Book Review Alert: Raine of Fire by Susan Stradiotto

Reviewed: September 4th, 2022
Released: August 22nd, 2020
Genre: Fantasy

Sparks fly when an exiled Fae prince and a straight-laced detective team up to solve a murder.

Banished by his mother from Faerie, Raine Abarta wants nothing more than to entertain people on the streets of Wickney, Wisconsin. But when the daughter of a prominent senator stumbles upon his show, he’s drawn into her world and her mother’s murder.

When Raine takes his act down to the police department with intentions of helping solve the puzzle–or, uh, the “case”–he meets the ultra-serious Detective Kennedi Craine. To his dismay, she views him as nothing more than a charlatan, but when has that ever stopped him?

Kennedi’s latest case is open and shut, more of a paperwork and media hassle than a case. Senator La Point, after all, was holding the smoking gun over his wife’s lifeless body. So, when a random guy off the street walks in telling her she’s wrong, she sends him on his merry way. At least she thinks she does. As he keeps popping up, she begins to wonder if he’s on to something. And when he broaches a situation from her past, she just can’t leave him alone.

Raine helps her solve another small case, and she starts to wonder if there might be something more to both mysteries before her. Read my thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Shattered Kingdom by Angelina J. Steffort

Reviewed: August 20th, 2022
Released: June 30th, 2020
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy

Sworn to a goddess. One with her blade. A heart yet unbroken.

It would have been only one more year of training. One year in the dust and wind of the Calma Desert. But Gandrett Brayton’s fate storms in disguised as a beautiful stranger with a damning secret.

As he forces her into the service of the lord who tore her from her mother’s arms ten years ago to commit her to the Order of Vala, Gandrett is left with a choice: run, or work for the man she despises and earn the chance to see her family again.

Trained with all the weapons she can wield with her hands, Gandrett must learn that at the courts of the shattered kingdom of Sives, her sword won’t help her– especially when it is her own heart on the line. Read my thoughts…

Book Review Alert: A Prince’s Errand by Dan Zangani and Robert Zangani

Reviewed: August 19th, 2022
Released: December 3rd, 2020
Genre: Epic Romance

Long ago, men harnessed the Channels of Power, creating tevisrals-devices capable of manifesting magic. But men weren’t the only ones to accomplish such feats. Dragons crafted the most sophisticated tevisrals. These shaped the world, defining civilization of man and elf alike.

Over the centuries, the people of Kalda have fallen into a dark age, where elves are estranged from men and dragons have retreated into legend. Tevisrals are scarce and men are willing to trade everything for them. But there are some who wish to bury the past, and in their lands, possessing tevisrals is tantamount to treason.

Still, daring men scour the world in search of Kalda’s past. One such man, the scholar Krindal, seeks an ancient order known as the Keepers of Truth and Might. He yearns for their knowledge, long feared lost.

Prince Kaescis Midivar also searches for these Keepers. The assassination of his uncle, the emperor of Mindolarn, killed his hopes of peace with his empire’s enemies. His empire’s survival hinges upon unearthing the Keepers’ secrets.

An aging warrior, Cornar Dol’shir, longs to be home with his wife. But his retirement must wait, as his band of adventurers is recruited to help find the Keepers’ hidden temple on the Isle of Klindala.

Haunted by his tragic past, Iltar, the Son of Adrin, does not join in the search for the Keepers. Instead, he seeks to unravel the mysteries held within a volume of prophecy foretelling the advent of the Unspoken One and the return of the Crimson Eye. His search takes him to the Empire of Mindolarn, where all is not as it seems.

An ancient war was won by a simple amulet. It brought peace, but in the wrong hands it could spell a doom the likes of which no world has ever seen.

May the Crimson Eye remain hidden for all time…Read my thoughts

Book Review Alert: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Banner

Reviewed: August 16th, 2022
Released: August 23rd, 2022
Genre: Fantasy Romance

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.

Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.

If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most–Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares–each other?

Set in a world full of magic and demigods, donuts and small-town drama, this enchantingly quirky, utterly unique fantasy is perfect for readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Invisible Library. Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Shiver by Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott

Reviewed: August 14th, 2022
Released: October 17th, 2015
Genre: MM Romance

Lucas Vallois is always in control. He’s building an empire in the glittering city of Cincinnati and created his own family from his three close friends. The self-made millionaire has everything he wants within his tight grasp. But his world starts to crumble after he’s jumped by a trio of thugs late one night after leaving a club. The warning is clear – give up his new property venture or end up dead.

Caving to the demands of his friends, Lucas accepts the help of bodyguard Andrei Hadeon as he hunts for the source of this new threat. But as Lucas gets closer to uncovering the danger, he realizes the sexy Romanian bodyguard poses an even bigger risk to his carefully constructed world. Trapped by a need he never expected, Lucas must find a way to deny the shiver of longing he cannot control.

His brother. His warrior. His heart. Four friends. Unbreakable bonds. Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Elf Tangent by Lindsay Buroker

Reviewed: July 23rd 2022
Released: March 15th, 2022
Genre: Fantasy Romance

As a princess in the impoverished kingdom of Delantria, it’s Aldari’s job to look pretty, speak little, and marry a prince.

Studying mathematics and writing papers on economic theory in an effort to fix her people’s financial woes? Her father has forbidden it. With war on the horizon, they must focus on the immediate threat.

Reluctantly, Aldari agrees to marry a prince in a neighboring kingdom to secure an alliance her people desperately need. All is going to plan until the handsome elven mercenary captain hired to guard her marriage caravan turns into her kidnapper. His people are in trouble, and he believes she has the knowledge to help.

But with an invasion force approaching Delantria, Aldari’s own people need her. She must do everything in her power to escape the elves and make it to her wedding in time.

Never mind that her kidnapper is witty, clever, and offers her a challenge that intrigues her mind even as his easy smile intrigues her heart…

Aldari can’t let herself develop feelings for him. To fall in love and walk away from her wedding would mean the end of her kingdom and everyone she cares about. Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: The Guardian of the Palace by Steven J. Morris

Reviewed: July 21st, 2022
Released: December 20th, 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy

Everyone knows magic isn’t real.
Alien invaders? Ha!

But something destroyed an entire skyscraper in a never-before-seen implosion. Can one skeptical security guard stand between monsters and magic that threaten the world?

Disillusioned with her military career, Red Hernandez crawled back to civilian life as a second tier security lead for an engineering marvel meant to cram more people into the tiny island of Manhattan. She expected her biggest struggles to be integrating back into a society where social media and closet space reigned supreme. But when mysterious forces destroy a building similar to the one she’s chartered to protect, in an implosive blast never before seen, all notions of a cushy retirement job go up in smoke.

With lives on the line, but big money pushing to continue construction, Red finds the steely determination that she’d lost in the desert of her past. Monsters lurk in the shadows, forcing her to re-evaluate everything she believed to be true… and all that she imagined.

Can one woman save the world, or will disbelief be her undoing? Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Og-Grim-Dog by Jamie Edmundson

Reviewed: June 16th, 2022
Released: May 21st, 2020
Genre: Gaming Fantasy/Humour

Two heads are better than one.
Three can be a real pain in the arse.

We are Og-Grim-Dog!
We have been loved and reviled! We have been the Hero of the Hour, the Darkest Villain, and everything in between! We have saved this world and travelled to worlds beyond it!
You think you can distil the life of Og-Grim-Dog into some words on a page?
When a stranger visits their inn, the regulars are in for a surprise. Did their Landlord really come here from Gal’azu—the dangerous, edgier province to the east? Could it be that his stories, so fanciful and fantastical, were episodes from his previous life?
When their Landlord is persuaded to have his life story recorded for posterity, the surprises come thick and fast. Just like his regulars, you too can learn how a three-headed ogre came to be a hero. Unlike them, you don’t stand to be killed if it all goes wrong…

Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Dragon Mage by ML Spencer

Reviewed: June 15th, 2022
Released: December 19th, 2020

Aram Raythe has the power to challenge the gods. He just doesn’t know it yet.
Aram thinks he’s nothing but a misfit from a small fishing village in a dark corner of the world. As far as Aram knows, he has nothing, with hardly a possession to his name other than a desire to make friends and be accepted by those around him, which is something he’s never known. But Aram is more. Much, much more.

Unknown to him, Aram bears within him a gift so old and rare that many people would kill him for it, and there are others who would twist him to use for their own sinister purposes. These magics are so potent that Aram earns a place at an academy for warrior mages training to earn for themselves the greatest place of honor among the armies of men: dragon riders.

Aram will have to fight for respect by becoming not just a dragon rider, but a Champion, the caliber of mage that hasn’t existed in the world for hundreds of years. And the land needs a Champion. Because when a dark god out of ancient myth arises to threaten the world of magic, it is Aram the world will turn to in its hour of need. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Claiming Marcus by Jocelynn Drake

Reviewed: June 23rd, 2022
Released: October 31st, 2019
Genre: MM Paranornal Romance

Ethan wants revenge.

Vampires slaughtered his family.

When a job opening comes up for suspected vampire Marcus Varik, Ethan is sure fate is finally smiling on him.

Except his new boss is nothing like he expected.

Shy, awkward, incredibly protective, and so perfectly sexy.

Ethan was definitely wrong about Marcus and the Variks, but is it too late to stop the deadly events he has set into motion? Will he lose the love shining in Marcus’s eyes? Read More…