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amreading, amreviewing, Charlie Nottingham, dark paranormal, Raven's Cry, reverse harem, review, reviews
Author: Charlie Nottingham 
Publisher: Charlie Nottingham
Genre: Dark Paranormal, Reverse Harem
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Release Date: April 4, 2022
Synopsis: Rain has lost everything in the last decade. Frist her brother, than her grandmother, and the house Gran left her might be next if she can’t get some more jobs walking through the door. At least she has Graham, a Fae who escaped the Fae Realms and has been with her for half her life. Best friends with a history tightly woven in romantic crushes and nightmare inducing trauma.
In walks Ezra, a sexy vampire looking to commission her Gram – and her when he finds out that Gran has passed, to cleanse a mansion of vengeful spirits for a lifechanging amount of money.
But things start to change when she takes the job, not just with her heart but her past starts to become unburied as well.
Review:
Note: I’m going to try and keep it as spoiler free as possible because this is a new release. Also I was given an ARC copy of this book and am leaving my honest review.
As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. I hit the halfway mark and literally couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it. And my only disappointment is that it’s an arc so I have a while to wait until the next one so I can see where the series as a whole will be going.
The world building in this book (and Charlie’s series across the board because they all share the same world and lore) is interesting and it’s definitely making me want to pick up her other series to experience more of it in the interim while I wait for book two of this series.
Our main female character, Rain who has learned all her magic from her late grandmother. She’s not part of a coven, but from what I picked up in the book neither was her grandmother with the references to poaching clients as the reason most in covens snubbed Rain as well. She’s also had a crush on her best friend Graham since they were younger but it never went anywhere because of some communication glitches between both of them.
Ezra is a vampire who’s looking for the right witch for a job, but what he doesn’t expect is to lose his heart when he decides to risk asking Rain out. Nor do any of them expect the cloud of emotion that tangles them all together, especially with the secrets that Ezra is holding onto until later in the book.
I knew where this was going romance wise when I picked up the ARC because I knew it was a reverse harem – as well the author was kind enough to put a note in the front of the book before you even start to express the fact that it’s a MMFM – so watching all of it evolve to where it settled at the end of book one was wonderful. As well, there’s a scene where one of the characters explains his relationship as a bi and poly male and I think the author explained it incredibly well. Too often it’s hard to explain being bi, but being poly as well adds an intricate thread that can often times be done poorly or not explained in a way that does it justice. But this scene was honestly perfection in how the main character listened, and how the man explained it.
I’m also pretty sure that our woman in black knew what she was doing near the end and as much of a risk as it might have been, she did it as a way to tighten the bonds in preparation for what’s coming in book two. Because how better to rally the troops, as it were and get people over hurt feelings. (if you’ve read the book, you know what I’m referencing – apologies for those who haven’t read it yet who are like, WHAT – but I’m trying really hard to stay spoiler free. Also if the author reads this – I see you and what you did there.)
They mystery aspect with the dead, including Rain’s brother’s part in the story was done well and I found the lore interesting. I loved the way she weaved Celtic lore through the fae and the book, I especially loved Graham going through some of the lore when he and Rain were trying to find answers and getting his world sense of, yeah this is right or close, or no this is such crap where did humans ever get this. As well as his use of Gaelic words when he speaks, it’s a nice touch to give his character in the book some personality – as well I’m not going to lie but I love his push and pull with Rain.
If you’re looking for a reverse harem that has an interesting weave of magic and a good plot that we’re really just starting to get into in book one, I’d highly recommend giving this book a chance.
Meri's Corner 