In “Jade” we meet the eponymous heroine, a super-powerful supernatural being who morphs between shifter, vampire, witch, and fae depending on the circumstances. She’s currently serving as an agent in the local police force in Winston, as in Winston-Salem, NC, in a world in which supernatural beings are more or less out in the open, […]

Read more "“Jade” by Rose Montague"

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. “Kings or Pawns” is the first installment of a series that seems to be deliberately going for a grittier version of Tolkien, and for the most part, it works. Set in a world with elves, dwarves, humans, orcs (whom we don’t see), and various other creatures, it follows the […]

Read more "“Kings or Pawns” by JJ Sherwood"

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. Just when things look like they’re starting to go well for Ukrainian *businessman* (cough) Misha Vorotavich, Russia begins a full-on invasion of Ukraine, and Misha finds himself the scapegoat on both sides for all Ukraine’s problems. Misha has to act, but what is he going to do–go along with […]

Read more "“Be First or Be Dead” by Nik Krasno and Alex Shaw"

“The Sapling” is the story of a young pickpocket, Firah, who has a secret destiny–of course she does! The “secret chosen one” is classic fantasy; what I appreciated about this take on it was making the main character a female pickpocket. Firah is brash and naive, but slowly matures over the course of the book, […]

Read more "“The Sapling” by Dan Gillis"

Penny is your typical geek: lives alone, watches too much Doctor Who and Buffy, enjoys whiskey maybe a little more than necessary. Oh, and she’s a woman. And a priest. She ends up performing the last rites on a dragon, and the next thing she knows, she finds herself (to her intense delight) liaising for […]

Read more "“The Temptation of Dragons” by Chrys Cymri"

Sebastian 2: Dark Times Arising is a paranormal romance that has a lot in common with Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, but with its own unique elements. It’s the second book in a series about the tortured romance between a vampire boy who abstains from human blood and a human girl with unusually strong magical […]

Read more "“Sebastian 2: Dark Times Arising” by Elizabeth Johnson"

The sword-and-sorcery subgenre of fantasy isn’t one of my favorites–okay, it’s one of my least favorite. But I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot to like in this sword-and-sorcery-type novel. This is the second book in a series chronicling the adventures of Kari, a dragon-like demonhunter who, after dying and being resurrected (presumably in […]

Read more "“White Serpent, Black Dragon” by Joe Jackson"

“The Goddess Embraced” is a fittingly epic final to an epic trilogy (or is it the end? Will the story continue?). Despite all the characters’ efforts to avert the prophecies, the world hurtles towards Ragnarok, forcing everyone to make desperate choices, Sigrun in particular. The world building of the series has been impressive throughout, and […]

Read more "“The Goddess Embraced” by Deborah Davitt"

I’m not normally a huge fan of short story collections, but I absolutely loved this one. The stories are emotionally intense in a way that I don’t normally find short stories to be–so much so that sometimes the book was hard to read, even though there was nothing particularly graphic about it. I really felt […]

Read more "“Shadows, Darkness and Light” by P. Zoro"

I was instantly intrigued when I read the premise for this book: billionaire playboy falls for a waitress–because she dominates him in the bedroom. The inversion of the usual relationship for this kind of story promised something interesting. The actual execution of the story is less excitingly different than I’d hoped; however, fans of the […]

Read more "“His Every Desire” by Krista Lakes"