the Department of Supernatural Affairs. But his days on Earth are numbered when his family intends to drag him back to Heaven. After centuries of precious freedom, wishing for more time feels greedy. It’s just a shame that Nathan enters the picture right when his time as a free man is up.

Being a high school music teacher isn’t exactly glamorous, but Nathan Clinton is happy with his life. He already did the impossible once by escaping toxic, controlling parents and starting over, so stopping the demons after his immortal soul should be a piece of cake… right? Good thing a beautiful angel has offered his assistance.

When angels and demons start taking an interest in Earth and the world is threatened, Frost and Nathan find themselves in the middle of a brewing war between worlds. With the angel being pulled to Heaven and Nathan being dragged to Hell, is there any hope of them being together on this world—and also saving the Earth?

• Publication date: September 24, 2023

• Language: English

• Print length: 195 pages

Review: Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie: Phlox’s Story (Perfect Pixie Series Book 5) by M. J. May

Rating: 5🌈

Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie: Phlox’s Story is the perfect way to end this absolutely fantastic series, Perfect Pixies by M. J. May.

In this vividly realized, beautifully told story, May brings all the characters and couples together that we’ve met through each other’s stories and learned to love together to reveal and vanquish the series villains.

Each story has at its core a perfectly imperfect pixie who finds themselves in an embattled or troubled position which eventually leads them to their bonds of love and a HEA. We started with hearth and home pixie, Philodendron, whose unique size made him both an outsider and perfect for his Alpha mate and family. Then nature pixie, Peaches, with a mournful background and heart wrenching history that soon brings attention to gathering dark forces and the attraction of a powerful vampire. That mating has huge ramifications for many other otherworldly species.

Next May’s pairing and novel turns dark with the seemingly mysterious introduction of pixie trafficking and pixie dust addiction. This is Parsnip’s story and another sector of magic is heard from as Vander the warlock arrives. May is deepening the series themes, expanding the types of magic that exist in this universe, and types of found families we can expect.

The narrative themes and suspenseful atmosphere doesn’t even falter for a moment. It’s picking up momentum in emotional and well written story arcs.

Wendall’s unbelievable tale is next. It includes Hellfire Rayburn, Fairy Queen Silvidia’s most trusted and feared warrior, and Wendall, who undergoes one of the most poignant, heartbreaking moments and struggles amongst them all. Well, May is amping up to the end point. Making sure that the reader knows what at stake and we care so throughly for everyone here.

So that when a final pixie appears, one that isn’t who he seems, we are ready for the showdown .

That’s Agent Frost, aka pixie Phlox. Although he’s not exactly 100 percent pixie. What he is and his background is a huge part of the ongoing investigation and reason he’s arrived in town. The one assigned to help him? That’s 300 year old vampire, Leon McMillan, King Lucroy Moony’s second-in-command.

May does an excellent job of alternating between their burgeoning romance and the ongoing investigation into the pixie traffickers. The horrific storyline of pixie trafficking , which is widely explored through the main characters and story threads, continues to branch out to the wider threat to the community and all the couples involved.

May’s newest character is one I think will be a great reader favorite . That’s Erasmus, a young necromancer who has an intriguing , poignant backstory and a rich personality. I really can’t get enough of him. So many layers. And the other character who is equally and quizzically intrigued by Erasmus? That’s Aurelia, the djinn .

No spoilers but what an epic ending. And while I’m happy sad this superior series has ended, the author has left us with something new to anticipate.

That epilogue is everything! Why? Because it tells us that Erasmus and Aurelia are coming back in Summer/Fall 2024 in their own story. And now I’m so excited and happy for their new adventure to begin.

Read this incredible series in the order it’s written . It’s a top recommendation. So is it’s author.

Cover design by cheriefox. Absolutely splendid! Like all the other covers.

Perfect Pixies series:

✓ Perfectly Imperfect Pixie Book #1

✓ Perfectly Perfect Pixie: Peaches’s Story #2

✓ Perfectly Charmed Pixie: Parsnip’s Story #3

✓ Perfectly Perplexing Zombie: Wendall’s Story #4

✓ Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie: Phlox’s Story #5 – series finale

Buy link

Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie: Phlox’s Story (Perfect Pixie Series Book 5)

Blurb

Phlox isn’t your typical pixie, and his feisty shifter DNA might be the reason. Recruited by the Magical Usage Council, Phlox—who is now Agent Frost—is a pixie with a mission, and he’s not afraid to place himself in mortal danger to eradicate the latest pixie trafficking ring.

Despite being King Lucroy Moony’s second-in-command, Leon McMillan’s second life has become dangerously monotonous. For a vampire, boredom is as deadly as a stake to the heart. Three hundred years of existing has taken a mental toll—one that will eventually lead Leon into the sun’s deadly embrace. Leon needs a life raft; he just never imagined it in the form of a pushy pixie.

Phlox and Leon can’t deny their mutual attraction. However, in order for Phlox’s mission to succeed, he needs to appear helplessly alone, and Leon’s worried stalking isn’t aiding that mission.

But soon, the knowledge Phlox and Leon obtain leads to a dangerous, mentally unstable djinn, who has a vicious master holding its leash. Although history claims djinns are all-powerful, indestructible creatures, Phlox and Leon must find the secret to their destruction if they are to save Rutherford Haven’s citizens. If they can’t, Rutherford Haven will be the first to fall, but it won’t be the last.

Phlox will dig his shifter claws into anyone who dares threaten his mate and Leon will tear the heart out of anyone who dares threaten his beloved—his purrrfectly peculiar pixie.

Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie is the fifth and final book in the Perfect Pixie series. The books should be read in order. Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie features an emotionally constipated vampire, a pixie who’s far more than he appears, witches and trolls with questionable morals, an alpha werewolf whose time on planet Earth is precariously close to ending, a (questionably) good djinn, an (unquestionably) sinister djinn, an interesting necromancer, and all our previously beloved characters coming together to prove that teamwork really does make the dream work.

Purrfectly Peculiar Pixie also contains homicide of the fantasy kind (no humans were killed in the making of this book) with scenes describing death and killing.

• Publication date: April 29, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 343 pages

Review: How I Took the King on a Bone-a-Fide Quest of Piracy, Piemu, and Profit: Bone 6 (How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned him to Villainy Book 12) by A. J. Sherwood

Rating: 5🌈

Finale time! And Steve’s gonna be a whole new dragon! Well, long dead and a skeleton one at that! But happy happy!

And that madcap murderous fabulous family of sorcerers and a King will adopt another into the fold.

And there’s many weddings!

Sherwood has written a warmhearted, if somewhat murderous tale of adventure, love, magic, and family. It’s been a wild and humorous journey. A absolute pleasure to read, a joy to have ventured into with along with the characters.

Will we see Tan, Devan, the kids, and the rest of the ever enlarging family? Sherwood doesn’t know. But I hope so. They have caught our attention and our hearts. That life and vivacity surely won’t be denied. Stay tuned!

Love these covers.

Series and side stories

💥How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned him to Villainy-6 books

💥How Tan Acquired an Apprentice

💥How I Took the King on a Bone-a-Fide Quest of Piracy, Piemu, and Profit:Bone series

Buy link

How I Took the King on a Bone-a-Fide Quest of Piracy, Piemu, and Profit: Bone 6 (How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned him to Villainy Book 12)

Blurb

Final boss fight! Fight necromancer? (yes) (NO)

Devan: I’m not beating up an old lady.

Tan: Pretty sure the old lady could take you.

Devan: Still not doing it. Time to negotiate.

Tags: dragon acquired keep as pet (yes) (NO), retired necromancers are BAMF, the kids adopt a necromancer grandmother, or a grandmummy if you will, all the weddings, pirates might be lost in the labyrinth, Steve is finally complete!, $$$, vacation time

• Publication date: April 26, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 51 pages

Review: Only Unity Will Spare Us: The Magi Accounts Book 5 by Michele Notaro

Rating : 5🌈

There’s always so many thoughts and emotions one has when approaching a finale novel in a beloved series. When that series is a dark urban fantasy about a particularly extremely violent, torturous dystopian world, the range of emotions will be deeply varied as the storylines. Especially here where in a world where a different US is at war. A almost recognizable one we’ve seen before where the humans in charge have used other species (or races) shifters and mages, as weapons and tools, things. Those in charge inhumanly categorizing them as objects to be abused, used and discarded as the humans wanted.

Make no mistake, as gorgeously written and powerfully conceived as The Magi Accounts series is, these books are often equally wrenching and disturbing to read. The compounds the magi are bred and raised in like stock animals, as well as the abusive, torturous, often deadly nature of the treatment they were subjected to there, is harrowing reading. And the subject of more than one trigger warning. The same is said about that of the narrative treatment of shifters, although not necessarily in the gore-ridden way.

Through four books, we’ve found all the members of the now combined Ono-Nai tribe, watched them grow, in some cases learning to deal with the pain and abuse that brought them into the tribe, and for others form mate bonds with each other, until this enlarged family has become a greater whole that means something deeply special to us as readers. It’s not just the mage dyads Madeo aka Mads and Jude. Or the main bonded pair of mage Mads and alpha lion shifter Cosmo Ono-Nai. It’s Jude, and his bond mates. And the rest of the tribe, shifters, mages, humans, even pets. All have made an indelible impression and contribution to the heartfelt rightness that has developed into the Ono-Nai diverse family/tribe. One of the unity of the title and one that Mads and his family is striving for their future.

It’s a truly agonizing epic showdown, one that’s been long awaited between Mads and his tribe and the horrific, terrifying Anderson, the Red Cloak witches, with their plan to destroy all the mages and shifters for a human only universe.

Did I end up sobbing buckets of tears? Yes, yes I did. As I expected to. There’s so much going on in the narrative. From beautiful scenes of family life and laughter, to sheer terror and heartbreak, memories of darkness and pain, blood and death, all that has to come , realistically in this world, before even large battles can be won.

Is everything solved at the end? No. But the majority of the problems are resolved in a manner that leaves the characters and readers in a better place . One that makes sense and leaves us with a sense of completion and satisfaction .

Only Unity Will Spare Us: The Magi Accounts Book 5 by Michele Notaro is a fantastic finale and a perfect way to end a magnificent dark urban fantasy.

I highly recommend this series. Read it in the order it’s written and with regard for its trigger warnings.

Just a side note. I wished for more for the Taragorians. Logan had it right. That the rift or a magical aspect of it seemed sentient was fascinating. I wish for more of this place please.

The Magi Accounts:

✓ The Scars That Bind Us #1

✓ The Shackles That Hold Us #2

✓ A Purpose That Restores Us #3

✓ A Ruse To Unchain Us #4

✓ Only Unity Will Spare Us #5 -Series Finale

The Magi Accounts Companion stories:

✓ Our Hearts That Tie Us: The Magi Accounts Prequel

✓ A Kiss To Revive Me: The Magi Accounts 1.5

✓ A Date to Impress Him: The Magi Accounts 2.5

✓ A Holiday to Sustain Us: A Magi Accounts Holiday

✓ An Embrace To Hearten Me: The Magi Accounts 3.5

✓ A Heart To Revitalize Me: The Magi Accounts 4.5

Buy Link:

Only Unity Will Spare Us: The Magi Accounts 5

Blurb:

I made a promise to the enemy… and I intended to keep it.

Thank the goddess I have my pride and my wonderful, amazing mate—whose patience matches no other—because the world is in chaos, and Cosmo is my rock, my safe place inside the storm. If only I could find the time between witches, work, politics, and family to prove it to him.

The Shifter and Magi Equality Act is in full effect, supposedly making us equals, but the people themselves—the humans—are still treating us as lesser. Every time I turn around, we’re running into trouble between humans and non-humans.

To make matters worse, witches are everywhere in Fairview City, and the Red Cloth is encouraging humans to join their forces and challenge the equality my people have fought so hard to get.

And now, Anderson is back. Back and gunning for me.

But he doesn’t realize I’m gunning for him, too.

Only Unity Will Spare Us is the fifth and FINAL book in the MM urban fantasy series, The Magi Accounts. It’s recommended to read the series in order because the romance and plot progress throughout the series.

*Intended for adults only. Please read the trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel.

• Publication date: April 19, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 417 pages

Review: A Spooky Legacy (The Spectral Files Book 5) by S. E. Harmon

Rating: 5🌈

If A Spooky Legacy is the finale novel for Rainbow “Rain” Christiansen and his husband, fellow cold case detective, Daniel McKenna, then it’s a fabulous story and sendoff to a compelling pair of characters and supporting cast that I have come to adore.

Five books that have taken them through all the stages of a remarkable relationship that has involved adapting to two widely different in-laws with their unique backgrounds, great law enforcement teams, and investigations into cold cases, and ghosts. Lots of ghosts, of the malignant, the uncooperative , and of the helpful kind.

It’s been such a great pleasure and one imaginative, magnificent journey.

So of course the last case will be that of a heartbreaker. For everyone involved.

Just as Rain and Danny are waiting to hear from the adoption agency on their application for approval and potentially getting a child, they will be handed a cold case of missing family.

So many feelings here. Harmon has Rain’s personal doubts and insecurities/fears over being a parent running concurrently with the real painful emotions of the investigation into a case that involves two young children and their parents. One we know didn’t end well.

As the case develops into something dark and far more complicated than expected, so does Rain’s feelings about the adoption and extending their family to include a child. It’s a realistic, emotionally tough but touching storyline. It takes work and commitment and communication on both sides of the relationship. That’s something I really appreciate here.

There’s also an unexpected helpful aspect for Rain to act as a bridge to understanding how it would feel to have someone else in the relationship.

There’s so many touching, moving elements and scenes here. I honestly felt both satisfied and wishing for more at the end.

Does this feel right? Yes. But, how I want a glimpse into their future lives.

This series has been distinguished by extraordinary characterizations, well woven storylines, and remarkable relationships that showed emotional maturity and growth.

That’s rare no matter the genre and I’ll miss them.

Read this in the order of release so not to miss out on the development of characters and relationships.

The Spectral Files:

✓ P.S. I Spook You #1

✓ Principles of Spookology #2

✓ Spooky Business #3

✓ The Spooky Life #4

✓ A Spooky Legacy #5

Buy link:

A Spooky Legacy (The Spectral Files Book 5)

Blurb:

Rain Christiansen is settling into married life with fellow cold case detective, Daniel McKenna, and life is good. Better than good, even. But when it comes to the topic of expanding their family, Rain isn’t so sure he’s ready. Yes, a new addition could enrich their lives. But it could also tear down the delicate balance they’ve worked so hard to achieve. Do they really want to take that risk?

He’d love to brood over that a little more, but murder never takes a day off. A decade-old mystery of the missing Parker family is heating up. Most seem to think the Parkers pulled a disappearing act to get out of financial debt. It isn’t before the PTU finds out the reality is far grimmer than that. It seems that Quinn stumbled upon something better left hidden. Now that Rain has stumbled upon it, too, he has to be careful that he doesn’t meet the same fate.

Sometimes it amazes him how far he’s come from strait-laced FBI agent who couldn’t admit—even to himself—that he saw ghosts. He’s done the work, learning to get some measure of control of his paranormal side. And while his relationship with ghosts may not be perfect, it’s evolved into something symbiotic…which is a very good thing. Because in order to protect himself from the living, he might need a little help from the dead.

• Publication date: April 9, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 382 pages

Review: His Realm (House of Maedoc Book 3) by Mary Calmes

Rating: 3🌈

As much as I’ve enjoyed the previous books in the series, His Realm was just a disconnect for me in many ways. From certain aspects of the character of Jason specifically to moments in the plot that weakens the couple and their dynamic, I just found I had issues here.

Which is a shame because I do enjoy so many of the scenes that the author has created here for the main characters and between others just as important.

House of Maedoc is an entertaining series that, in books one and two, creates a unique world and populates it with dynamic characters. It’s been wonderful to go along with Jason and Varic throughout their journey from their first meeting to their current position in their relationship. It’s been a tumultuous journey with both individuals undergoing major changes in their lives and their personal emotional development.

I’ve loved watching them. Up to now. Because it’s worked til now. Each story has contained huge amounts of dramatic elements and forward momentum in the vampire world and relationships. Even with characters who are not readily likable or beings seen as worthy of emotional connection, like the King himself.

It is Jason who should anchor his own story alongside his Prince, Varic. But Calmes makes some interesting choices for the story and characters that , for me as a reader, dilutes their impact as a strong couple and for their personalities, which spend so much time apart.

Here, Jason’s emotional responses to various highly complex or tragic situations just seem off. These ‘light hearted’ sort of particular personality traits are ones we’ve seen before in other Mary Calmes characters. But usually they were contemporary characters and the events that caused some of the same reactions were less likely to be as violent or extreme as the events that occurred here.

A grin or teasing comment from Jason when one would necessarily or reasonably expect a serious, thoughtful response to a question or situation where it’s been a an ongoing tragedy or people have lost their lives or subjected to loss.

It’s so jarring that it causes the reader to question whether the character’s actions are credible and think how shattered you’d be in the same situation.

There’s more. Repeatedly, Jason warns of serious threats and is dismissed. Even after being informed his advice won’t be ignored anymore. But Jason himself is a major problem. He,as the consort of the Prince, and therefore a member of the royal household, refuses to adhere to security measures and protocols. He constantly goes out without his guards, not reflecting on the ramifications of this for Varic and his staff.

He’s become an inconsistent character. As has Varic in relation with communication with Jason, what distance does to their relationship, etc.

It’s one element after another which weakens them, the story, their relationship, for the sake of a narrative drama that involves so many frustrating scenes and dysfunctional dynamics that it’s hard to care at times how it ends.

With a wedding and more things that just are pulled together quickly enough for the sake of the series rather than in keeping with everything that’s gone on before, with all the threads and characters’ personalities.

I like this author and feel that she has other, stronger series and characters to choose from.

Read this if you’re a fan, and to finish this series.

House of Maedoc :

✓ His Consort #1

✓ His Prince #2

✓ His Realm #3

Buy link

His Realm (House of Maedoc Book 3)

Blurb:

On their first meeting, Varic Maedoc, prince of the vampyrs, told Jason Thorpe that loving him was not for the faint of heart. He wasn’t kidding. In the past two years, Jason has been kidnapped, lived through several attempts on his life, and foiled a coup. Now, his new life as the prince’s consort and adviser to the king is made even harder by Varic’s prolonged absence. With his prince off hunting down a traitor, Jason must fend for himself.

While the separation doesn’t last, even Varic’s return won’t stave off the wicked plotting of others, and Jason soon finds himself—again—fighting for his life while navigating ancient betrayals and revenge put in motion before he was even born. And he must prevail because his prince needs him to bring a place without honor back into his realm.

But what festers in rage and bitterness is something Jason never expected, and nothing he’s experienced in his human life, or in the decadent court of the king, could’ve prepared him for the wrath that’s about to be unleashed.

Varic needs both his crown and his consort to be the king he’s always wanted to be, and it’s up to Jason to make sure their bond never breaks.

• Publication date: April 16, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 334 pages

Review: Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed) by Vawn Cassidy

Rating: 5🌈

How to review or even begin to describe absolutely magnificent heartbreakingly extraordinary narrative chaos?

Vawn Cassidy brings this incredible series to a close in a story that has a reader in gut wrenching sobs, for heartbreaking reasons and for ones that spring from immense joy. There’s scenes of such high comedy as well as low, drunken hilarity and madcap humor to go along with moments of heart stopping fright and one’s of such intense pain that you feel like you’ll break.

The relationships the author has built between the characters in this series covers so many facets of love. It’s the depth of love between a father and son, now at the end of the father’s life from a disease that’s slowly torn through his mind, losing himself and his memories. It’s the love between best friends who have been through the best and worst of times together and are still there for each other. It’s the love of found family and friends supporting each other and the bond between them. And the deep connection and romantic love that comes from being with the best person you know is the one who knows you and accepts you for who you are.

Cassidy has given the reader all of this through many characters and their relationships. We’ve come to know each of them, watch them grow and the relationships develop through story after story. Our emotions are heavily invested and, here, we are in every single moment and scene as the final chapter in this series plays out.

Did I laugh so much at a certain point that my dog left the room? Why yes, I did. And did I cry so much at a certain moment, that it brought her back into the room to check on me? Also yes.

But this is a journey that is one that ended beautifully. Even better than I had imagined.

No spoilers . And we will be seeing more of the crew in new adventures to come.

Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed) by Vawn Cassidy is a gorgeous book. It’s emotionally compelling and an exceptionally well written finale that’s one of the top books in my recommendations list as well as the series.

Read them in the order they were written.

Love the covers!

Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed:

✓ Dead Serious Case #1 Miz Dusty Le Frey #1

✓ Dead Serious Case #2 Mrs Delores Abernathy #2

✓ Dead Serious Case #3 Mr Bruce Reyes #3

✓ Dead Serious Case #4 Professor Prometheus Plume #4

✓ The Grim Adventures of Death and Chan: Vol. 1 (a Dead Serious Companion novella) – Side story

✓ Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne – series finale but not the end

Crawshanks Guide to the Occult :

◦ The Little Shop of Curiosities Cursed Object #1 – coming 2025

Buy Link:

Dead Serious Case #5 Madame Vivienne (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed)

Blurb:

For one brief shining moment, the utter insanity that is Tristan Everett’s world makes sense.

He’s marrying the man he loves, has a dead drag queen for a bestie and is surrounded by an amazing found family. Okay, so his life isn’t exactly what you’d call normal. By day, he’s a quiet, mild-mannered forensic pathologist, but the rest of the time, he guides lost souls into the light. He’s also averted an apocalypse, stopped Chaos from coming through a magic door, and drunk tequila with Death.

It’s all a bit bonkers, but it’s his life… and he loves it.

He’s flying high but, like Icarus, it’s only a matter of time before he’s brought crashing down to earth with singed wings. The strange reality of his life intrudes once again when his friend, Madame Vivienne, is murdered, and it’s clear from the beginning that this is no ordinary killing.

Someone is using dark magic.

Viv’s soul has been bound, leaving her trapped and unable to communicate. Tristan, Danny, and their friends must uncover the truth and find the killer. But the deeper they delve into the old bookshop in Whitechapel, which has been in the Crawshanks family for generations, the darker and the more dangerous the secrets that begin to unravel.

And what they discover may just change their lives forever…

• Publisher: (April 3, 2024)

• Publication date: April 3, 2024

• Language: English

• Print length: 299 pages

Crawshanks Universe Novellas/ Spin offs

The Grim Adventures of Death & Chan Vol 1 (Website Exclusive)

Blue Thunder (Website Exclusive)”