Shadow of the Phoenix (Storm's Quarry, #3) by Rebecca Harwell

Shadow of the Phoenix by Rebecca Harwell

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from Bold Strokes Books and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

When a book is released as part of a series (or, for that matter, released without mention of a series, but an unofficial series connects other books to that book . . . but that’s not what is occurring here so I’ll move on), it is important to ask and answer one simple question. How important is it to read the prior works in the series? It is prudent to ask a question like that – there are books that are officially part of a series, but there is no real connection between the books (and, sometimes, between the authors); then there are series like this one here. That builds on each additional novel. How important is it to read this series in order? Very.

Right, so, assuming you haven’t read the first book in this series – go and do that now. I’ll patiently wait here. Now read the second book, as this here is the third.

I’m both joking and serious in the last paragraph. Serious in that you need to read this series in order, joking that you need to do it immediately.

Right, so, what’s this third book about? Well, see . . . *insert here spoiler for the series* . . . and we enter the realm of ‘how do you talk about the third book in an interconnect series that builds on itself without spoiling prior books’?

Well, let’s look at the book description. ‘Nadya and Shay have built a quiet life together away from the island city-state of Storm’s Quarry and their outlaw vigilante identities, the Iron Phoenix and the Shadow Dragon.’ Well, that’s wrong on two levels. Nadya is constantly in a state of depression and guilt at the actions of the past. Shay keeps having jealous flashes, though she keeps getting reminded that ‘I choose you’. Quiet life? Built? They live in a tent and are caravanning around with Shay’s adoptive mother, the Forgemaster. And that ‘life away from . . . Iron Phoenix and the Shadow Dragon’ is just . . . wrong. They still put on the costumes and help those around them. Heck, the book opens (at least the Nadya & Shay part) with Nadya tentatively approaching the Forgemaster to ask to have her armor dinks un-dinked. Because it got damaged. From being used, by Nadya, as the Iron Phoenix.

The only thing ‘correct’ in the part I quoted from the book description would be the ‘away from . . . Storm’s Quarry’.

Okkkay, I was going to say the second paragraph in the book description is accurate, until I read it again and . . . just don’t read that, m’okay? The paragraph. It’s too spoiler-y. Mentions stuff that occurs later in the book, and is kind of spoilery.

Right, so, the two women who, over time, have developed a relationship – Shay and Nadya, continue their relationship. Though their bonds are tested when news reaches them that call Nadya back to the city-state. Not specifically that the city is/was under invasion/attack, but there are coded parts in the message that lead Nadya to suspect something like that. So they return and do what they can to help.

A good solid book. Enjoyable. There’s both a feeling, as another review (the only other review at the moment) indicated, that the series has reached its conclusion, while at the same time there’s a tantalizing bit that could be followed in another book that’s left open by how the book ended ((view spoiler)[you know, the Lode story (hide spoiler)]).

Rating: 4.44 (of note: I rated the first book ~4.25 stars, second 4.45, and now rate the third 4.44)

July 5 2018




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Neck Deep by Sophie Lack

Neck Deep by Sophie Lack

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I hate when I forget to review a book. Which is why I, randomly, gaze about my shelves to see what I’ve read recently and what doesn’t have a review. Whereupon I saw this book here with the review column empty. Pfft.

Genre: Fantasy – mostly confined inside one city-state (Praza)
Setting: Not earth
Of note: I rarely read books involving vampires that are set on ‘not earth’ locations. Not exactly sure why that is – I’ve read many shifter books set ‘elsewhere’ but . . . well there’s this book that has vampires in a not earth setting and . . . can’t think of any other work. (view spoiler)[(ETA: looking at other reviews reminds me that this is, in fact, something like 'shifter' fiction, since the vampires can shift into a different creature) (hide spoiler)]

Story: Elanna, while not immediately obvious, is an elf. She’s also blind, though the kind of blind that can see. Heh. Though she sees things differently than those who still have eyeballs – she sees . . . light, and colors, and . . . impressions. She has the ability to ‘tell’ if the ‘thing’ over there is an elf, vampire, hunter, etc. etc. by the ‘colors, scars, etc.’, and has the ability to ‘see’ through walls to see what’s going on in various rooms. Oh, and she’s an assassin.

The book opens with Elanna in a bar talking with a ‘hunter’ – a religious fanatic who believes all creatures that are not human are evil and must be killed. With slight exceptions – like Elves are near the top of ‘vaguely acceptable’ list. The hunter, whose name is, I think, Oren, wants to hire Elanna to hunt down and kill a vampire. Which she has no problem doing – for the right price. Oren gives her a bag of gold and says he’ll give more after the fact. Elanna says she’ll get the job done within a week – possibly even by the end of that night.

Elanna promptly gets bitten by Valia, the vampire (also an Elf), and turned into a vampire.

After a bunch of back and forth, Elanna joins Valia on her hunt of Oren. Some feelings between the two women also begin to develop.

A quick satisfying easy read. I do not specifically recall if there is or isn’t graphic depictions of a sexual nature, but I do see the book on at least one shelf titled ‘Great Sex’ so . . . there probably was graphic depictions of sex in there. I assume that the sex was neither disturbing to me, nor exciting/arousing/whateverthefuck as I didn’t even recall if any sex occurred and it has only been two days since I read the book and I recall everything else about the book (including the part where we have yet another awful mother in lesbian fiction scene).

Rating: 3.8

February 23 2018



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The Vampire's Accidental Wife (Nocturne Falls, #8) by Kristen Painter

The Vampire's Accidental Wife by Kristen Painter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well, now I come to the last Nocturne Falls romance book I haven’t yet read (I’d read the last, or most recently published, Nocturne Falls related book – the most recent Frost book, after this one). Again, and this is kind of a reoccurring theme with me, I was reluctant to read this specific pairing. More the Julian part.

You know rakes? And having them be a main character in a romance story? Most, or I should say, at the most we are talking about men who have ‘been with’ (oddly this is a quite clean undescriptive series, sex wise, so ‘been with’ instead of ‘fucked’) a large number of women in a rather short period of time, though occasionally ‘short period of time’ is ‘thirty years’. Here? Well, there’s no question Julian is a rake. He’s not someone who liked the idea of pretending to be one (as has been seen in some books), he’s not the one who is considered one but didn’t realize others thought of him that way, etc. etc. No, others know he is one, and he knows he is one. Of course he lives in ‘modern times’ so using the word ‘rake’ seems vaguely odd. Except . . . and here’s why I went on about 30 years and the like, except Julian has been a rake since before 1666, and it’s now, oh, 2017. He’s been with a ton of women for more than 350 years. He’s never been anything but a womanizer. When his family was ‘saved’ from the plague of 1666, his two brothers were married – while he himself never had considered the idea. He had continued to not considered the idea until about a year before this book begins (or, well, there’s a mix of ‘some stuff happened before this book starts’, ‘stuff happened’, ‘it’s now a year later’ that messes with my ability to tell time) when Julian first spotted Desdemona Valentine performing in Vegas. As a Vampire. Or, I should elaborate, she was performing as a human pretending to be a vampire (while, in actuality, having been a vampire for hundreds of years).

This is one of those rare Vampire-Vampire stories. It’s almost like seeing one of those creepy kinda icky books titled something like ‘My Billionaire’s Boss’s Butler’s Billionaire Boyfriend’s Roommate’, though here both parties would be billionaire’s, or, I mean, Vampires. If I recall correctly, this is only the second time in this series that two of a kind romance each other, and that includes the Frost series (well, a Winter Elf and a Summer Elf are two different things . . . in that universe). Here we have two vampires, and in ‘The Werewolf Meets His Match’, there are two werewolves.

Now that I’ve written all of that above, I’ve forgotten what I had actually intended to write about this book. Hmms. I rather liked both main characters, and the story.

ETA: Ah, I recall now what I wanted to write.

Julian and Des open the book in the same bed. Julian had been chasing her for a while, and Des kept putting him off. Willing to be near him but . . . she just can't allow herself to love because of her past history. Why are they in bed together at the start of the book then? Because . . . they had just gotten married the night before (not seen in the book). Des, you see, was celebrating a career advancement type thing (television contract), and was drinking. One thing lead to another and . . . well, I forgot to mention this part - they are in Las Vegas, so . . .Julian and Des got married.

Julian wakes up the next morning and wanders around, happily doing things, getting a drink, getting Des a drink, etc. (Crap. 'next morning' technically is 'next evening' since, Julian is a daywalking type vampire, but Des is a night-walking type vampire - as in, Julian can survive regardless of the time of day, while Des will burst into flames in sunlight). Des wakes up, looks around and . . . well, long story short, she's quite annoyed about the situation. One thing leads to another and Julian talks her into allowing them to stay married for a year then, if she still can't 'love' him, they'll get divorced.

Flash forward almost a year - Des calls Julian needing his help (and quite reluctant to ask for it). There's someone stalking her, which in and of itself isn't unusual, but they've injured her double in a car crash - so this is a much more serious situation. Again with the 'one thing leads to another' and Julian and Des head to Nocturne Falls to hide.

For the vast majority of their marriage, no one knew they were married - except for each other. And they hadn't actually consummated the marriage despite waking up in bed together afterwards.

Stuff in Nocturne Falls occurs. Des' backstory is revealed. Stalker bounces around. More story unfolds. etc. etc. The end.

Rating: 4.5

February 21 2018



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The Vampire's Fake Fiancée (Nocturne Falls, #5) by Kristen Painter

The Vampire's Fake Fiancée by Kristen Painter

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was a very difficult book to read. The lead male character, the vampire Sebastian (and brother to Hugh - the lead in book one in this series), is just plain unlikable in almost every way. Somewhere around the 60 to 75% mark I just wanted to close the book and not continue, but I did, since this is something like the . . . um .. . 11th book by this author I've read. And I'd been able to complete all the other ones. So . . . I completed this one.

Just to remind myself later: Sebastian's wife of four hundred plus years has returned (after an absence of, roughly, four hundred years). Long story short: Sebastian’s grandmother dated a vampire in 1666 – plague breaks out, to save her family, she allowed herself to be turned, then she ‘turned’ her grandsons, who, in turn, attempted to turn their wives (well, two of the three brothers had wives at the time, the third did not). One of the wives died in the process – that’s Hugh’s former wife. Other found vampire life to be freeing and wandered off to ‘find herself’ for the last 400 years. But, as already noted, she’s back now. Sebastian has been pinning away for his wife, but her actions/reactions/comments when she returns annoy him to the point of saying that no, she can’t just slide back into his life as his wife – in fact, he already has a fiancée sooo… He doesn’t, but, meh.

Enter into the story one Tessa Blythe – who everyone, it seems, calls super plain and boring. She’s a librarian with a cat. In a crappy job (mostly because of her crappy boss). Her sister, who is a deputy in Nocturne Falls, finally talks her into moving to Nocturne Falls since there’s a great librarian job open there. So she does it – quits her job, moves . . . before actually having that other job.

During the interview a man rushes in – Sebastian – without even paying attention to the fact that anyone other than Hugh is in the room, he rants about his wife then said he needed a fake fiancée. Tessa sister is, for whatever reason, in the room with Tessa (this is kind of mind-boggling, why the fuck is the sister in there? Seriously? Is it normal for someone to have their sister join her on a job interview?) and immediately says that her sister, Tessa, could be the fake fiancée. She, Tessa, just sits there in shock. Sebastian, for his part, takes one look at Tessa, and calls her a plain mouse. And that she wouldn’t do.

One thing leads to another and the complete jackass Sebastian ends up with his fake fiancée. Throughout the story, Sebastian attempts to mold Tessa into someone else (clothing, hair, jewelry, fencing), though Tessa does, at times, stand up for herself.

The wife and the extended family meet, have dinner, stuff happens, (view spoiler)[Tessa beats Sebastian’s wife over the head with a sword, the cat gets a huge tree house, the end (hide spoiler)].

Rating: 2.25

February 16 2018




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The Dragon Finds Forever (Nocturne Falls, #7) by Kristen Painter

The Dragon Finds Forever by Kristen Painter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In my previous review in this multi-series universe, I made a point of noting that Jayne Frost and Elves in general, from the Miss Frost series, seemed alarmingly and noticeably absent from the Nocturne Falls Series. Despite both series sharing the same small town in Georgia as a setting (and the same time period).

Then I read this book here and . . . oops. This Nocturne Falls series book came out 8 months before the Miss Frost series book I had made the comment in. And it includes both Jayne Frost, in a cameo, and elves. Heh, oopsie. Tis what I get for both not paying attention to series universe chronology, and twice skipping over book five in the Nocturne Series. Right, no matter.

So, Jayne Frost and her gang of feral Yeti’s invade . . . I’ve no idea what I’m writing at the moment. No, Frost makes just a cameo, she’s not the center of this story. And there are no Yeti’s in this book.

Like the first Jayne Frost book, though, one of the main characters in this book goes undercover. Unlike in that first Frost book, it isn’t to catch a criminal (or more accurately figure out why store employees keep disappearing). No, here, the undercover work is more like spy work. There’s a specific word and or phrase for it in the spy fiction word, what did they call it . . . a honey trap or something like that? It’s not honey pot, I know that, that’s something completely different. Right, sorry. The female main character in this story, Monalisa Devlin, has taken an assumed name and an assumed position to attempt to lure the other main character, Ivan Tsvetkov, back into the supernatural version of the ultimate fighting league.

She’d earlier blinded him in a fight that had occurred roughly two weeks before the start of this book. Blinding him In the middle of the fight, so that he was not able to block the attack of his opponent which infected him with supernatural venom which has basically removed him from the fighting world. For reasons that are unclear, Monalisa, or, as she calls herself ‘Lisa Devers’, is there in Nocturne Falls to finish the job . . .well, to lure him back to Vegas to fight . . . ‘finish the job’ just sounded better. She pretends she’s his League assigned physical therapist.

‘For reasons that are unclear’ – I don’t mean Monalisa’s reasons, those are clear – she’s being forced to do it (like she had earlier been forced to blind Ivan, or, as he calls himself, Van) by her father, the king of the Leprechauns. It’s the reasons of the father that are unclear. I mean, he’s a greedy vicious tyrant, but why he’s trying to do the things he’s trying to do to Van is unclear.

Right, so, Van and Monalisa fall for each other but Monalisa’s super sad about it because, you know, the undercover thing, and the luring thing. Oh, so luring – Monalisa is a ‘Will O’the Wisp’ who has ‘luring’ powers. A leprechaun had a Will … daughter? Well, her mother is a pixie which means . . . nothing to me in terms of Will’s. No idea why Monalisa is a Will O’the Wisp. Wisps are ‘an atmospheric ghost light’ which has nothing to do with leprechauns, or pixie’s. It’s like the author decided to have a cat and dog mate, and their off-spring is aurora borealis.eh, whatever.

Where’d I leave off before I started talking about lights? Hmms. Well, Lisa and Van circle each other. Van’s dog does cute stuff. Revelations occur. A visit to Vegas occurs. Characters great and small from prior books (and other parallel series) appear. The end.

Rating: 3.45

February 15 2018




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The Professor Woos The Witch (Nocturne Falls #4) by Kristen Painter

The Professor Woos The Witch by Kristen Painter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


One of the disadvantages of a romance book is that it is a character driven genre (also one of the advantages), since you kind of need to like the main characters to be able to enjoy the book. And, quite frankly, for many reasons I did not like Cole. He came off as a judgmental, pushy, asshole too much of the time.

I realize there was magic in the air, so to speak (literal or otherwise) but his inability to take no, his pushiness towards Pandora was frankly creepy. Every once in a while he'd suddenly be all 'oh, I have a daughter, she's my number one priority, I must think of her first when thinking of romantic relationships' (the impact on her and the like) - most of the time, though, he wouldn't stop touching, kissing, and being too close to Pandora - regardless of whether his daughter was in the room or not. If he wasn't exactly Pandora's type, if she didn't lust over him - his actions would be highlighted even more obviously as creepy.

I mean, the guy literally kept just turning up on her porch - even when he knew she wanted space. 'It's not creepy at all that I'm just hanging out on your porch while you're not around.' And/or just turning up with food without first checking to see if turning up with food would be okay or creepy. Heck, that's even mentioned by him and others as one of the 'creepy' signs that his ex-wife was evil.

Right - didn't like Cole. Made reading the book super hard. The end.

Rating: 2.66

February 12 2018



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Crashing Down by Asher Monroe

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Found: http://archiveofourown.org/works/727159?view_full_work=true


This is a fanfiction book set in the Buffy the Vampire series universe shortly after the last episode, 'The Gift', in season 5.

During a battle with one of those demons/gods/powerful beings people, Buffy ended up going through a portal. She, and others, expected/suspected that she'd die if she went through it, but she did it for the greater good, and stuff. That's the television episode - and I'm being super vague on purpose.

The book opens with Buffy resting on the ground outside. She blinks and looked around, confused as to how things didn't look heavenly and/or adjacent to heavenly (like, say, near some pearl gates). She then spots a woman beating up a vampire and is super confused. For the woman is one she knows, and one that should be in jail . . . but isn't.

Faith and Buffy interact, but Faith hasn't a clue who Buffy is, and might have left her there to her own devices, but for Buffy mentioning the name 'Giles'. So, Faith takes Buffy to Giles. Whereupon - Giles exclaims in shock - for it's Buffy! Who had died a good while back under the hands of 'The Master' (Buffy: 'but Xander gave me CPR!'; Giles: 'he didn't get to you in time').

Relatively quickly it comes out that Buffy is on a different version of earth. There are some significant differences, and some significant similarities. Most of the people are roughly the same, maybe different jobs, or the like, though mostly the same. Except for Buffy, of course, because she's dead. And Faith - who, well, I don't want to reveal everything, but let's just say that everyone apparently ended up 'better' with Buffy dead. For reasons. Faith is the resident Slayer in Sunnydale (well, the Slayer on that earth, but...), and has a girlfriend. As was the case on the other world - Giles is there; as is Willow (still dating Tara), and Xander (still engaged to Anya) . . . and the like.

Buffy is quite taken with that world. It's a nice world. And being that she's not the slayer of that world, she's in kind of vacation mode. She's not constantly worrying, training, fighting - she's just . . . allowed to be herself.

She's still kinda freaking out about Faith, though, because the Faith she knows was always fighting her and kinda went evil. While this Faith never knew Buffy (Buffy died, Kendra became Slayer, Kendra died, Faith became Slayer), and had some support she didn't have on the other world. Buffy adjusts, though, and, well, realizes certain truths she had not allowed herself to see before. Truths about why Faith acted the way she did, sometimes, why Buffy herself acted certain ways. Why that one time when Faith had her locked up in chains with a knife near her, Buffy was kinda aroused. And stuff.

But, as already noted, Faith has a girlfriend. And this isn't really her Faith, though there are strong similarities. She's still not the same, though.

Then Buffy has one of those 'Slayer dreams' the kind where more than one person can be present. Well, Faith's in there. They talk and stuff. Shortly before the dream ended, Buffy suddenly realized that it hadn't been altra Faith she had been talking to, but her Faith.

A deep soul searching was conducted. A spirit quest. Into feelings and stuff. Buffy had been kind of blasé about getting back to her own world, but now - she has to get back! Seconds later, Giles informs Buffy that there's just no way to get Buffy back. They'd, basically, have to get that God that Buffy had been fighting to power the portal. And that's not going to happen. Seconds later Buffy is feeling lots of pain.

Somewhere along the way I'd have said something like 'and that's spoiler-y, so I won't say . . . ' but . . .. We aren't even at the halfway point, and the book promised a Faith/Buffy relationship. And one isn't happening, and can't happen because of that other girlfriend, and . . . stuff. Sooo - after the waves of pain release Buffy, she blinks and looks around, and finds herself on her own world again. Super eager to visit Faith. Who, recall, is in prison.

Buffy and Faith begin a tentative relationship. Stuff happens. Some people react badly, some well. More stuff happens.

Book came to a satisfying conclusion. Except, then, a few more paragraphs appeared. That appeared to be setting up a sequel - which the end notes proclaimed - would never happen now, because the author got busy with other fandoms. And so - the book both ends satisfactory, and ends abruptly (since we have like the first chapter in the next book tacked on to the end of the other book (well, not really but . . .).

There was sex. Occasionally graphic, occasionally non-graphic.

The characters seemed to correspond to how I recalled them (and I had seen an episode somewhere during the reading process, so I had some fresh remembrances to check with). Plot kind of meandered, but was readable and enjoyable.

Overall - a good solid read.

Rating: 4.00

September 14 2017

River Tale by Jau N.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less than Three in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story with the lovely cover is one that I should have read and reviewed long ago. There's really only one reason why it took me so long to get around to doing so - I'd read too many short stories around the same time I picked this one up that were . . . . vaguely off-putting and or outright involved sex with squids - sometimes sex between squids, and I really had no clue what this story was supposed to be about going by the description so . . . I hesitated until the point I'd waited too long. But I've read the story now.

Strange thing occurred. I'd finished a book, but needed something else to dip into while completing a different task. So I figured I'd finally dive into this one. Few paragraphs here or there, maybe even the entire story (it is only 40 something pages after all). But then I started the work and . . . I couldn't stop. I felt like I'd falling into a fast moving river that had caught me up and wouldn't let me loose. When I finally shook myself free . . . the story was over. And I was quite happy to have gone on the ride.

It's a simple tale, really, beautifully told, but still a simple story. The story stars a young woman, who described herself in such a way that you know she's kind of . . . largely unattractive, with the best that could be said is that she had nice dark skin and nice hair (hmm, eyes are normally another thing that people mention of those who are (and aren't) attractive, yet no mention of nice eyes to add to the few nice things people say about her). But she's a princess and so people have to say nice things about her. Anything they can latch on to, so they latched onto skin and hair.

Her uncle, who is the king, is dying. A wizard cursed him and the only way to save him is to get a particular black rose from an enchanted forest. Many have tried, some have returned alive, but empty handed. The story starts with the girl taking on the task herself. She has spent her life reading about this forest, and about magical creatures, and knows most (all?) have attempted the task in all the wrong ways (going in while wearing iron, etc.).

And so she enters. Comes to a river. Has a conversation with the river. Is allowed across, reaches the garden that has the rose, is given a task by the elves there - then more tasks. Etc. etc. It's a simple tale, as I said. But a quite lovely tale for what it is. Including the part wherein the river and the princess fall in love during it. Or, maybe I should say, the Naiad in the river (here used to describe a water nymph, not used to describe the aquatic larva of dragonflies/mayflies/or stoneflies).

I look forward to finding more stories by this French author.

Rating: 4.88

August 26 2017