Laura Greenwood

Books by the author Laura Greenwood.

Forgotten Gods: The Complete Series by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Ups and downs

This is a series based on Egyptian Gods coping with living in the modern world. Each book in this box set is reviewed individually below.

Book 1: Protectors of Poison
Serket has been hiding for years, pretending to be the human, Sera. She moves around a lot, so not to create suspicion on the fact that she ages extremely slowly. She’s quite happy to have left her old life behind, despite her waning power, but nothing lasts forever.

Serket just happens to be the God of Poisons, her animal form being a scorpion. She’s quite far away from her many scorpions, when it appears someone is not only trying to wipe her out, but has managed to use her scorpions to fix a crime onto her…

This, unfortunately, ended with no full conclusion. I was a bit stumped by the ending. The story itself was full of lots of promise, which didn’t pan out fully. I still enjoyed it overall, though, just not as much as if it were complete.

Rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

Book 1.5: Priestess of Truth
I actually read and rated this book before, which can be found here. Unfortunately, the reread didn’t make me feel any better about the book.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ – Sort of liked/OK

Book 2: Daughter of the Sun
Sekhmet is the Goddess of Vengeance. She has been cursed by her father, Sun God Ra, and has been trapped inside a sphinx for millennia. Yet, her father wants to find her again, not to apologise for the years she’s been trapped, but to gain her help in stopping the God of Chaos, Seth. Yet, her freedom has a caveat – no blood-blind vengeance…

She is encouraged, throughout the story, to embrace her alter-ego, Bastet. A surprise romance somehow manages to calm her fiery side, bringing her closer to peace than she’s been in many years.

And, of course, she finds out the truth about the curse and why she has been “disabled”…

Unfortunately, this is another story with no true progression or resolution. It was enjoyable, but the ending left me disappointed again.

Rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

Book 3: Servant of Chaos
This story follows Rhodopis, one of Seth’s slaves. It is loosely based on the legend, which is a kind of Cinderella story (and, according to Wikipedia, the earliest known variant of this). She has some power within the household, yet is unable to escape – anyone caught escaping is brutally beaten, even killed. Anyone even daring to anger Seth in even the smallest way can be subject to this fate. As the God of Chaos he, of course, likes nothing better than upsetting people and causing mayhem. Yet Rhodopis tries to keep the peace as much as possible, encouraging the other slave girls to follow the rules and not stand out. Unfortunately, she cannot save them all…

Rhodopis herself is saved when she attracts the attention of one of the party of a visiting dignitary. Yet she knows that any brief moment of escape will only make the following years of torture worse.

This has a loose ending and no true resolution. Rhodopis knows she’ll never be free from Seth, so how is that an ending, trying to “pretend” that everything will be OK? Or, at least, that’s how it seemed.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ – Sort of liked/OK

Conclusion:
What’s most annoying about these books is that they don’t actually follow on from each other. There are snippets that you believe should, with hints of things to come in the previous books, yet there’s no story arch at all! I had expected at least some reference between books two and three, at the most, considering this one defining factor is mentioned. Yet, there is nothing. It’s a real shame, as each story has such an incomplete ending, that it would have been so much better if the stories were linked in some way. I should be rating the series lower than the average of 3.5, but I’ll round it up as it was still good in places.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free digital ARC via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Feline The Heat by Lacey Carter Andersen, L.A. Boruff, and Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Too much fun!

Ooooh, now this one happened to hit me in just the right way. I mean, naked firemen? Who don’t notice you ogling because you’ve shapeshifted into a cat? Ha! And best of all, because your changing into a cat is part of a curse, they don’t even notice that you’re a shifter!

This was extremely fun, funny, with definite laugh-out-loud moments, but also with a bit of seriousness. And of course, Callie wanting to find out the source of her curse and if someone can fix it is most definitely going to get her into trouble, whether she’s in cat or human form. Let alone the firemen who have taken a very definite liking to her, in both forms!

With an interesting little mini cliffhanger, this is definitely going to be a series to follow.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free digital ARC via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Catching a Vampire by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

The other side of the story

It was seriously great fun reading into Daphne’s story, which we got glimpses of during her escapades with Mona. Book one flows alongside of book one of the Grimalkin Academy: Kittens series, without any heavy spoilers on other side. I wasn’t too sure at first if it would work, as I much prefer to read multiple-character stories all in one book, but being as these are short stories, I guess that it does work, really.

And, as with Mona’s story, this is a sex-free slow-burn reverse harem. Although in this story she only has eyes for one, which proves to be a problem considering the one she’s interested in actually is the one she’s supposed to be bribing to help them find the family spell. Add to that a malicious betrothed of the said love interest, whether he’s interested in keeping to his parents set up or not, and things start to get a little hairy.

At this academy, things are never quite as expected.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free digital ARC via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Priestess of Truth by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Expected more

Unfortunately I was somewhat disappointed with this. I love Egyptian mythology and am definitely interested in this universe of “Forgotten Gods”, where the Egyptian Gods still exist, hidden away from non-believers. For that, I definitely want to read further in this series. But this book itself wasn’t a very good representative of what’s to come.

The biggest problem came in the lack of detail and depth, in the scenes, in the characters. We see a priestess being encouraged to find her soulmate, but the two barely meet, and there is barely any interaction at all. There’s not enough to really gain an interest in the characters, being as the story is so short that it barely covers the minimum of details.

If this was a bit longer, it could have been so much more. We need to see more of the characters in order to truly be able to connect with them. There needs to be more background and history on the characters, too, so we can understand how they got to this point, of being pushed towards each other.

All in all, not a terribly bad short story, but not a great one either.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆ – Sort of liked/OK

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Second Time’s a Curse by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Even more magical kittens!

Well, yes, what should we expect from a cursed witch who produces kittens with every spell? More kittens, of course! Wow, I’m not really sure how’s she’s going to have space for all of them if this keeps on happening!

Mona is slowly coming to terms with the fact that she has more than one love interest, partly buoyed by her best friend (and what doesn’t help is that one of the love interests happen to be said best friend’s twin brother…). Yet she has other things on her mind, namely this damned curse! Yet, despite the curse, she doesn’t want to do anything that might jeopardise the lives of her kittens, even if she’s frustrated that she keeps on producing them. I mean, they’re all seriously cute and all that, but a dorm room is only so big!

So, her friends pool together to try and find a fix for this wretched curse, in a less-than-legal manner, which, of course, doesn’t quite go to plan, or solve the problem of the curse itself.

Things not quite going to plan appears to be the name of the game, as serious trouble falls upon them once again. Well, there’s no “I told you so” in there, but there appears to be no clean way out of things this time.

Just as fun as the first book, with just as much cuteness, awkwardness, and trouble, this series is turning out to be fantastic so far! I just wish that the characters could see past the end of their noses sometimes…

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Blood and Deceit by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Naughty Necromancers

That title of mine might give the wrong impression, when this is actually about necromancers who decide to act like “Gods” above all others. But not all necromancers are that way – Tabitha happens to be a necromancer of the old school, disappointing several of her old acquaintances. But new connections come along and she finds out that she’s not as alone as she might seem.

I must admit, I found a couple of points of this a little disappointing. The big “reveal” didn’t feel anywhere near as dramatic as it could have been. The characters, too, whilst the main characters should have been likable, I didn’t feel like they had enough depth to be able to connect to them.

Not a bad story, but unfortunately a bit forgettable.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆ – Sort of liked/OK

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Death’s Choice by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Another great Paranormal Council standalone.

This is another standalone set within the greater Paranormal Council universe. It’s quite an interesting universe, as the magic within it works in a specific way, whether they be necromancers, witches, or shifters. Living within the human realm comes with its many dangers, but the characters here manage to adapt and find their place within it.

Kali is a necromancer whose job is to kill whoever her guild assigns her to. Unlike some of her peers, she doesn’t actually relish in the killing part at all. So when she receives an assignment to protect instead of kill, she is all for it, especially when it brings certain men into her sphere who turn out to be far more than they seem. Kali adapts well to the new situation, loving the fact that she doesn’t have to kill. Well, not on order, anyway – only to protect. She makes some good friends, and even stronger enemies, in her new life.

The characters have interesting dimensions to themselves, and some are more accepting of the unchangeable situation than others. Most notably, jealousy, until it becomes obvious that the emotion is completely pointless. The dynamic once she has found all three of her mates becomes really interesting, although one of them should have been expected, really.

I was actually slightly disappointed that the “clause” wasn’t used to protect Kali, like expected, instead of the more extreme setting, but all works out well in the end.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Unicorn Truth by Laura Greenwood and L.A. Boruff

Posted on by DragonSusie

A too-soft ending

This final book in the Valentine Pride trilogy was a little bit of a let-down, especially after the “wow” of the second book in the series. I’m not quite sure what it was, but it felt like it was not as “solid” as the second book.

Yes, there was big drama in the book, that needed to be resolved – who was truly behind the Pride murders and the murder of Leola’s parents? I was expecting it to be more dramatic, but it felt a bit too rushed and somewhat disconnected.

I’ve enjoyed the series as a whole. Seeing Leola as a mother and a mate was great. The sex scenes weren’t as good as in the previous two books, though, but the interaction between the main characters was still good enough, as well as the introduction of April from the other short story in this series. Yet overall it was definitely lacking somewhere. Maybe I’ve read too many of these books of late, but whatever the reason, it was still a somewhat disappointing end to the series.

Final rating: ★★★☆☆ – Sort of liked/OK

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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Reluctant Dragon Mate by Laura Greenwood

Posted on by DragonSusie

Stubborn Dragons!

Yep, you heard that right – this book contains one very stubborn dragon, who is so caught up in his own world and what he believes a so-called prophecy might actually mean for him, that he refuses to see what’s right under his nose.

His “distraction” he found by accident on a Paranormal dating app, a distraction in the form of a witch called Dakota. She works out quite quickly that there is more to this dragon than meets the eye, but this damned stubborn dragon just refuses to play ball.

A quite fun back and forth ensues, before both finally accept what their fate actually means.

My only disappointment is that the book description doesn’t completely match the content – we are led to believe that it’s Achilles business that’s the reason he’s holding back, but we barely hear anything about that at all! Anyway, despite this little niggle, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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The Platypus and Her Wolves by Laura Greenwood and L.A. Boruff

Posted on by DragonSusie

A platypus shifter?! Rarer than unicorns!!

This was a nice, fun, quick-burn short read, based in the Valentine Pride universe.

The shifters on the mountain have been looking for lone shifters living amongst the human population, monitoring for strange web searches, to try and bring them back to the pride and their families, where they belong. One of these shifters is April. Her adoptive parents are unaware of her shifter capabilities, so she’s been trying hard to find others like her. When a pack of three male wolf shifters suddenly appear on her doorstep ready to give her all the answers she’s been looking for, plus turning out to be her fated mates, suddenly she’s not so sure if she’s ready to give up the human world that she’s lived in for so long.

This is quite an interesting story, with a platypus shifter! Well, I guess the paranormal universes allow for any type of shifter you may be able to dream of, but this is the first platypus that I’ve come across. Unusual animals, once believed by Victorian scientists to be a “fake”, like many other samples that had returned their way, this animal is unusual in more ways than one. And what I do love is that this story played upon that.

Quite a nice addition to the universe.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

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