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Book Review: Sweet Tea & Spells by Bella Falls

18 Wednesday May 2022

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Author: Bella Falls
Publisher: Evermore Press
Series: Southern Charms Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
Medium: Audio Book

Back to Honeysuckle Hollow for a third time, and I can’t say that it’s getting any less magical to join Charli and her town for more mysteries and excitement. With the wedding of her cousin, Clementine, and ex-fiancé on the horizon, what could go wrong in such a magically inclined town. Especially when Tucker’s family has brought in a world renounced chef to cater the affair.

Potential spoilers ahead.

While Charli doesn’t exactly get alone with her Aunt Nora, she does get along well with her cousin Clementine, and it’s really nice to see the two of them trying to repair some of the bonds in the family despite Clem’s mother trying to stop it. After hearing a few things that she shouldn’t have between the caterer, Duke, and his employee, Charli grows concerned about his intentions and his overall person. It becomes increasingly her problem when Duke decides to rent one of the buildings on main street that her brother owns and she manages.

The guy is a world class creep of the tallest order when he makes advances on Charli when they’re alone. As if it wasn’t bad enough he wanted to move in and create direct competition for Sweet Tooth’s. Not that he gets that chance. With the soon to be groom looking like he might have done it without remembering and blame being pinned on one of the fairies in town, Charli pushes to try and figure out this mystery so it won’t hopefully ruin her cousin’s wedding or bring down a friend.

All the while, with Dash having cut off all contact with Charli after leaving, it’s left the door wide open for her to explore her feelings with Mason. Though the lingering hurt that Dash has been in contact with a mutual friend but not her does end up distracting her just a hair. But when you like someone, and you thought that they liked you, it’s definitely not an easy thing to swallow that they’re cutting you out of any communication. Especially knowing they’re find talking to a friend at least.

The characters, even the secondary ones, are all still just as vivid and alive in the third installment, maybe even more so because we really dig into the town and some of the town’s politics in this third installment of the series. I love that my concern from book two didn’t come to pass, because it wasn’t the out of towner that did the murder, and I really loved that despite everything, Charli helped to ensure that the wedding wasn’t interrupted by the murder, so Clem and Tucker could have their day before everything hit the fan with the fall out of the mystery.

I’m excited to see Clem and Charli bond and heal the family, bringing it back together. Though even with Tucker seemingly in love with Clem, it’s still worrisome and odd that he seems to still have feelings for Charli. Not that she needs any more men in her life right now with Mason doing a good job of wooing her and her mind and heart still upset about Dash. I also love that her friends in town were encouraging her to use one of the storefronts on Main Street and have her open a shop so she can really utilize her talents in magic to make a living.

I’m definitely here for the next one and can’t wait to see where it all goes both with Charli’s business as well as her relationship with Mason. And I do hope we get to see Dash again!

Book Review: The Olympus Trinity by Brian Coggins Jr

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

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Author: Brian Coggins Jr.
Publisher: Brian Coggins Jr.
Genre: Mythology
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Release Date: April 11, 2022

Synopsis: When a mysterious figure comes to Zeus’ home, he turns to his brother Hades for answers. But Poseidon is seeking answers too, and his way clashes with Zeus’. The three will need to put aside their differences if they are going to unravel the mystery that’s tied to their past.

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.

I love mythology and grew up deep in some of the Greek Myths, so when I was asked to review the book I was really excited to do so.

The setting of the universe for this novel was interesting and incredibly unique, with there being different planets that the gods travel to. The descriptions, for the most part, do well is helping me be immersed in the area we were in at various times. As well, the plot of the book was incredibly interesting in the way they weaved various myths through the novel as a whole.

The personalities for the gods were an interesting choice and like the dialogue seemed to shift occasionally between formal and having a more royal sense to it and occasionally sliding into being a little more casual and what you’d expect to hear today. However, the tension between the brothers was well done and kept you hooked on watching their interactions unfold.

The writing in the book kept the story moving forward and kept you well immersed in the novel, though at times I had to reread sections because occasionally it got a little clunky. But overall, the plot and the big theme of family kept me going to the end. Some of it, in my opinion, could be a little more smoothed out, but as a whole, the story is a good read and it’s a great start to what will clearly have more to come.

Book Review: Fried Chicken & Fangs by Bella Falls

30 Wednesday Mar 2022

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Author: Bella Falls
Publisher: Evermore Press
Series: Southern Charms Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
Medium: Audio Book

I fell easily into book two of this series straight after finishing the first. It was great to continue Charli’s story as she settles back into her home in Honeysuckle Hollow. Just like the first one the characters are engaging, the plot is thick with a wanting to get into it enticement, and the mystery of it is well paced throughout the book so it doesn’t feel like we’re stalling with a bunch of fluff to tied us to the end of the book itself.

Potential spoilers from here on.

We’re still having Charli pulled between Mason and Dash, though for a good part of the beginning of the book it seems like Dash is definitely winning. Meanwhile, while he’s interested in her and she’s definitely interested in him, Mason’s started to be snippy, sharp, and pushing her away. There are a few teasing hints at an event that went down, the full actions of which were fully revealed in this book. I was able to get enough that I knew some kind of event happened and Mason was embarrassed about how he acted at the event, figuring that it completely changed and potentially hurt his relationship with Charli.

Full disclosure, I’m listening to the audio book and I purchased the books 1-3 bundle so I hadn’t looked at the series list to see that there is, in fact, a short story that falls between the first two books about a singles mixer – which I’m assuming is the referenced event. However, I haven’t purchased or read it at the time of writing this review. And while I do love shorts and novellas that fall between books and explain events we might not have focused on in the full series, this one was a little jarring because it directly affected Mason’s relationship with Charli – to the point that I was honestly really confused as to why he was being such a giant ass to her when the last I had left off with the pair, all she’d done since was dance with Dash – something he allowed to happen by letting the Shifter cut in – and then Dash licked some frosting off her fingers at a town event. So relationship wise, that definitely threw me a little bit to try and figure out what had happened or was happening.

Mystery wise, I love the play of having one of Charli’s friends fall for the vampire who was visiting town and turning the two friends against each other a little because Charli didn’t like the guy but her friend was definitely at the point of wanting to date him. It’s definitely a relatable situation. And while I do love how the mystery played out, including some of the red herrings that we were given because they were set up, I’m hoping that the over all person at the center of the whodunit doesn’t continuously be the same in being the one person from out of town. It’s going to make the who extremely obvious if the series continues that pattern.

All in all, definitely going to be continuing book three. And definitely going to be checking out that short I apparently missed.

Book Review: Raven’s Cry by Charlie Nottingham

23 Wednesday Mar 2022

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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.

Book Review: Golem by PD Alleva

16 Wednesday Mar 2022

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Author: PD Alleva
Publisher: Quill & Birch Publishing
Genre: Psychological Horror
Rating: 4 Stars

“Golem – The devil is in the details” is not for the faint of heart. It is a battle between good and evil, humans versus demons, and exploring the dark side of the human mind.

The story opens on Halloween eve 1951 and follows three main characters and the conflicts in their lives. John Ashto, a WWII Vet, has just been promoted to a New York City detective and his first case is to re-investigate an old case file of the District Attorney’s missing daughter.  Alena Francon, a high society socialite and sculptor whose family owns the New York City Hotel where much of the action takes place. And finally, Annette Flemming is a recently married housewife dealing with her husband’s constant travel which leaves her alone most of the time.

John and Alena are brought together because Alena is sure that she’s seen the missing woman John is looking for, and the tale she weaves about the DA’s daughter and how it ties to the ClareField Hotel that caught fire. As fantastical as her story is, his hope is that it will lead him to answers to solve the case and mystery.

PD Alieva draws the reader into John, Annette, and Alena’s individual story and their conflicts incredibly well. The characters are well-rounded and thought out, coming alive as you read. The book slowly teases each of their stories out and reveals how they are all related to the events in the New York City hotel. It’s not just their lives that we’re drawing into but the horror of it all as well. The use of the old folklore and that some of the locations in the book were based on real places and events only added to the horror and creepiness of the book and read. 

This story is what nightmares are made of. Each of the main characters is so believable that by the middle of the book, I needed to take short breaks between chapters as each chapter revealed one horror after another. One is left at the end with the question: Is Golem real and can this fantastical story be true? 

Note: If you like a book that ends on an up note, this is not the book for you. This is a true psychological horror, not for the faint of heart, and sure to leave you thinking about the events and messages in the book for weeks to come. But if you feel brave enough, it’s definitely a wild ride to embark on.

Book Review: Moonshine & Magic by Bella Falls

19 Wednesday Jan 2022

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Author: Bella Falls
Publisher: Evermore Press
Series: Southern Charms Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
Medium: Audio Book

Favorite line from the book:
“I swear, you don’t go looking for trouble. You hunt it down, tackle it to the ground and claim it as yours.”  ~ Mason

Moonshine & Magic is the first in a cozy mystery series that takes place in Honeysuckle Hollow – a town full of the magically inclined. It starts off as we follow Charli Goodwin as she comes home after being away for a while, and while she didn’t really seem to tell most where she was going we do find out it was so she could better learn her magic. Though, she left behind not just her family but a fiance she turned down as well, which makes her nervous about the homecoming she’ll receive.

Potential spoilers ahead.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. With Charli coming home it was a good introduction into the world Charli lived in, Honeysuckle Hollow, and how things worked both for humans and for the magical community. Honeysuckle Hollow is a special town, in that it’s made up entirely of the magical community. Humans who accidentally start to cross into its borders are given a sleep spell and settled somewhere far away so they don’t actually make it into town. It’s kind of interesting to have a whole town that’s carefully tucked away so that it can be a safe haven for the magical community.

On her first night back, Charli has the unfortunate pleasure of both walking into her ex-fiance proposing to her cousin but then ending the night finding her uncle dead. Even worse, she’s tied to the death curse he’d weaved on himself, which means that she needs to find out who killed him so the curse can settle on the rightful person and fast.

I enjoyed the world-building of the book and the magic system – including that magic users, of all kinds be they witch or vampire, tend to have a particular thing they’re good at that usually travels down the bloodlines. I actually really liked that while she was under the death curse and striving to figure out who killed her uncle that the curse actually did affect her. It weakened her, it was made worse by using her magic or by being touched by other magic, which slowed her down and made her rely on some help from both the new warden (detective), named Mason, in town as well as a wolf shifter, Dash, in town.

I will say, she kept making the distinction whenever Mason called Dash a werewolf, that he wasn’t a werewolf, he was a Wolf Shifter, without any context to us, the reader, for what the difference might actually be. So I’d have loved a little more context into why the two are very different. Because there was a reference to something happening in Mason’s past that’s tied to werewolves and thus gives him a bias against them – so clearly they’re technically two separate creatures? But I’m not entirely sure what the difference is because while she’s quick to correct him, I didn’t really get a reason why or how they’re different.

While I saw a little of the whodunit when we meet him originally on the night of Charli’s homecoming, I do like that the mystery was stretched out because it’s not just about the whodunit but the why as well that is important and I like how they weaved the why in. As well, who might have had a hand in helping or being involved. I think the wrap-up at the end was handled well also, and liked the conclusion of the book.

Currently, I’m curious if this is going to end up with her picking one of the two men interested in her (technically three since her ex isn’t over her but she’s firmly put him in the rearview mirror with a conversation at the end of the book) or if this will slide into more of a shared/reverse harem ish kind of playout since we currently have both Mason and Dash interested in her and she’s interested in both of them at the moment. We’ll find out because I do plan to continue this series.

Book Review: Caffeinated Calamity by Amanda M. Lee

08 Wednesday Dec 2021

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Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Can you tell that I’m enjoying the series already since we’re now on book two?

Yes, we’re back with Stormy Morgan, new witch in the small town of Shadow Hills, Michigan. Well, technically, make that only witch in Shadow Hills since her great-grandmother moved away to Florida years back. Which means that she’s navigating this new power all on her own, while she tries to keep it fairly quiet from her family, the town and her not-quite boyfriend, Hunter.

Overall, the writing is cute and I’m enjoying the characters and continuation of the story and what’s going on with Stormy. Book two actually opens up with a Prologue set in Hemlock Cove, a town over from Shadow Hills with Bay and Thistle Winchester. From reading other reviews, of the first book and this book I had already picked up that this was a series set in a much bigger universe from her other series. This prologue, for those who haven’t read any of her other series, pretty much confirms it. I did a little digging to link that the Winchesters are from her ‘Wicked Witches of the Midwest’ books, of which there are currently nineteen out. Something I might tackle later because I can’t say I’m not interested in reading Bay’s story from the beginning.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

I did like this book a little more than the first, though I think part of it is because while it’s frustrating Stormy, Hunter is trying to actually do the right thing by not just jumping into a relationship with Stormy so soon after his breakup with Monica. Stormy as a whole is worried that it’s because she’s not sure if it’s due to Hunter having second thoughts, but he does confirm it’s because he knows he was in the wrong with how he treated Monica and wanted to give it some time before the relationship was more or less rubbed into Monica’s face.

While the town might still be gossiping about them, I actually appreciate him trying to do the right thing and not give the town MORE to gossip about or throw in her face.

As well, Stormy is starting to come to terms with her being a witch, with her friend Sebastian dragging her off to Hemlock Cove to the Winchester’s store in an effort to get her to kind of feel out the family because it’s a well-known not-secret that they are in fact witches.

The speed at which the murders are happening in town since Stormy came back is a little concerning though. We’re only a few weeks after the conclusion of the first book, where someone was murdered behind the family restaurant when one drops dead as she’s leaving from breakfast – the ultimate conclusion for death being poisoned. So again, another murder. (And I’m already partway into book three, which takes place only a few weeks after this one, and again, a new murder) So we’re talking like, three murders in the span of like a month and a half – two months? That’s a LOT, especially for a small town. It asks for a lot of suspension of disbelief – it’s easier to believe the speed of murders were it in a larger town, because more people, but in a town where everyone knows everyone and the largest gossip outside of the murders is that Hunter’s truck was parked behind the restaurant so everyone knows he spent the night at Stormy’s apartment – it takes a decent amount of disbelief for ‘reading reasons’ to wonder why people haven’t fleed this town ages ago if this is how fast people are dropping.

The book had a similar feel of book one, where we’re focusing on Stormy and her magic, or Stormy and Hunter a lot and sometimes it does feel like the murder and the mystery of it get pushed back a little for the other things. I like that magic is starting to take a bigger roll in the books as Stormy is learning about it and of it, though I also feel like if there was a little more time between each book (and murder) there’s some hand waving, Stormy has been learning and so we can speed up the rate at which she’s learning to use it a little more. However, I do feel like we had a little more sleuthing about the murder and into why it happened than the first book, so the conclusion of the who, how, and why came a little more in flow with the rest of the book.

I’d definitely still recommend it if you’re looking for a cute, cozy mystery to read with a hint of paranormal/witchy flare. And I will say with the cameos from the Winchester family, I am curious to read their story from their perspective – or well, Bay’s perspective mostly. Their appearance makes me wish I knew of them before picking up this book, and you can tell there’s a large family dynamic going on among them, but at the same time, I think they were handled well in that I don’t feel that I was missing anything from not reading their books that affected how they interacted with Stormy and her story as a whole.

Book Review: Sinfully Delicious by Amanda M. Lee

03 Friday Dec 2021

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Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Sinfully Delicious is a Cozy Mystery that follows our main character, Stormy Morgan, as she tries to settle back into her hometown of Shadow Hills, Michigan after having left it for several years. We learn quickly that she left Shadow Hills for college and to become a writer, which she was successful with for the first book.

With the failure of her second book, her publisher canceled her contract and with no prospects at the moment, and little to her name or cash in her bank account, she finds herself back in her hometown.

Overall, Sinfully Delicious was a cute start to a new series. I haven’t read any of Amanda Lee’s books before now, so this is my entrance into her as an author as well and overall I do like what I see. I can confirm I’m already eight chapters into the second book for this series, because I liked it enough to want to continue and see where this story goes with the main character Stormy, as well as her grandfather and her ex.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

Stormy is an interesting character, and while she does come off a little whiny at life and her lot in it with having to find herself back in her hometown, living above her family’s restaurant by the grace of her grandfather’s working with her on the rent to lease the place, if you really think about it wouldn’t you be a little whiny if you were in her shoes too? No one expects to make it, break it, and find themselves back at home after college. I will say, I would have liked to see her pull her bootstraps up a little bit more than she did as a whole with being an adult that’s almost thirty, but to be fair and realistic, I’ve seen this attitude first hand so I can’t say it’s not wrong or inaccurate with how people are sometimes either.

Her grandfather is possibly one of my favorite characters in the book. Especially with his disappearing acts whenever Hunter, local cop and Stormy’s ex-boyfriend, comes around to try and talk to him. Especially when he pops back up after Hunter leaves like he’d been at the counter cooking the entire time she’d been looking for him and Hunter was there.

I do have to say I wasn’t thrilled with Hunter as a whole, more with how he was using his current girlfriend throughout the book. It’s both said about him from a friend, as well as he does more or less outright say he knew that it was never going to work with Monica, but he kept her around because he wanted to have a wall or shield against having Stormy come back so he could have a super easy way of keeping Stormy at arm’s length. Which is 100% not fair to Monica to be strung along for almost a month just because he was scared of how it might go between him and his ex-girlfriend. While I didn’t like Monica, I do sympathize with her a little because she was, in effect, a pawn to Hunter when she thought he actually cared about her.

Sinfully Delicious is sold as a Witch Cozy Mystery, and while like I did say I’m into book 2 already, the first book doesn’t do a lot for bringing in the paranormal to the book to tag the first book a witch book. We slowly learn, with Stormy, that she has powers that she accidentally unlocked one night while playing with a Ouija board. By the end of the book it’s clear she has powers and comes from a witch line on her grandfather’s side – and honestly with the way her grandfather seems to be able to pop in and out of sight at the drop of a hat I wouldn’t be surprised if later on in the series we find out that he does have at least a small bit of magic he keeps to himself. But as a whole I wish for a WITCH cozy mystery there’d been a little more WITCH to it.

As well, while there is a death and a mystery, I did find myself feeling like the mystery aspect of it took a large backseat to the romance aspect with the push and pull of Stormy and Hunter as they tried to navigate their feelings for each other.

Maybe I’m just used to the cozy mysteries where the main character has her nose in EVERYTHING when it comes to trying to sniff out the who dun it, with the story focusing on the mystery and the romance being the secondary plot so having it almost flipped left me a little disappointed with the mystery as a whole. But it felt like the wrap-up of the mystery was a little rushed in this book. As a whole, the mystery was wrapped up decently well and it all made sense to the story and plot, it just felt a little like we realized we had gotten to the end of the book and needed to wrap it up so let’s get on that, kind of ending.

But at the end of the day, it’s also a cozy mystery, and it was a cute and cozy read.

Book Review: Rogue Huntress by Thea Atkinson

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

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Author: Thea Atkinson
Publisher: Thea Atkinson
Series: Rogue Huntress Chronicles
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Rating: 4 Stars

Find Rogue Huntress on Goodreads

Brief Synopsis

Shana, an assassin for the Beo pack, has been taken hostage by her foster brother, Caleb, after he kills her father, the alpha. By pack law, Caleb is now the alpha of the pack, but Shana and her brothers are a threat to his leadership and he’ll do what he can to force Shana into submission with the lives of her brothers.

Can Shana fake submission long enough to turn the tables on Caleb and take her pack back? Or will the human mercenary Caleb’s brought in be too much of a distraction that she’ll lose it all?

Review

The book starts off right in the thick of everything. We don’t start before Shana’s capture to get to know any of the characters, but with Shana already captured, trapped in the manor she called home. Caleb, her foster-brother turned captor wants her to submit to him and be his mate, but naturally Shana doesn’t want to mate to the man who had killed her father and put her essentially in a cage, even if her wolf thinks the idea of mating to such a powerful wolf isn’t a terrible idea.

A lot of the backstory about Shana and Caleb comes to us through Shana reflecting back on the past and both who she thought people were coupled with what Shana has gone through to make her the woman she is today. She thinks several times that she’s not sure who this Caleb is, because he wasn’t the man she’d grown up with, trained with, and knew as a brother. Though short of those comments we aren’t ever shown that juxtaposition against the Caleb we see keeping her captor and wanting her to be his. It’s a lot of telling in that respect.

Throughout the book, we’re teased back and forth with Jeb, the human mercenary that helped Caleb take over the pack and had been helping keep Shana captive. He seems cold and calculating, but then there are glimpses where we think we can maybe trust him, that he’ll be there and come through to help Shana take Caleb down and free her pack from his influence.

The worldbuilding that exists is good, because we’re mostly kept at Shana’s manor and the surrounding woods and ravine around it there isn’t too much to have Shana describe or see to us. But the descriptions of the old trees, the roots that in some scenes are large enough for Shana to duck under or around, the bramble bushes with their pricklers are described nicely to be able to visually see what Shana is going through. Even the description of the halls of the large manor as we’re taken through it in the different scenes left me fairly confident I knew about where things were from walking the halls with Shana.

The characters are mostly well thought out. Shana, being the main character feels the most alive, and her inner thoughts, motivations, and drive are well written. She’s very much a well flushed out character. As were the others over all. I don’t know if I’m over thinking it too much, but the only piece of the puzzle I feel like I’m missing is Caleb’s motivation for killing Shana’s father and taking over the pack.

Throughout the book Shana’s telling us that this isn’t the man she grew up with, and yet Jeb mentions at one point that this had been years in the planning. And Caleb didn’t take the pack over by way of the normal trial by combat normally associated with an alpha battle but crept in the shadows and took the wolves he knew he couldn’t beat fairly by deception and blind surprise. It leads well to why some of the pack wouldn’t follow him because it reeks of cowardliness despite the strength Shana’s wolf tells us Caleb has.

While I liked the book over all, it’s the lack of understanding Caleb’s motivation for turning on the people that had welcomed him in as a family for centuries if Shana’s offer of growing up with him is caught correctly is what leaves this more at a four star read. The story does hook you, and I followed it happily. I am also considering picking up the next book to see where Shana goes. However, even after I read it, I still have the serious, but why did he do it, nagging at the back of my head. There were also quite a few noticeable errors in spelling and punctuation being funky that while it didn’t completely pull me out of the story, were distracting.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion. All thoughts are my own, and were not colored for receiving a free copy.

Book Review: A Whisper in the Dark by K.J. Sutton & Jessi Elliott

28 Tuesday Apr 2020

Posted by in New Release, Reviews

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Author: K.J. Sutton & Jessi Elliot
Publisher: K.J. Sutton & Jessi ElliotJessi Elliot
Series: Charlie Travesty
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Release Date: April 28, 2020
Rating: 4 Stars

Find A Whisper in the Dark on GoodReads

Growing up and being raised in the world of luxury and comfort, Charlotte Travesty doesn’t know the world that awaits her after her Awakening. Everything changes when she blinks open her eyes and faces her new life. A life that doesn’t include a warm bed and no worries.

The world this book takes place in is vivid in it’s descriptions without feeling like there’s too much information just dumped on you. The characters feel real and three dimensional, which is always something I look for in a new series I might want to follow, and I found myself feeling for Charlotte as her world tilted sideways and everything she new disappeared from her life.

The new take on vampires is interesting, especially the cast system that’s introduced and the world the vampires have created in respect to both themselves, the humans and other creatures, and the halflings feels well thought out and planned. And the plot of this story has me waiting for the next installment already.

Keep in mind, this is the first installment of four for a serial which means it does end on a cliff hanger, but because going into it I knew it was a serial this doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

Disclaimer: I did receive an arc of the book in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion. All thoughts are my own and were not colored by receiving the arc.

A Whisper in the Dark is out now!

Amazon | Goodreads | K.J. Sutton | Jessi Elliott