Thursday, January 28, 2021

Unveiling by Zel Winter


Unveiling

Mythical Creature Series Book 1

Dan Noble is an old Vampire, perhaps the oldest in the world. One night on the prowl, he is inexplicably drawn to a plain-looking university student. But Nina Wright is not as boring as she seems: she meets Dan's charm with the allure of her own, and the two share an unforgettable night. When Dan tries and fails to compel Nina to forget their encounter, he suspects that she is no ordinary human. And when a gang of bloodthirsty vampires singles her out for a vicious kidnapping, he realizes the girl he has fallen head over heels for may very well be a Human Immortal, a being of awesome power. Nina will be able to reclaim her supernatural gifts if she chooses a mate of her own lineage, Nature's Immortals: a Dragon, Were, or Fae. As a Vampire, Dan would only stand in the way of her destiny.

Will he find the courage to give up his true love just as soon as he has found her?

Unveiling is Book 1 of the Mythical Creatures Series, in which powerful Immortal beings battle for justice in a magical world just beyond the veil of our own....

My Review

 I enjoyed Dan and Nina’s story. In this world, vampires remind me somewhat of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the fae shapeshift into birds and there are a few human women with the gift to choose an immortal mate and take on their abilities and immortality. To me that sounds super cool! Dan has been tasked with seeking out these human immortals so that he can bring them to the immortal creatures and she can choose her mate. He didn’t count on falling in love. He believed that he couldn’t and wouldn’t be allowed to claim the immortal humans for himself. Now he’s in agony as he takes Nina and her sister to the immortals to choose their mates.

I give this story 4 enthusiastic stars. The story is good, the pace is fast and the characters are pretty likeable.

I am excited to find out what happens next for Dan and Nina!


Find out more on zelwinter.com


Thursday, December 3, 2020

Paranormal and The Pandemic

 Paranormal and the Pandemic

a guest post by Beth Linton author of The Guardian's Trust series

As I blearily climbed out of bed this morning, pulled on my too large Harry Potter dressing gown and shuffled off in my Uggs to click the heating on, my half-awake brain was met with a strange sense of unreality. At 6.00 am it was dark outside and rain lashed against the double glazing. Autumn has firmly gripped Wales – and so has another lockdown.

The boiler fired and I headed for the kettle, determined to grab what has become my favourite time of the day: an hour of essential coffee drinking with my laptop before I begin another day of the ‘new normal’. That morning my plan was to re-read a scene from book seven of the paranormal romance series I’m writing and escape reality by editing the rather dark discovery the hero makes after infiltrating my villain’s dystopian, misogynistic world.

And the oddness of the fact that I planned to exchange one real-life dystopian world for another gave me pause.

As I grabbed the Nescafe, I wasn’t enacting the tale of a Handmaid, nor was a surveillance camera watching me in 1984. I was in my kitchen, in 2020, during a global pandemic.


So why, given these awful world events, has my habit become to get up early to claim some time with my novel when I could still be snuggled warmly in bed? I’ve always loved to read and write, but my need for these things has increased tenfold since life as we know it came grinding to a halt in March.


Yesterday, I saw a post on Twitter about a t-shirt by Ripped Bodice that reads, ‘stay home, read a romance’. The slogan is accompanied by an embracing mask-wearing couple. I loved it. I tried to order it... and was left devastated because it had sold out. The slogan and image on this t-shirt clearly spoke to millions of readers and, if you think about it, the reason why is obvious: lonely at home, and facing difficult health and fiscal times, people want to escape into a book.


During the summer months of the pandemic, statistics tell us that readers have devoured dystopian and steamy romance novels. Pre-pandemic, romance sales slumped. In January 2020, sales were down 11 percent from the same time the previous year. By May 2020, as the pandemic took hold, this gap had closed.


I enjoy apocalyptic Sci-Fi and I’ve read many an anti-utopian novel, but while a steamy romance certainly offers comfort, I think I need something in between: Romance with a bite.


Within a paranormal romance I have discovered that I can find the escapism my brain seems to crave during this time of uncertainty. The genre’s darker themes offer a sense of catharsis, but the stories lack the depressive tone of paranormal’s dystopian cousin.


Covid-19 has transformed our regular lives into a scene from a dystopian novel, so, while I could download a copy of Camus’ The Plague or Dean Koontz’s The Eyes of Darkness for my morning me time, I think I’ll stick with paranormal romance and the more optimistic future to be found amidst its pages.




To learn more about Beth Linton and The Guardians’ Trust series visit Beth’s website www.bethlinton.co.uk .

You can also follow bethlintonauthor, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Saturday, October 17, 2020

Review - Ana: The Guardian's Trust by Beth Linton

 



Ana: The Guardian's Trust

Some women are born identical as Doubles—one in the human world, one in the jungle of the Other Realm. Their fate is to change places, to embrace their future with the men born for them.

Dr. Ana Jones learns her destiny is to leave the human world and cross into an Amazonian realm, a fate that is akin to stepping back in time. There, she will join the Resistance, those who are fighting for survival. As a Double, she must pass through the gateway and marry a stranger.

He’s a warrior, and leading the Resistance is Brenin’s life, but Ana is his future. Brenin embraces his pending marriage and the shapeshifting gift their mating may bring, but will her love be enough to help both man and panther survive the war?




My Review

Dr. Ana Jones is a vet that dreams of big cats. Her hope is to one day live among the big cats in the wild to observe and study  them. Then one day she is approached by two strange men that claim her destiny is to travel to a distant world and trade places with her double from that world. Can she do it? Can she go where she will be without anyone she knows and promised to marry a man she has never met?


As Ana plunges headfirst into another realm, the reader is plunged headfirst into her adventure. She finds herself in a world that is beautiful and foreign, but not without its appeal. There is no technology and she is able to be at peace with the people and nature surrounding her. As she finds her place in the new world, she meets many new people and is welcomed warmly. Yet despite the peace of the jungle, there is also a war brewing among the ancient families. Her new husband Brenin is the leader of their clan and he and his family have to defend their home. I really enjoyed Ana’s story. She is a courageous character, and she brings her warmth and kindness through to the reader.

I loved this story and am eager to find out what happens in Ana’s story next! 

 4 stars for Ana!


Go read Ana! I hope you like it as much as I did!




Monday, October 5, 2020

2020, not 1820… 21st Century Desires & Paranormal Romance

 

2020, not 1820… 21st Century Desires & Paranormal Romance

Guest Post By Beth Linton, Author of The Guardians’ Trust Series.

Today we have a post provided by New author Beth Linton. Her take on the 21st century heroine is one that I completely love and agree with. I am reading an enjoying her debut novel Ana. Ana is this strong heroine she craves. Because shouldn't we write the books we want to read? 



I stumbled upon paranormal novels quite by chance. I was twenty-two, new to the city of Chester, UK, after gaining my first job post-university and I was working my way through the new, exciting shelves of the city’s library.

Between Nora Roberts and LaVyrle Spencer, I came across a thin, unassuming book that unexpectedly blew my mind. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title or the author of this book but what has stuck with me is the unexpected journey the paranormal romance took me on. In the story a woman, brought low by life and circumstance, travelled to a remote English estate to marry a handsome, wealthy recluse – initially, the novel was not so different from a hundred romances I’d read before but then I learnt why the hero had withdrawn from society. I still remember my surprise when I learnt he was both blessed and cursed by his ability to transform into a wolf at each full moon. I was excited by the supernatural elements of the story, intrigued by the hero as he prowled the cliffs around his home and I fell in love with the added heat and passion the genre twist added to what would have otherwise been an enjoyable but normal romance.

I still love Roberts and Spencer but the chance discovery of paranormal books changed my experience of reading… forever.

But, here’s the thing… as a 21st century woman, how do I balance my love of paranormal romance novels – and yes, sexy alpha romance – with who and what I am? I’m a mother and a wife, but I’m also a woman in my own right: I’m a professional, a published author, I’m educated and (I’d like to think) strong.

I loved that book, but as a reader in 2020 what I want from a romance novel is more than a hot lead character and a night (or ten!) of sizzling passion. Of course, a good story means a villain, a twist and a conflict that keeps me turning the pages, but I want heroines that are bold and strong and take the lead, rather than always being led. I also want heroes who are actually heroes – not men who are called that because they stumbled into the lead role. And, they should value the heroine's strength, not seek to undermine it or feel threatened by it. No passive aggressive macho behaviour please!


The heroines I was fed as a little girl were passive. In fairy tales and (some) romance novels, alike, the heroines waited pliantly and suffered at the hands of the ‘heroes’ before they found happiness. All hoped for a man to ride in on his white horse or motorcycle (depending on the century of the story) and change their lives for them. More alarmingly, the women of these stories were portrayed as seemingly enjoying the abusive behaviour of their would-be-husbands, controlling boyfriends, or kings.

The bad relationship was presented in these stories as… well, ‘good’, because it was a RELATIONSHIP and little girls who are brought up to play weddings with pillowcases on their heads and practise being mummy with their baby doll are also brought up to expect a man to save them, to provide for them.

While I might have been sold this narrative, I didn’t buy into it – and they’re certainly not the kind of characters I want to write.

I may love to read paranormal romance novels but that doesn’t mean I switch off my twenty-first century self and suddenly embrace those concerning tropes I just mentioned.

I don’t want to get home from a chaotic but satisfying day at work to read about a damsel in distress that needs saving, nor do I want to nail that presentation only to pick up a book about another woman made rich by marrying a wealthy man with questionable morals (although, let’s face it, having money in a romantic novel – whether the cash belongs to the male or the female leads – takes out some of the daily grind I read to escape!).

I don’t long for a re-telling of Rumpelstiltskin, or Rapunzel, or Cinderella when I search for a new e-book. I’m with Dr Ana Jones in The Guardians’ Trust: Ana (book one) when she thinks about these fairy tales. No way should a heroine marry a ruthless maniac just because he’s king!

I want to read about strong women. Professional, educated, confident women. Women who have passion for their career, who take care of themselves and then, yes, comfortable in their own skin, standing on their own two feet, they take the passion and love on offer because it suits them – not because they need to.

Every day, I’m surrounded by strong women: doctors who are mothers, business leaders who are compassionate, professionals who are unapologetic in their femininity. These women don’t try and change who they are to fit into another stereotype. They are smart and successful and – yes – feminine.

In my first paranormal romance series I have done my best to create women I’d like to be friends with. They are intelligent, fun and strong: doctor, vet, survivor or soldier (for Greenpeace and the British army!). They all have passion and guts. They are all strong. They are all ‘real’ women.

I care about them all… I hope you will too.

To learn more about The Guardians’ Trust series visit www.bethlinton.co.uk

To follow bethlintonauthor find her on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter.

Beth is also on Goodreads and you can buy her books from Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Barns & Noble and Evernight Publishing.



Saturday, June 22, 2019

Shifter's Wish by Louise Cypress




SHIFTER’S WISH

by Louise Cypress
Publication Date: June 17, 2019
Genres: Adult, Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance


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SYNOPSIS

When his family is threatened, a shifter must choose between high school and a life of crime.
For the past six hundred years the Byrd family members have been shifters with avian powers. Seventeen-year-old Rolf is the only Byrd who transforms into a dog. Rolf knows that when his mom looks at him, all she sees is a mutant, but Rolf has plans for his future that go beyond shifting.
Rolf is using senior year to shoot Desperate Dawn, a film that he hopes will win him a prestigious scholarship to the University of Southern California. If Rolf can convince Summer Hathaway to be his leading lady, he’ll be golden. But when Rolf finds twenty dead ravens on his porch, shifter problems show up at his door.
Snake bites, wild coyotes, and drive-by shootings–Rolf’s neighborhood suddenly becomes a deadly place to be. Summer’s douchebag boyfriend makes it worse, especially when he attacks Rolf’s sister. Rolf will do anything to protect the people he loves, even if it means giving up on his dreams. Hopefully, he won’t have to.
Shoot the film. Get the girl. Save his family. It’s a good thing that Rolf can fight like a dog.

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My Review:

Rolf Byrd is the only canine shifter in a family of bird shifters. His dad’s family can all shift into birds, but when he married a non shifter, something recessive came through with Rolf and he can shift into any kind of dog, but no birds. His family still accepts him and his abilities  come in handy when he and his friends run into a pack of coyotes in the woods. His life takes a complicated turn when he grandfather wants him in the family, and the family business and his mom is totally against that.
I really enjoyed the story of Rolf and the bird shifter family! I liked him a lot and his story was fun to read. His sister was cute and their friends from school were interesting characters. So were the Byrds. I would enjoy reading more from this author!

I give Shifter’s Wish 4 stars




About Louise Cypress

Louise Cypress believes in friendship, true love, and the everlasting power of books. She has never met a vampire, but she has been to a Love Sucks concert on Valentine’s Day. Like Morgan, Louise can often be found curled up with a romance novel on Saturday night, diet soda in hand, secretly wishing bustles were back in fashion. Louise lives in San Diego, California, where the beach is crowded and summer is immortal.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Immortal by Kristin Ping blog tour with giveaway!!




Title: Immortal
Series: Varcolac series #1
Saga: The Guardian of Monsters
Pages: 302
Author: Kristin Ping
Publisher: Fire Quill Publishers
Release Date: April 15 2018


Description: She has no fear, she is fear.


Natasha’s life begins the night she is turned. With the ability to channel fire, a gift that only belongs to the witches, she becomes a terror— not only to the packs, but all the supernatural breeds. She’s known as Blaze. The deadliest vampire out there.But Blaze has a secret. She didn’t want to become a vampire, she needed to become a vampire, and her reasoning is lost. It died the night her human life did.Her conscience activates when two varcolacs visit the covenant, looking for allies for the Great War.

What was it about the Varcolacs that made her grow a conscience? And will she be able to outrun it to keep the title of terror?

Purchasing links


About Kristin Ping

Kristin is a USA Today Bestselling author and lives with her family in South Africa, where she writes full time.
Her debut novel, Immortal: A Varcolac Novel, followed by Hinder: A Benders Novel, are the first two novels in a sweeping saga called Guardian of Monsters. Nine intricately imagined novels are in the works, following witches, vampires, werewolves, djinns, Benders, and shifters.

Excerpt:

Natasha
2058 - Present

I shifted uselessly against my bonds and gasped as the metal dug into my skin. The chains and heavy locks that shackled my arms and legs to the stiff chair beneath me were made of UVS metal, among the strongest and deadliest metals to our kind. It weakened us so badly that we didn’t even have the strength of a mere human.
I winced at the pain throbbing in my neck. Werewolf bite.
It was a known fact that vampires did not live long, seven days at most, when bitten by a werewolf. Nobody here would suck out the venom, and no one was coming to my rescue.
Tonight’s events played through my mind in vivid detail.
Cass had let me go. After so many years, she finally let me go. But when I saw Vladimire and Francine, I knew it had all been a lie.
Alex and Leigh never stood a chance. Varcolacs were no match for werewolves. They weren’t as strong and their bodies couldn’t hold the Stra-vain—a concentrated dose of a rare plant that allowed werewolves to transform at will—in their system. Varcolacs had to wait for the full moon.
A few nights ago, when I was camping under the moonlight with Alex and Leigh, I’d thought I was the luckiest vampire in history. I had been given a second chance at life. An opportunity to make something good come from evil.
But that second night, when Alex smelled wolves on our tail, I knew it was just one of Cass’s cruel games.
She’d lied when she told me I could be with Alex, that she knew what it felt like to be in love with a Varcolac. She’d never intended to allow me to leave—not her precious Firebird, Natasha.
But never in a million years had I thought she would send my werewolf children to drag me back home.
What had she been thinking? That I wouldn’t kill them? Or harm them?
When they attacked, I took on Vladimire first. Vladimire, who was like a son to me. I still remembered the day I went to pick him up, or really the day I stole him and his twin sister, Francine.
There in the woods, at first, I couldn’t find it in myself to kill him. I tried to scare him with my fire. That hadn’t made him back off, and he’d taunted me, telling me I didn’t have it in me to burn him alive. He was wrong.
Francine had attacked Leigh, and Alex had tried to help. His foot triggered a bear trap, but he still fought as hard as he could. Leigh and Alex tried their best to kill Francine.
I aimed my merciless fire at Vladimire, my Vladimire. Watching him die by my hands ripped my heart to shreds, but I knew it was either us or them.
When he was a charred corpse, I steeled myself to attack Francine next.  Killing her should be easier than Vladimire—she was the more sadistic of the two.


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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Chrysalis The Order Series Book 3 by Nikki Rae


🌸Bloom (The Order, 1)🌸
Page count: 327
Release date: February 28, 2018

Synopsis:
Given to The Grimm Order as an infant, Fawn was raised in a world shaped by the rich and powerful. When she was sold at the age of nine to a Suitor, Fawn believed he would protect her from the “Mainworld”, where those who know nothing about the Order live. Living with the cruel man who bought her freedom, she finds just what the Order is about: money, control, and status for the Owner and humiliation and abuse for those they own. 
Unwilling to accept the expectations of being Owned, Fawn goes from golden girl to maid, content to live in the shadows of the Order as long as she isn’t Owned again.
It’s been ten years since she disgraced her former Owner’s name, and now the brooding Frenchman Elliot Lyon wants her. Master Lyon is kind, smart, and unlike any man she’s met. She doesn’t want to admit it to herself, but Fawn is drawn to him despite constantly planning her next escape. 
Even the prettiest flowers have thorns, and Master Lyon is hiding secrets that will uproot everything she thinks she knows about him.



🌹Wilt (The Order, 2)🌹
Page Count: 231
Release Date: June 30, 2018

Synopsis:
When she was sold to Master Elliot Lyon of House Chimera, Fawn could have never imagined he was the same person as Elliot, the man beneath a well placed mask. A victim. Just like her. She would have never thought he was grooming her for the Wolf she’d already escaped once. That he planned to deliver her to the beast’s jaws in exchange for his wife. Master Jäger will stop at nothing to have her—even if that means using others as collateral. With more than just their lives on the line, Fawn must become someone else, and Master Lyon distances himself further from Elliot as her transfer looms. 
The roots of the Order run deep within them, but Fawn is beginning to realize another bond has formed between her and her Owner, a man she vowed to destroy along with the rest of their tangled branches. 
In a world where trust is just a tool and love isn’t meant for people like them, Fawn is determined to beat the powerful at their own elaborate games of make-believe. Even the man who Owns her.  



🌿Chrysalis' info:🌿
Release Date: April 30, 2019
Page Count: 

Synopsis:
After Wolf Manor, Fawn vowed to never be weak, broken, or scared again. She has wrenched her power from the Vultures, visiting them under the cover of darkness to deliver the same drug they’d given her. This version has a different side effect: death.
It doesn’t stop the nightmares, it can’t erase what happened, but revenge is the only distraction from Lyon Estate. Tucked in the wilderness, she draws back into herself until Master Lyon demands they make good on their deal. In order to continue her vengeance, he is to be her Owner—really this time.
While it is a small sacrifice to make, Fawn isn’t prepared to be pulled back into Elliot’s world, where the rules of the Order exist, but in a new way. Running from him sends her into the arms of others in House Chimera. People who should be off limits, but they also stir something within her wholly different than the emotions Master Lyon can conjure. Marius is patient, and she finds herself clinging to him more now than ever before. People like them don’t believe in love, but can they choose it?
Fawn is no longer the prey, but beyond the trees, a lone Wolf is hunting…  


Patreon Information :

To read exclusive teasers and serials and support the author's work, please consider becoming a Patron. $1.00-$8.00 per month gets you access to bonus content featuring characters that appear in this series and more!

Teaser from this bonus material (This is a chapter from Chrysalis in Marius' POV) (image attached):

He slid the glass to his side of the coffee table as he sat down on the other end of the sofa.
“We talked about this, mon coeur.”
My heart. He’d started to call me that when we were boys. I remembered the blood on my chest and how he’d sewn me back together.
“He’d said he’d rip out my heart if I didn’t obey.”
“You are my heart,” Marius whispered. “You must take care of it. What happens to you happens to me.”
Lifting the drink to his nose, Marius sniffed and grimaced. Yes, the very scent we often associated with the Vulture visiting our beds. “You don’t need to punish yourself, Elliot.”
Marius went as far as standing, setting the half empty glass on the bar cart.
But I did need to punish myself. I deserved so much more than the sting of memories. A need for something more substantial itched my spine, but satisfying any urge right now was out of the question.
“I can’t sleep.”
He wasn’t far, but I wanted to touch. I was selfish enough to crave this, yet I would not ask for it aloud.
“Because Fawn isn’t near you.” He phrased it as though he were finishing my sentence, not a question.
Folding my hands in my lap, I stared at the flames. “I wouldn’t ask that of her,” I said evenly. “I’m not a monster.”
My voice broke and it sent a wave of rage through me. Of course I was. I was no better than the disgusting man who had Owned us.
Marius moved an inch or two closer. “I know that. She knows that.” 


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