PNR

Reigning Magicks by Candace Osmond and J.J. King

Posted on by DragonSusie

An interesting start to the series

Front cover

This is an alternative take on the time-travel romance (from what I’m aware of and have read, anyway), where the female of the pair magically travels into the future instead of the past, in order to find her true love.

Well, OK, it is somewhat more complicated than that, but that is at least part of the basic principle behind the story.

Ashlynn searches for the local seer in order to find a way to not be forced to marry a Warlord from another clan. She is granted one wish, which unexpectedly catapults her into the future. Does she find a way to return to her family, after her sister has taken her place in the union, or does she choose to stay and create her own path?

I was a bit sceptical of the storyline at first, but it rounded off nicely. Am looking forward to the next book!

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

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

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Ghosted by Chera Zade and Fanny Mills

Posted on by DragonSusie

Yes and no

Cover

OK, I will start by saying that understand some people’s POVs that there is “slut shaming” going on, but it is hardly done in a way that’s completely derogatory. The girls say it of themselves, to further excite themselves. In this context, I have no problem with it.

My actual issues with this was that it, for me, wasn’t concrete enough. The storyline itself was quite flimsy, with the sex scenes not quite as hot as I’ve come to expect from a Zade-Mills combo. This incredibly short story was fun in its way, but could have been so much more.

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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Wolf by Chris Fenwick

Posted on by DragonSusie

Needs time to grow on you

In the beginning, I was bored. The constant one-sided POV, with no intermittent dialogue, just dragged. What made it worse was that there were tense inconsistencies: moments of internal monologue in italics written in past tense, or a mixture of the two; moments when the tenses were confused amongst the rest of the story. As the story is all told from Cassidhe’s POV, you have to get used to her voice, and it didn’t warm to me at all in the beginning. Even when the first dramatic event happened, it was near impossible to empathise with her.

Things appear to change when she meets the wolves. The story starts to gain more depth, Cassidhe herself appears more interesting, as well as others that she meets. Although, even then, it takes time for the characters to appear more than one dimensional. The best part of the whole story, for me, was the final dramatic event where, even though Cassidhe was completely on her own, she finally had more character than she had had for the majority of the rest of the book. It’s for this reason alone that my rating finally reached four stars, rather than the two to three it was struggling with at the beginning.

An interesting upcoming point is how the pack is going to deal with the sexuality of the heir, when a key part of pack dynamics is based on the ability to produce children and secure the pack’s future.

Also, a side note is that the cover doesn’t really reflect the main characters, with their described colouring being different from what is shown. A minor niggle, if any, but I do like it when a cover helps to assist me in how to imagine the characters.

Final rating: ★★★★☆ – Really liked

*I received a free ARC via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest 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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