Covenant in Blood (Partnership in Blood Book 2) by Ariel Tachna

Dream spinner Presents:  http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5558

covenant

Blurb

Book Two in a Four Book Series. The wizards and the vampires have forged an alliance based on blood and magic, hoping to turn the tide of the war against the dark wizards. A few wizard-vampire bonds are as successful as Alain Magnier’s and Orlando St. Clair’s, but some are much less so, leading to arguments, resentment, and outright fights between the allies despite their mutual goals. Following his best friend Alain’s example, Thierry Dumont determinedly forms a partnership with vampire Sebastien Noyer, despite the wizard’s discomfort with being so close to a vampire a man so soon after his wife’s death. But they find that desperation may be the key to forming a covenant that works: Thierry and Sebastien are almost immediately devoted to one another’s safety. With new strength behind it, the Alliance’s leaders move to announce its existence to the whole world, hoping to rally support against the dark wizards who threaten to destroy life as they know it. Struggling to find its way in the expanding war, the Alliance discovers that despite its advantages, the partnerships are affecting the balance of magical power in the world, which may be an even bigger threat than the war itself.

Morgan’s Review

In this, the second book, we start to see where all those new relationships forged in book one are headed. There are so many, it’s sometimes hard to keep track. And they come in all flavors: m/m, m/f, f/f.

Orlando and Alain are growing closer day to day. Orlando is still a bit stand-offish, so scarred that it’s hard for him to let Alain in. Alain is becoming impatient and hurt by this seeming “rejection” and it briefly separates them. On the one hand, I too was feeling that Orlando was being ridiculous, but as Orlando points out, he was tortured for years and has been holding on to these feelings for years and the TEN days that he and Alain have been together, no matter the magic, can’t undo the damage that quickly.

Jude, the traditionalist is matched with Adele, the strong woman. It’s a clash of the centuries with him acting like a caveman and Adele showing him what a modern woman can do.

Thierry and Sebastian.   This is Sebastian coveting Thierry and Thierry feeling guilty over wanting someone so recently after his wife has died – and a man to boot.

Caroline and Mirielle are learning how to be a couple, with Caroline’s confidence blossoming under Mirielle’s care.

David the conservative is matched with Angelique the madam.  “Nuff said.

Raymond and Jean are two stubborn mules matched head to head.

The conflict part of the story also moves forward a little. We learn that there is magic to be gained from these vampire/warlock pairings and that when vampires feed while having sex that magic is restored faster than just from feeding alone.

Mostly, however, this very, very, very, very long book was about character development. It was a bit trying and confusing.  Luckily, for the most part, if you focus on the characters you most want to follow, you can still make sense of the storyline.  For example, I read in one review, “If there is a pairing you are uncomfortable with(i.e. m/f or f/f) , just skim their part!” I believe that’s mostly true. Very little would be lost if you ignored one couple, but the sex between couples is mostly Alain and Orlando. This is still mostly their story.

I think that a good editing would narrow this book down and we wouldn’t lose the interesting elements of the story.  With a little less detail (and perhaps a few less couples) the story would be cleaner and have a more immediate and strong impact.

As it stands, it’s kind of like Dickens.  You read through a lot to get a good story, but … you read through A LOT.

So, if you have a lot of patience and time, I recommend continuing on with this super creative series.

I’d give book two a 4 of 5 hearts, with points subtracted for length.

4

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Harvest Moon by Megan Slayer

MLR Press Presents: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=MSHARVMN

harvest moon

Blurb

What’s a guy to do when the time to be with family is the time he dreads the most?

All Matt Green wants for Thanksgiving is to propose to his boyfriend in the most epic way he knows-in front of their families. There’s only one catch. His boyfriend, Reed Jordan, doesn’t do family gatherings. To be honest, Reed isn’t wild about Thanksgiving, but he won’t say why.

Matt’s willing to do anything in order to get Reed to talk, but will it make the holiday perfect or or ruin all of Matt’s plans? The Harvest Moon just might be the right omen to make everything all right.

Morgan’s Review

This is a short story, a sequel of sorts to Blue Moon. Blue Moon was about Halloween, this is about Thanksgiving. In both stories the MCs “hate” the holiday in question, and it is the goal of the other MC to get them over this hatred.

For Reed, Thanksgiving represents the “coming out”/ epic fail he had with his parents 10 years ago. He was declared “dead” by his family and disowned and has hated the holiday ever since.

Matt loves people and parties and has felt a bit stifled by the lack of holiday spirit. He wants to replace Reed’s bad experience with a good one – a marriage proposal – but is scared. So he enlists the help of friends and family and spends some time talking with Reed to talk him off the ledge.

Reed reluctantly agrees and the family comes over and turkey eating commences and what do you know? All’s well! Reed accepts the proposal and everyone is happy!

Except…There is a lingering spookiness when a strange man is spotted outside the window after dinner. Reed reports the man had been stalking him earlier with wild talk about “granting wishes” and Matt confesses he’d been approached as well. Their friends, Paul and “Tony” confess that they fear that man is actually a demon (which elicits zero reaction from Reed and Matt) who made a deal with Tristan (after they confess that “Tony” is really Tristan) that resulted in Tristan’s “death” and subsequent “rebirth”. Everyone agrees not to talk to the creepy guy and all’s well again.

**

This story was more forced than Blue Moon. There seemed to be no real “hurdle” and the angst felt very manufactured. There was much gratuitous sex and I didn’t enjoy this story as much, as it’s predecessor. However, I did appreciate the continuing thread and hope to see if it takes us somewhere with all the couples together somehow.

I give this a 2.5 of 5 hearts

2.5

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