Review: Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up #4) by K. F. Breene

Rating: 4.5⭐️

I’m so enjoying this series and growing group of paranormal characters. And each story just keeps getting better and better, the characters evolving their roles into a deeper dynamic and the storyline developing into something richer and more complex.

Magical Midlife Love was fantastic because of its many great elements. Jessie and Austin, who have been dancing around each other, finally get their relationship. It’s two complicated people with tough personal relationships in their pasts and who are in the middle of negotiating tricky current situations who finally realize they can make it through as loving equals . 

Then we get Austin’s brother and a further understanding of Austin’s past that drove him to where he is emotionally and physically. This is also a huge part of the series arc going forward. 

Plus Jessie made a magical request for a mage to help her with her magic. And that request was answered. And leads to an incredible shocking climax in the story.

Just amazing! 

Love, love the author’s plotting and characterizations here. Fabulous work that keeps me engaged throughout the story but scrambling for the next book!

A absolute winner!

Leveling Up (13 book series):

Magical Midlife Madness #1

Magical Midlife Dating #2

Magical Midlife Invasion #3

Magical Midlife Love #4

Magical Midlife Meeting #5

Magical Midlife Challenge #6

Magical Midlife Alliance #7

Magical Midlife Flowers #8

Magical Midlife Battle #9

Magical Midlife Awakening #10

Magical Midlife Rescue #11

Magical Midlife Rogue #12

Magical Midlife Conclave #13 – Nov 12,2026

Buy link

        Magical Midlife Love: A Paranormal Women’s Fiction Novel (Leveling Up Book 4)

    

Blurb 

The fourth book in the Wall Street Journal bestselling Leveling Up series. 

The Ivy House team is shaping up, but there are still holes to be filled, and a magical summons outstanding. Jessie needs a teacher. Someone who can fit in with the whacky Ivy House crew.

And that was going just fine…until she gets a request to host a powerful, neighboring mage. A teacher isn’t going to be enough.

She needs more power in her crew. She needs some might. This time, Austin Steele might not be able to dominate what she calls in, creatures no shifter has ever dominated before.

But that isn’t all Austin has to worry about.

After a skirmish in the bar, suddenly his whole world is turned upside down. He can no longer ignore the feelings that have been growing for Jess. He also can’t ignore the town’s complete lack of readiness for the neighboring mage’s visit.

He must call in his brother to help lock down the town. And when his brother arrives, he must finally hash out the past that has split them apart so that he can claim his future.

 

Review: Dire Threat (The Austin Wolves #1) by C. P. Rider 

Rating: 4⭐️

Dire Threat, the first story in The Austin Wolves series by C. P. Rider, is set in the same universe as Rider’s Sundance series, which came out first. So much of the characters and events mentioned here are from major happenings and storylines that occurred during those stories. 

The threats that come to Texas are those carrying over from the Sundance series and the horrors of certain characters situations. Crossover characters, like the Alpha Juan Martinez, who was first introduced in the second Sundance novel, when he came visiting his friend the Alpha in Arizona. 

The real threats (government and otherwise) to the paranormal community, layered across shifter territories, and brought various members together. And continues to do so with the second series. 

Siren Emmaline Spirett is still traumatized by her past, her captivity and time under a deadly paranormal organization that has left permanent damage to her and her wolf shifter brother. 

This novella sets up a new location and continues the story for survivors of the past ordeal and deadly agency, and how the tragedy affects them and their relationships.

It’s a crossover story and series but it’s not entirely necessary to have read the Sundance series, although it helps.

I enjoyed Emmeline but find that Alpha Juan Martinez is too stalker for me to connect with. I far prefer the mage to the shifter, complicated to pound the chest if you were. 

The story has terrific elements and lots of narrative energy to keep the reader engaged with the characters and the plot. 

Recommended. 

Cover design by Danielle Fine, By Definition

The Austin Wolves Series (4 book series)

Dire Threat #1

Dire Warning #2

Dire Straits #3

Dire End #4 

Buy link

 Book 1 of 4: The Austin Wolves Series 

Blurb 

An Urban Fantasy Romance NOVELLA

Siren Emmaline Spirett thought she’d escaped her violent past when she rescued her wolf-shifter brother and fled a deadly paranormal organization. But when her past not only resurfaces but snatches her off the street and holds her against her will, she realizes it might not be so far behind her after all.

Wolf shifter Juan Martinez is the alpha leader of Texas’s largest and oldest pack. Intelligent, protective, and controlling, he’s faced down more than one murderous paranormal group. But, while he’s not the sort to go looking for trouble, he never backs down when it comes looking for him—or his people.

Emmaline’s brother Noah is one of his people. However, Emmaline is not. She has no intention of remaining in Austin and even less intention of joining his pack.
So why is he moving heaven and earth to find her?

If you enjoy urban fantasy with slow-burn romance, fast-paced action, and impertinent magicals, consider picking up a copy of DIRE THREAT, Book 1 of The Austin Wolves Series.

Please note: This is a long NOVELLA. Book 2 will be a full-length novel.

VC Group, LLC

Publication date

December 1, 2022

Language

‎English

Print length

136 pages

Book 1 of 4

The Austin Wolves Series