Monthly Archives: September 2023

Review: Marked in Flames by Carrie Ann Ryan

Marked in Flames 

Carrie Ann Ryan

Aspen Pack Series, Book 5

ebook

First published September 25, 2023

 

My mate rejected me, leaving me broken. I refuse to let that happen again—even if Steele is the one for me.

I hold the power of flame and future in my hands, but I know the world is watching. Waiting for us to fall.

The truth and lies that bind the Aspen Pack together are crumbling and I am to bear witness to its fate.

I know the Enforcer of the Aspens is my mate.

Yet neither of us want what fate decrees.

So, we’ll fight side by side and ignore the burning attraction between us.

Only when a traitor rocks the foundation of all we know, we might not have a choice to who we cling to in despair.

The vampires were only the pawns in this war.

The demons are on their way.

And if we’re not careful, the Aspen Pack could lose someone that breaks them.

And I could lose my mate.

Again.

 

 

 

4 Stars

The final battle is approaching. The enemy is always one step ahead and the pack has had enough. Everything is intense and emotions are running high  as everything in the Pack world is about to come to a head.

 

Jade and Steel have been dancing around each other for sometime. They are both trying to each other, but yet both have things that keep them from truly discovering what they could be together. The Pack knows it’s time for all this fighting to come to an end. As they gear up for what they hope to be their final battle Jade and Steel take a few steps closer in the slow burn of a dance they have been doing with each other. They are an interesting match and complement each other completely.  Each of them thinking that their secrets makes it impossible for them to be with another, but yet they realized they needed each other more than they could imagine.

 

It is always bittersweet when a series comes to an end, but yet all good things must come to an end.  

The lines are forged and the battle has begun. Even in the worst of things, sometimes very good things can come from a mess. Carrie Ann Ryan ended the Aspen pack on a very thrilling note.

 

Review: Bad Luck Vampire by Lynsay Sands

Bad Luck Vampire

Lynsay Sands

Argeneau Series, Book 36

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Expected publication September 26, 2023

New York Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands returns in this latest chapter of the Argeneau series with an immortal who is having a bit of bad luck while trying to woo his life mate… Alasdair MacKenzie has never once considered himself unlucky in all the centuries he’s been an immortal rogue enforcer. Not until he meets Sophie. Finding the beautiful, smart, and funny woman who is his life mate is great luck, actually. But meeting her at a wedding full of Argeneaus, not to mention his own busybody uncles determined to “help him claim his woman,” is bad luck. And the fact that Sophie is someone else’s date? Well that’s just the next level of unlucky. From the way her gaze travels over his body like a caress to the electric zing whenever they innocently touch…he wants her for all eternity! He’ll keep his hands off Sophie until her date is over. After that all bets are off and he’ll pull out all the stops to win her. Great plan—until he gets hit by a car. And then he’s poisoned. Is his luck that bad, or is someone out to stop this immortal from claiming Sophie as his life mate?

3.5 Stars

There’s nothing like being on a bad date, except when that bad date goes really bad. Just when Sophie thinks her luck couldn’t get any worse. It takes a change for the good, with two handsome strangers coming to her rescue. If the night couldn’t get any more odd, one of those beautiful strangers, invites her to a wedding, to which she agrees to go. Little did Sophie know that going to a simple wedding would truly change her life.

For someone who’s been alive for centuries, he’s never considered himself unlucky until the night of the wedding. Alistair was just dealt a great deal of luck in finding his life made. Then at a moment’s notice, it becomes the most unlucky night he’s ever had. Alastair has waited for centuries to find his life mate and she’s at this wedding with someone else and a family member no less. Then add in his crazy and fun Scottish uncles, determined to help him get the girl. He’s feeling pretty unlucky at the moment.

From the moment Sophie and Alastair looked at each other they were drawn to one another. Alastair knew she was the one for him, but yet she didn’t understand how she could be so drawn to another man when she was literally there with someone else. I really enjoyed the way they met the way they felt the attraction and the way they came together. Bad Lucky Vampire was a fun and entertaining read. Sophie and Alastair have a slow burn that happens kind of fast. I love the way they talk to each other. Their romance is sweet and sensual.

When I first started reading romance books, approximately 14 years ago or so Lynsay Sands’
Vampire, Interrupted was one of the first paranormal romances. I picked up, and I’m happy to say, after a decade or more of reading I am still reading the lovely Lynsay Sands but this series has gone on to over 35 books. I was just as entertained with Bad Luck Vampire as I was many years ago when I picked up Vampire Interrupted.

New Release: Cry of the Banshee by Heather Graham

When stakes are high and ruin nigh, beware the sorrow in the banshee’s cry.

Cry of the Banshee, an all-new steamy paranormal novella set in the Krewe of Hunters world from New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham, is available now!

Strange things are happening at Castle Darien, the legendary home of Angela Hawkins Crow’s family just outside of Dublin, Ireland.

People are dying in the most unusual ways: drowning where there’s no water, falling from heights that don’t exist…

But before every death, the banshee lets out a cry, warning that loved ones are in danger. The Irish death ghost’s haunting shrieks and sobs echo within the ancient stone walls and travel up and down the hillsides.

Terrified and broken after the death of a friend, Moira Hawkins, Angela’s second cousin, turns to her family for help, convinced that evil is at work and sure the Krewe of Hunters can determine what is happening and put an end to the strange and deadly haunting.

Angela is mystified and stricken, but she and Jackson travel to the Emerald Isle to investigate, certain that someone very much alive is behind whatever is going on.

But she and the Krewe just might need the dead to uncover the truth.

**Every 1001 Dark Nights novella is a standalone story. For new readers, it’s an introduction to an author’s world. And for fans, it’s a bonus book in the author’s series. We hope you’ll enjoy each one as much as we do.**

Grab your copy today, exclusively on Amazon! Amazon: https://amzn.to/3NeP68Q Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/cryofthebanshee Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/41YzKtl

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Keep reading for a look inside Cry of the Banshee!

At first, Moira Hawkins thought she might be imagining the sound. It was so soft at first, like a sigh on the wind or a whisper through the trees. Except she wasn’t in the woods. She was lying in bed in the private wing of Castle Darien, her family’s nearly ancient stronghold. But the windows were open. That had to be it. The temperature was cool but pleasant, and she didn’t need to use the heat or air-conditioning systems. Which was good since they would never be great in such an old stone fortress. Moira had promised her grandmother she wouldn’t let the castle, built at the end of the thirteenth century, go to ruin. She said she would do everything needed to bring it up to the standards so many others used to save the structure and turn it into a hotel. She was partway there. While she worked on getting the necessary loans and finding contractors to undertake such an epic restructuring, she hired a tour company to bring visitors through. There were even a few Haunted Ireland tours put on by historians, who talked about some of the dire events of the Emerald Isle’s bloody past. She figured anything around for over eight-hundred years must have some nightmarish events to relay. And her ancestral home was in the Republic of Ireland, which had suffered a great deal of bloodshed to get where it was today. Yet… It occurred to her that she had heard—or at least imagined—the soft, mournful sobs before. The night Granny had died. Imagination. Had to be. But she’d heard the sound the night before they found the old man drowned in the river that ran alongside the castle’s western wall, too. And the time the would-be thief fell to his death from the wall. They’d learned the elderly gentleman, visiting family in the area, had been suffering from cancer. Moira wondered if he had chosen his end. And while the thief shouldn’t have been trying to climb the wall, he hadn’t deserved death. As she thought back, she realized the sound had preceded all those events. She shook her head. She had to be imagining it. She might have spent the last few years of Granny’s illness working in the States, but she’d grown up with all the tales of leprechauns, pixies, fairies, and banshees. Granny had been so good at telling them, holding her cousins and her spellbound as she wove her magical tales. The crying grew louder. She wasn’t imagining it. She could definitely hear it. It wasn’t a frightened cry. It was mournful, heartfelt. Yet Moira was afraid. Where is it coming from? She glanced at the clock on her bedside table—just past midnight. The last ghost tour had ended by now, but she wasn’t alone in the castle. Stewart McKenna, her grandmother’s longtime castle steward, slept down the hall with his wife. Their son’s bedroom was next door to theirs. Nellie Antrim, the head housekeeper, was on this floor, as well. And while the tour of the two unoccupied towers had just ended, Mark Meadows, the tour agency’s director, often stayed behind to answer any questions the guests might have regarding the castle or Ireland’s history. Because, of course, Mark wasn’t just a businessman, though he was a good one. He truly loved history and didn’t mind working late. He was…wonderful. The sobbing continued. Moira’s mind went to something her granny had told her. Banshee. Banshees are the remains of the Tuatha dé Danann, the gods of Ireland, driven underground when the Milesians arrived—Gaels who traveled the Earth, seeking a home. And there, in Éire, they claimed the land while the Tuatha dé Danann settled the underworld. Once, keeners had been on hand at funerals, sobbing mournfully for those who had left the earthly world. The banshees fulfilled that tradition now, warning of someone’s death… Get a grip! she told herself. Seriously, she’d spent enough time in the United States to learn all about all kinds of myths and legends from around the world. There are no such things as banshees. Still…

For More Information about Heather Graham, visit her website: https://www.theoriginalheathergraham.com/

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Review: Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas by Vicki Delany

 

Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas

Vicki Delany

A Year-Round Christmas Mystery Series, Book 6

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication September 19, 2023

 

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like murder in the sixth installment of this charming cozy mystery series, perfect for fans of Donna Andrews and Jacqueline Frost.

It’s the beginning of December in Rudolph, New York, America’s Christmas Town, and business is brisk at Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, a gift and décor shop owned by Merry Wilkinson. The local amateur dramatic society is intensely preparing a special musical production of A Christmas Carol. But it’s not a happy set, as rivalries between cast and crew threaten the production.

Tensions come to a head when a member of the group is found dead shortly after a shopping excursion to Mrs. Claus’s Treasures. Was someone looking to cut out the competition? Everyone in the cast and crew is a potential suspect, including Aline, Merry’s mother, and Merry’s shop assistant Jackie O’Reilly, who was desperate for a starring role.

It could be curtains for Christmas—and for Merry—unless the killer can be ferreted out of the wings.

 

 

 

 3.5 Stars

Rudolph, New York is the most Christmasy town there ever was. A town that is truly centered around everything Christmas. Merry Wilkinson is the owner of Mrs. Claus’s treasures, a cute little gift and decor shop in America’s Christmas town. It’s the beginning of December, and the town is gearing up for their annual amateur trauma society play. This year it’s a Christmas Carol, but what should be a cheerful time becomes tense as rivalries begin amongst the cast and crew of the production. Tensions come to the forefront when one of the cast members is found dead While shopping. Just so happens she dies in Merry’s shop. Everyone in the cast and crew is a suspect, and even Merry. She is determined to get to the bottom of this before all the Christmas cheer is sucked out of this town.

This is my first forte into the year round Christmas mystery series. The concept of this is really cute and the mystery is engaging and intriguing. . We have some quite colorful characters in this cozy Little Christmas town. They add flair and charisma to the story, which I truly enjoyed. Vicki Delany is an imaginative and creative author. She continuously comes up with new ways to keep us thinking, and turning the pages.