Category: paranormal romance

Books, fantasy, great reads, paranormal romance, Romance

Primal Bonds by Jennifer Ashley

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The Blurb:  When half-Fae, half-Shifter Andrea Gray flees an abusive would-be mate, the only way she is allowed to relocate to the Austin Shiftertown is if a Shifter there claims her as mate.

Sean Morrissey, the Guardian of his clan and all of Shiftertown, is mateless, lonely, and has a tough job–to send the souls of deceased Shifters into the afterworld. He volunteers to claim her, sight unseen, but doesn’t realize that one look at the gray-eyed, dark-haired Andrea will stir the mating frenzy in him. Even though the mate-claim isn’t finalized, official, or yet blessed, Sean will do anything to get Andrea into his life and keep her there, forever.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this book. Primal Bonds is Book 2 of the Shifters Unbound Series. It tells the story of Andrea and Sean. Sean is the Guardian of the Shifters and Andrea is a half Lupine-half Fae woman he is helping. To protect Andrea and allow her to leave the pack she is being treated unwell in, Sean’s pack allows her to come to their Shiftertown and he mate-claims her to protect her from others. As Guardian, Sean wields the Guardian Sword–when a Shifter dies, Sean uses the Sword on the Shifter which takes them into the next world. The sword is very important to this story as we learn the history of the sword and how that weaves into the story of Andrea and Sean. I really liked the character of Andrea–she is a strong female and a great heroine for Sean’s hero.

We also see further into the world of the Shifters. This aspect of the story is very interesting, albeit I hate how our government/human world treats the Shifters. Twenty years ago, our world put collars on the Shifters as a way to control them. Whenever a Shifter becomes aggressive, the collar gives out a shock to the Shifter in order to control their behavior. Our world also treats them terribly in that they are not allowed certain items that we take for granted. They can not have cell phones, those that do have computers are crappy computers, internet, etc. They must live in Shiftertowns. Some of the Shifters are working on being able to bypass the collars and this should be interesting in the future.

 

 

Books, fantasy, paranormal romance, Romance

Dark Promises by Christine Feehan

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First, the blurb:  Gabrielle has had enough of battles, of wars, of seeing Gary Jansen, the man she loves nearly lose his life when it isn’t even his fight. Once he was a gentle and very human researcher. Now he’s a fearless and lethal Carpathian warrior with the blood of an ancient lineage coursing through his veins—a man Gabrielle still needs and desires and dreams of with every breath she takes. All she wants is a life far away from the Carpathian mountains, far from vampires and the shadows cast by the crumbling monastery that hides so many terrible secrets. But Gabrielle soon learns that promises made in the dark can pierce the heart like a dagger. And she isn’t the only one in search of answers in the corners of the unknown…Trixie Joanes has come to the Carpathian mountains in search of her wayward granddaughter, fearing that she has been lured there by something unspeakable. Instead, Trixie has stumbled into the path of a desperate man and a woman in love and on the run. And they’re all fated for the lair of a mysterious ancient with revenge in his soul and the undying power to make bad dreams come true.

My thoughts:  This book tells the story of Aleskei and Gabby. All Gabby wants is to live a life free of vampires, Carpathians, fear and away from the Mountains. She is prepared to mate Gary, a true hero among the Carpathians for all the work he has done to help them. However, Gabby’s destiny lies elsewhere–specifically, with an ancient Carpathian named Aleskei. Theirs is a story that will tug at your heart. Along the way, we meet Grandma Trixie–a wonderful character who can’t help but love!

I really enjoyed this book. I have been reading the Carpathians for years (and years). This is book #29 (yes, 29) of this series (and I believe that includes the novellas) I call them “my beloved Carpathians”. However, I have also been somewhat critical of this series for a while because I felt the author was not doing much to advance the overall story arc and I felt the writing was suffering. I am very glad to feel some of the formerly great writing coming back to this series. Having said that, I still have to say I don’t think this book did a lot to advance the story line. Yes, we did learn a few pieces of information, however, we also gained several more characters that I loved but now have their books coming also and we still have several characters whose books we have been waiting for. But, as I love the Carpathians, I will keep going!! I have to believe that Ms. Feehan will eventually save the Carpathians!

Books, indie author, paranormal romance, Romance

Sword Witch by C.S. Wilde

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Sword Witch is a short novella by C.S. Wilde that tells the story of Sally, a sword (warrior) witch and her fight for the love of a human, Joseph.  She enters into a deal with an evil Fae in order to accomplish her goal by using illegal magic, and risking her own freedom.  And of course, it leads to an epic battle involving her half-Fae Brother, Neil.  I liked the give/take between Sally and Neil and seeing a little bit of their childhood and history.

This was a fun and entertaining read. I liked Sally’s magic–a couple of things she could do was really cool.   I also think this story would have worked as an even longer story, if the author chose to. I would actually like to see a story for the brother, Neil.

I received an ARC  in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Books, fantasy, great reads, paranormal romance, Reviews, Romance, scifi, Urban Fantasy

The Beast by JR Ward

Karen

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I loved this book! There I said it. I thought it felt like the books of old when the original brothers were getting together, and I’m kinda partial to the originals. But blurb first, let’s follow the rules!

 

Nothing is as it used to be for the Black Dagger Brotherhood. After avoiding war with the Shadows, alliances have shifted and lines have been drawn. The slayers of the Lessening Society are stronger than ever, preying on human weakness to acquire more money, more weapons, more power. But as the Brotherhood readies for an all-out attack on them, one of their own fights a battle within himself…

For Rhage, the Brother with the biggest appetites, but also the biggest heart, life was supposed to be perfect—or at the very least, perfectly enjoyable. Mary, his beloved shellan, is by his side and his King and his brothers are thriving. But Rhage can’t understand—or control—the panic and insecurity that plague him…

And that terrifies him—as well as distances him from his mate. After suffering mortal injury in battle, Rhage must reassess his priorities—and the answer, when it comes to him, rocks his world…and Mary’s. But Mary is on a journey of her own, one that will either bring them closer together or cause a split that neither will recover from…

 

This book delivered as a good read. But for me it was more than that. The more I read this the more I realized that there were two other reasons that this book was so good. (1) I like Mary and Rhage. It makes a difference because I haven’t really liked the couples pretty much since books 9, I didn’t like Tohr/Autumn, Payne/Manny, Qhuinn/Blay love the boys just not my thing, and I despised Selena sooo yeah. Found the princess weak and pointless. Yeah I guess it’s nice to read about people I like. Problem I see in the future? I love Assail (and he is AMAZING in this book!!!) but his chick?? Eh I could take her or leave her. In fact I never really saw what the big deal was about Assail, then take that chick away and Bamn! he became interesting! But put them back together in a book? More boringville for me. Oh and don’t even get me started on Layla….seriously guys I don’t think I can read a book about her if Ward writes one I dislike her that much. (2) Things actually happened in this book, the plots carried and some story lines actually got completed. Lately I’ve been feeling like new stuff been added but nothing is getting resolved. Finally this fixes some(not all but that’s okay) of those loose ends.

All and all it felt the Warden of old and I LOVED EVERY BIT OF IT!

So in my opinion if you have read part of this series or all of this series go and get it, you’ll like this one. If you’ve never read any of the BDB and you’re a PNR fan or someday want to grow up to be a PNR author just remember this when deciding if you should pick it up. The USA Today said about JR Ward “J.R. Ward’s urban fantasy romance series is so popular I don’t think there’s a reader today who hasn’t at least heard of the Black Dagger Brotherhood” just get the book.

The first book in this series is Dark Lover if you want to begin at the beginning:

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