by Jasmyn | Apr 23, 2019 | Book Reviews, Readers, Romance
Alpha Challenge is the 10th book in the Ashwood Falls series, and while I highly recommend reading them in order because there are a lot of carryover plots and characters, you could read them individually and still get a really great romance with a lot of great shifter war action.
Just as the shifters of Ashwood Falls think they have defeated the pack intent on destroying them, an attack steals away their young and the hunt is on to get them back. I wish this had been a little bit harder to do. While the Ashwood Pack is pretty much the strongest community of shifters, it felt a little bit like a stroll through the park in a thunderstorm instead of the struggle to fight against a strong enemy they knew little about.
The romance in the story was very well done. Both characters are struggling with issues from their past. And while they also both recognize it, Alec is the first to try and breach the gap between them to claim his mate. (And yes, as in most shifter romances, they know they are mates.) But Rhea has a harder time because of the secrets she as been hiding. But secrets have a way of coming out, and during the rescue of the kids, Rhea is confronted with Alec learning everything.
I really enjoy the Ashwood Falls shifters, and I hope this new enemy presents a challenge for them that they can really dig their teeth into and show how the pack still has room to grow and change.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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Title: Alpha Challenge (Ashwood Falls #10
Author: Lia Davis
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Range: Adult
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Feral, unstable, and hungry for blood are a few words used to describe a rogue. They also describe Alec Andrews’ leopard. The man is broken. The only things keeping him sane are his family, his pack, and a mate he can’t claim. Because claiming Rhea will bring her spiraling down with him the day the darkness wins.
The wolf den mother, Rhea Scott will make Alec hers. Whatever it takes, she will tear down the walls he has built around him and his heart. The stubborn male thinks he’s protecting her by denying the mating pulling. He’s not the only one with a past he can’t run from. Rhea isn’t worthy of the pedestal he places her on. And she had never been a weak female.
A new enemy rises out of the fallen Onyx Pack’s ashes. When a group of kids is taken, Rhea’s wolf goes into protection mode and won’t rest until the kids are home safe. No one was going to stop her. Not even the hotheaded, sexy, alpha male, Alec Andrews.
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by Jasmyn | Mar 27, 2019 | Book Reviews, Readers, Science Fiction, Fantasy
I really really wanted to enjoy this book. The concept of the land and magic is fascinating, and I loved it. An apprentice that has a hidden past, a chip on her shoulder, and more power than she knows what to do with right now – alright, let me have it. I want more.
But then I met Kayden. Who is a character that I DID NOT LIKE even after getting part of her backstory and learning a bit about why she was so cruel (yes cruel, not mean, but cruel) to everyone (yes everyone) around her. I didn’t want to see her succeed. I wanted to see her get put in her place and in many respects she became the bad guy. Although at 50% through when I gave up, we hadn’t met anyone else to fill the bad guy role, so maybe she will be.
Also, everything was about sex somehow. Kayden blackmails two instructors, gets accused of being the lover for another, assumes one is trying to get in bed with her just because he knocks on the door, and everyone is either flirting with her or jealous of her unusual beauty. Knock it off already! I get it – she’s exotic and really pretty, but there can be other conflict that doesn’t revolve around sex. That was what ultimately made me put the book down. I just couldn’t anymore.
There were a lot of great things about this novel, but there were a lot of not very good things as well. I’d love to see a version with a more sympathetic Kayden. Still a brat with a chip on her shoulder, but some redeeming quality that lets me like her from the beginning. And find a way for her to blackmail, get her way, have conflict without it being about sex all the time.
**I voluntarily read a complimentary copy of this book**
Title: The Exercise of Vital Powers (Legends of the Order #1)
Author: Ian Gregoire
Genre: Fantasy
Some Lessons Must Be Learned The Hard Way.
Since its inception, The Order has been dedicated to the prevention of the misuse and abuse of magic. For seven decades this mandate has guaranteed peace and stability throughout The Nine Kingdoms. But a potential threat to the peace has emerged, and its source is much closer to home than the leadership of The Order may realise.
Arrogant, manipulative, confrontational and angry. Undesirable qualities in a person at the best of times, but more so in a young woman born with the power to bring kingdoms to their knees. Kayden Jayta, precocious apprentice of The Order, is all these things and more, yet wholly unwilling to acknowledge and rectify her many troubling traits.
Unbeknown to anyone, Kayden’s resolute determination to join the ranks of The Order is born of a secret that puts her priorities at odds with the precepts of the organisation, setting her inexorably on a collision course with the most powerful institution in The Nine Kingdoms.
If Kayden is to be dissuaded from walking the path she has chosen, averting tragic consequences in the process, two unanswered questions must be answered: What is the dark secret guiding Kayden’s actions? And, why has a legendary figure within The Order, with a secret of her own, taken undue interest in Kayden’s future?
by Jasmyn | Mar 25, 2019 | Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Readers
Paris Mends Broken Hearts is a book that is hard to describe. Historical fiction – yes. But more of a glimpse into a life than anything romantic, dramatic, or historically significant (other than it happens after WWII, I guess). It a journey through a small section of the life of
Gwendoline Delacroix who lost her husband in the war.
After spending a lot of time locked behind the safe walls of their estate, she sets out one morning and ends up finding herself and a purpose in life again. This doesn’t happen on its own, but with the help of her sister-in-law and a woman she is introduced to in Paris.
A very pleasant story, but if you are looking for something that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a stroll through the past in someone else’s shoes – then definitely pick this one up. It’s a quick read, and I’m glad I gave it a shot.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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Title: Paris Mends Broken Hearts
Author: Kaya Quinsey
Genre: Historical Fiction
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Gwendoline Delacroix finds herself fleeing Paris in a desperate attempt to escape the memories that haunt her in her French countryside chateau. Following the aftermath of WWII, she had become a widower and desperately missing her husband, Jean. Although her loyal and quirky staff do their best to keep her afloat, Gwendoline eventually takes charge and in a quick turn of events, finds herself at the Hotel de la Belle Paix – the hotel run by her brother and sister-in-law in the Latin Quarter in Paris.
Over the summer, Gwendoline finds work at an animal sanctuary run by an eccentric aristocrat. With new friends, an elderly cat, and a glass of wine in hand, Gwendoline proves to herself and everyone else that there is life after lost love.
Entertaining? Of course! Joyful? Undoubtedly. Champagne? Bien sur! In Paris, nothing is predictable, and everything is extraordinary.
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