“This was a war between monsters. And I was caught in the middle.”
Shapeshifters exist. Monsters are real. And no good deed goes unpunished.
Nursing student Ellie St. James didn’t mean to get involved in a war between rival gangs of shifters, but saving the life of a local mob boss’s child has dragged her into one. When Ellie’s life is threatened because of her involvement, she’s forced to go on the run, protected by Carter Ballis, head of security for the mobster’s family, and a lethal shifter himself.
Blood, fire, and warfare weren’t part of Ellie’s plans, but even if she survives, her life will never be the same. The world is more than she knew, and she’s seen too much. People capable of morphing into deadly creatures from legends and folklore around the globe are coming for her.
The cost of staying alive means trusting Carter to defend her, and he’s every bit as frightening as the creatures that want her dead…
I fell in love with the shifter lore in Ashes to Earth. Pulling from many different cultures, Sarah Ashwood was able to show the mythical creatures from around the world in one place. Many of the main shifter characters seem to be based on Greek myths, so fans of Greek mythology may really enjoy this fresh take on the classic mythological characters.
Ellie, the human, is wonderful. She’s very well-balanced and when the fluff hits the fan, she freaks out – as any good human girl would do when a minotaur shows up in front of them. But she also reacts quickly. She isn’t a damsel in distress by any means, but she does realize her own limitation when it comes to standing up against these shifters. It was quite refreshing to have such a down-to-earth character be the heroine of an urban fantasy story.
I’m still trying to figure out Carter. he’s hard and stubborn, but I saw glimpses of something much more, but I’m not sure what that “more” is yet. He has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor, which I loved, but not everyone in the story did. I feel like he may have been a little flat with a lot of her deeper self being described from his past instead of showing up in his actions in the present.
Carter’s job throughout the book is the protect Ellie from the other team’s shifters. And both sides get pretty creative in their attacks and defenses, which just freaks Ellie out even more. The reason for the war between the two sides comes out slowly, and we discover more about it as Ellie finds herself slipping further and further into the shifter world.
I will definitely want to pick up the second book in the Stones of Fire series. The story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, but even without that, I know there’s more to tell and I really want to find out who is going to win in the end.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
Entering the woods is forbidden. To go in can mean a fate worse than death. At least that’s what seventeen-year-old Laura has been told. But living in a new town with nothing to do, she ignores her mother’s dire warnings and explores the forest near her home.
The trees entice Laura deeper into the woods. A mysterious, soothing voice calls her name, and she becomes lost. When a young man finds her, she thinks she’s saved. But he insists their meeting is more than a coincidence. For centuries, his colony has been waiting for a savior. With his alluring eyes and gentle smile, Laura almost believes his crazy story.
Caught between worlds, and with her life at stake, she doesn’t know who to believe or trust. Her heart tells her one thing and her head another.
Is it her destiny, or will her fate only postpone the inevitable?
He embraced me, crossing his arms at his wrists, holding me tightly at the waist. As I drew closer, he kissed the top of my head. I put my arms around his neck, turning until the top of my head nuzzled under his chin. “I promise I won’t tell anyone about Landaffens or the Grove.”
“I know you won’t. I trust you, Laura.”
Yearning for his lips to meet mine, I raised my head. His lips slid to my mouth. His kiss was soft. Tender. I drew him against me, the ardor of passion bubbling through my body, inflating my being with something I had never felt before.
I pushed my tongue between his teeth, into his mouth, cupping the back of his head firmly while the fingers of my other hand pressed into his back. He jerked away, stunned, as if I’d bitten his tongue.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, pushing away from him.
“Nothing, I, I just.” He stared at the ground. “You are the first girl I have ever kissed. The first girl I have ever touched this way.
“The first? Really?”
“Yes,” he said. “I am inexperienced. Inept.”
“You’re not inept.” I smiled and took one of his hands. “It was nice―really nice. I couldn’t tell you hadn’t done it before.”
“Thank you,” he said, squeezing my hands. Brell’s words and the airy, whisper-like tone of his voice lulled me into a state of wanting to kiss him even more. “I will see you at the next early sun.”
“Yes, at the early sun,” I said. On light feet, I cut through the dead grass to the driveway and tiptoed up the porch steps. When I reached the front door, I lifted my necklace from my shirt and held it tightly in my hand. When I opened my palm, it twinkled like a star. I turned, giving Brell a final wave. The doorknob twisted without much of a rattle, and I crept through the kitchen and down the hall to my room.
Karri Thompson, a native of San Diego, attended San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not writing novels and teaching high school English, she can be found nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con and cooking delicious meals for her family. Karri is the recipient of the San Diego Book Awards Best Published Young Adult Novel for 2014.
A medieval Scottish blacksmith and a millennial from Detroit walk into a bar…
By the age of six, Fiona could sink a bank shot.
By eight she could mix a perfect Manhattan.
By twenty-two, she had a business degree and a concrete plan to save her grandfather’s failing bar.
Then she was pushed through a time-portal.
Now Fiona is stuck in fourteenth-century Scotland with no way home. There’s a good chance time-soldiers are after her. And Henry, the guy she’s shacked up with, is a grumpy son-of-a-bitch who doesn’t get her at all.
He is hot, though.
And brave.
And most definitely the love of her life.
If the two of them can stop bickering long enough, Fiona just might be able to have it all—the tavern of her dreams and the first man who can actually keep up with her. That is, if they can survive the battles, murder, and mayhem of the Middle Ages and the time-soldiers who have a hand in it all. **10% of books sale profits and 100% book merchandise profits go to The Three Penny Project, Sarah’s charity working to plant food-bearing, perennial plants throughout Toledo!
This was medieval Vegas, baby! Bold and bright and fabulously gaudy. Patterned tents in electric hues. Actors and singers and acrobats. Merchants in exotic robes. Shoddy goods and priceless treasures.
She took a drag from her tankard. “Ye should enjoy the moment o’ calm. Soon as that bell rings, it’ll be bedlam.”
“I’m counting on it!” Henry earned a third of his annual salary from this fair, and with any luck, I would do the same.
She refilled her tankard, and I excused myself to take a leak behind some bushes. When I returned, I found her bobbing her head to a bawdy song the chandlers in the tent next to us were singing.
“‘Some be lewd, and some be shrewd’,” they sang.
Mairi pumped her fist in the air. “‘Go where the shrews go’!”
I covered my mouth with a palm. Never in my life would I have expected prim, proper Mairi to be singing along to a dirty tavern song.
I eyed her nearly empty tankard. “How many of those have you had?”
Downing the last dregs, she burped. “Four. And I’m due for another.”
That’s when the man with the bear showed up. With a bob of his head in greeting, he gestured to the bear. “This here’s Aggie.” The bear rose to its hind legs and bowed.
I laughed.
Mairi squinted at the beast. “Fleas.”
The man patted the bear’s back. “Aggie’d like to buy an ale.”
My grin widened. “Aggie, huh?” I winked at the man. “Well, if it’s for the bear…I suppose I can sell you one early.”
“How,” Mairi hiccupped, “does Aggie intend to pay?”
“Well, ye canna expect a bear to pay in silver.” He made a circling gesture with his finger, and the bear pirouetted. “Ye see, no purse. Where would she keep the coin?”
I wanted to hug Aggie—she was so freaking cute. “I take it Aggie pays in entertainment?”
The man nodded. “Precisely.”
“Ye scaffy wee bugger.” Mairi’s words slurred before she took another drink and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Your coin purse looks plenty full to me.”
Honest offense rounded his mouth and eyes. “Why should I have to pay? It’s Aggie what wants it.”
Her already flushed face flashed redder.
“Deal!” I put a calming hand on her shoulder. “It’s my ale, and I want to see what Aggie can do.”
The man placed a metal hoop over the bear’s head. “Well, then, Aggie, how’s about ye dance for your supper?” She shimmied it to her middle and hula hooped with far more success than I ever had. I clapped my hands and cheered.
Mairi snorted. “Dancin’ bear.”
“Well done, Aggie. Well done.” He tossed her a sardine from a bucket on his cart. “But a lady shouldna be shakin’ her hips like that. Why dinna ye show some poise?” He placed a ball on the bear’s nose. It held steady as she twirled in a dainty circle.
“Good job, Aggie!” The bear bowed.
The town bell rang, and excitement flared through me. I handed the man his cup. “Here you go. Well worth the price of an ale.”
His brow furrowed. “What are ye giving it to me for?” He handed the cup to Aggie, who tipped her head back and downed the pint in one gulp.
Sarah Charles is the author of Beneath the Destiny Stone, a book she wrote to keep from going insane while recovering from a spinal injury. (It mostly worked). A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Sarah graduated suma cum laude with degrees in Psychology and German. Since then, she’s worked in the mental health field, owned a custom cake business, and given birth to three future super villains. She currently spends her days writing and working to bring food forests to Toledo through her charity The Three Penny Project. In her rare moments of free-time, Sarah dabbles in all things craftsy. She particularly enjoys wood-burning, rehabilitating old furniture, gardening, baking, and playing with clay.
