Book Review Alert: The Doorway by Jesse L. Watson

Reviewed: February 11th, 2024
Released: October 24th, 2023
Genre: Science Fiction

FBI Agent Gene Wyke is the best of the best. But can he find a girl missing in another world?

High in the mountains of Colorado, veteran FBI agent Gene Wyke is tasked with locating ten-year-old Marigold Riley, an assignment he hopes will be the last of his career. But the investigation goes sideways when Marigold’s twin sister Katie vanishes as well. Literally.

In the middle of a forest clearing, Gene watches her dissolve into thin air.

To follow, Gene must leave his training behind and step through a doorway to another world—one filled with wonders, as well as dangers real enough to kill him. In the end, saving the two girls will take more than Gene’s cunning and skill; it will take his heart, and change it forever. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Tea, Cake and Murder! by K.J. Heritage

Reviewed: February 8th, 2024
Released: February 7th, 2024
Genre: Cosy Mystery

A talented spell-weaving witch on the run is forced to find magical refuge in a mystery novel, playing the role of Emily Crookshanks, amateur sleuth and professional flirt.

Waking up with no idea who or where she is, Emily finds herself in the quaint 1920s English countryside village of Little Pucklewick, uncomfortably sharing tea and cakes with the not so Reverend Wilson-Smallsey, the village’s rather pompous womanising vicar.

After a series of shocking murders, Emily hooks up with the village doctor, a rather dashing ex-RAF fighter pilot known to his chums as ‘Ceddars’. Working together, they uncover clues and interrogate suspects.

Add an inept inspector, various pompous ladies from the regular vicarage get-togethers, a dashing explorer recently returned from the Orient, his very attractive career-minded secretary, and a whole host of motives and clues, including a series of nasty accusatory posters, and Emily finds herself in the middle of a most confusing and frustrating mystery.

But more than the murders, Emily suffers from terrifying visions of attack and desperate escape. And just what are wands and spell-weavery, and the smartphones and hi-def televisions she occasionally glimpses in her mind?

Despite everything, Emily knows that to survive, she must solve the mystery and, to do that, she must keep going to The End. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Archer 887 by Anna Schroeder

Reviewed: January 30th, 2024
Released: July 1st, 2022
Genre: Science Fiction

An unknown invader. A devastating attack. And the system’s uneasy peace is broken.

Decimated, the Caprician Empire teeters on the brink of defeat. Her detractors, restive colonies and rapacious rivals alike, must come together to protect their system from invasion and domination.

Arsaces Wood is a man most wished had been killed the day he halted a doomed rebellion. Resented by the ruling Capricians and shunned by his kin, he now commands a Sentient, the AI warship Westerland.

Yet even as they join the system’s desperate defense, he discovers those he trusts most have been lying to him. Hiding secrets that threaten not only his life, but the very worlds he is fighting to save. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Divine Guidance by Shari T. Mitchell

Reviewed: January 25th, 2024
Released: October 10th, 2014
Genre: Paranormal Murder Mystery

Psychic psychologist Marnie Reilly battles inner demons every day. But when the “demon” is flesh and blood, will the final analysis be murder?

Marnie Reilly is a hot-headed counselor with a difficult past; a dead mother, father, brother and an abusive ex-boyfriend. She has publicly taken on “The Collective,” a group of psychics and charlatans who sell hope at top dollar to troubled people looking for answers. They have threatened her, but she hasn’t taken their “hoodoo voodoo” nonsense seriously – until now.

When the police find Marnie’s ex-boyfriend’s dead body in her shed, she finds herself in the middle of a murder inquiry. Serious questions arise about her involvement in the murder and Marnie is certain The Collective has framed her.
Marnie, her Border Collie, a childhood friend and a cranky detective battle thunder, rain, ice and blizzards to end a rash of murders in the sleepy city of Creekwood. Will the ghosts of her past help too? Read My Thoughts…

Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Followers of the Owl by M.G Hernandez

Reviewed: January 21st, 2024
Released: August 18th, 2022
Genre: Mystery Suspense

A girl and a boy, haunted by their past, must battle their personal demons to fight the evil hiding in plain sight.

Eighteen-year-old Dee Bailey works hard on her personal brand. She’s intelligent and passionate about her community. To her peers, she’s a great friend and everyone’s favorite social butterfly.

But when alone, she’s terrorized by a secret that leaves her cowering to the floor. Until one night, a mysterious girl in white appears on the manicured lawn of her family’s vacation home. She follows the robed figure into the woods with no clue that she’s about to change the course of her future.

Meanwhile, Brandon Cuenca is drowning in the weight of his self-sabotage. Mourning the death of his girlfriend, he throws himself deep into a world of drug binges and questionable life choices—until the news of another disappearance of a Wakefield teenager forces him to set his problems aside. The victim was the third girl abducted in their social circle.

But when a chance encounter lands him in her path, he learns that bringing her home is more complicated than finding her. What happens when the missing doesn’t want to be found?

Followers of the Owl explores greed, avarice and the human need to find light in the darkness.

Trigger Warnings: Use of profanity, drug use/alcohol use, no sex but brief sexual interactions, dysfunctional relationships, brief discussions of triggering topics: sexual/physical abuse.

Read my Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Reviewed: January 20th, 2024
Released: September 14th, 2023
Genre: Romantic Fantasy

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, level-headed assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things in General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage’s employment status isn’t just important, it’s vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer-naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain-and his entire nefarious empire-out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work… and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find…. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Shards of Glass by Michelle Sagara

Reviewed: January 13th, 2024
Released: November 23rd, 2023
Genre: Epic Fantasy

The Academia, once an elite proving ground for the rulers of the world, has been frozen for centuries. Now its strange slumber has ended, and a new Chancellor, an orange-eyed dragon, has reopened its lecture halls and readied its dorms. In order to thrive once more, however, the Academia needs fresh blood—new students with a passion and talent for learning.

One such student, Robin, has the perfect recruit in mind: his friend Raven, an orphan who lives in the dangerous Warrens. Robin grew up in the Warrens, and he wouldn’t have made it if not for Raven. He knows she’ll be safe at the Academia, where her unusual gifts can be appreciated.

But when students start turning up dead, the campus threatens to collapse completely. Raven and Robin will not let that happen to their new home…if they can survive long enough to figure out who—or what—is trying to kill them. Read My Thoughts…

Book Review Alert: Dead Serious Case #4: Professor Prometheus Plume by Vawn Cassidy

Reviewed: January 1st, 2024
Released: December 31st, 2023
Genre: MM Paranormal Fantasy

Inspector Danny Hayes has something very important to ask his boyfriend Tristan Everett. Over the past six months they’ve survived reapers, chaos monsters, and biblical storms, not to mention averting an apocalypse. So, what’s left to do but pop the big question?

Tristan is ready for a break from world-saving, spectral crises, and most definitely from ghosts. He wants some one-on-one time with his boyfriend, preferably horizontally. So when their Boxing Day celebrations result in a drunken booking of a romantic New Year’s getaway at a quiet little hotel near the wilds of the north Yorkshire moors, Tristan can’t wait.

But as usual nothing ever goes according to plan. Snowed in during an unexpected murder mystery weekend at what turns out to be one of the most haunted hotels in Northern England is not what they had in mind, but when one of the actors turns up really dead not just fake dead, they once again find themselves caught up in another investigation.

With only one night to figure out who the killer is while wrangling a multitude of overly helpful ghosts, Tristan begins to wonder if romance really is dead… Read My Thoughts …

Book Review Alert: Death Before Dragons by Lindsay Buroker

Reviewed: December 29th, 2023
Released: March 10th, 2021
Genre: Urban Fantasy

I’m Val Thorvald, and I kill bad guys for a living.

My half-elven blood, magical sword, and telepathic tiger give me an edge, at least against most villains. But when dragons show up in Seattle, the city is in serious trouble—and so am I. Dragons are bigger, stronger, and more powerful than anything I’ve battled, and they don’t appreciate it when you sass them.

Just ask Lord Zavryd’nokquetal. That’s a name, not a cat hacking up a hairball, and if you mispronounce it, he’ll either insult you, incinerate you, or throw your Jeep up in a tree. Trust me, I know.

Unfortunately, he’s taken an interest in me. Not in the “half-elves are sexy and appealing and I need a new girlfriend” kind of way. Nope, he wants to use me. He’s on a mission, and he’s decided I’ll make the perfect bait to lure his enemies to him.

That’s about as good for your longevity as it sounds, and I’d love to decline the gig, but dragons can magically coerce people into doing their bidding. If I can’t figure out how to get him to leave me alone, I’ll either end up his servant for the rest of my life… or dead. And who’s going to protect Seattle then?

This bundle includes the first three novels in the Death Before Dragons urban fantasy series:

Sinister Magic
Battle Bond
Tangled Truths

Death Before Dragons features adventure, snark, and even a little romance. The series is now complete and perfect for those who enjoy binge reading! Read My Thoughts …

Book Review Alert: Dead Serious Case #3: Mr Bruce Reyes by Vawn Cassidy

Reviewed: December 24th, 2023
Released: July 21st, 2023
Genre: MM Paranormal Fantasy

Tristan Everett was finally getting used to the strangeness that was his life. Being able to see the dead and helping them solve their unfinished business and cross into the light wasn’t so bad after all, especially when he was accompanied by his best friend, dead drag queen Dusty Le Frey. His boyfriend, sexy Scotland Yard detective Danny Hayes, now knew the truth about Tristan’s “gift,” and they were about to move in together officially.

Life was good.

That is until Death—honest to god, Death (aka The Grim Reaper)—pitches up in Tristan’s kitchen with an unusual request: stop Dusty’s ghostly hookup Bruce from crossing into the light, which may result in dire consequences. i.e. an accidental apocalypse.

Determined to do the exact opposite, and avoid potentially the end of the world, Tristan and Danny assemble their own ragtag gang of one prickly witch, one snarky psychic private investigator, one living drag queen with an affinity for feathers, and one dead one with an affinity for a deceased rugby player in tiny shorts. Together they must solve a forty-year old cold case, while juggling a dose of the flu, a broken leg, a supernatural storm, and an immortal death deity with the looks and temperament of a sexy but grouchy CEO.

Seriously… what could possibly go wrong? Read My Thoughts…