Excerpt:
We were no sooner on the couch than Dominic had me in his arms and I was really flying. He nibbled on my neck, sending waves of pleasure through me. The sharp edge of his teeth grazed my skin, ready to bite into me. But he stopped and froze all over for a second, leaned back, and his sightless eyes betrayed a confused indecision that startled me. For a moment, he seemed lost. But before I could formulate words to ask him what was wrong, his expression changed, his lips returned to mine, and his tongue renewed its attack.
Friday night, his kisses had been tentative and delicate, but now he pressed his lips to mine with animal-like ferocity and gripped me in a powerful embrace. He licked and nibbled on my neck while unbuttoning my shirt, and then he nudged me forward to remove it.
I started to lift his pullover, but he pushed my hands away. His fingers explored my naked torso and roamed over every inch of exposed skin, adding to the tension building up inside me.
Huston Piner writes books prominently featuring gay characters. His first book My Life as a Myth was nominated for the 2014 Stonewall Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and was a 2013 Rainbow Awards finalist. His second book, the highly anticipated Conjoined at the Soul, was published in February 2015. In the edgy Light in Endless Darkness, his first New Adult offering, he explores the supernatural romance of a gay vampire. Huston lives in the mythical town of Chadham, Virginia, with his partner and three domineering cats.
Blurb
Book Nine of The Vampires in America Series
Kauai, Hawaii—tropical paradise, vibrant jungle, turquoise sea… and sensuous nights that hide vampires so powerful they can change the world.
Raphael—powerful, extraordinary, arrogant. He’s been eliminating rivals and gathering allies, determined not just to survive, but to demolish the Europeans who think they can steal what he’s worked for centuries to create. In a final bid to avert a war that seems inevitable, Raphael agrees to meet an enemy he knows of old. She is formidable, wily, and not to be trusted. But in his arrogance, Raphael believes he can foil whatever treachery she has brewing.
Cynthia Leighton—Raphael’s human mate, beautiful, smart, and deadly when threatened. She doesn’t trust anyone, much less a powerful vampire claiming to want peace. So while Raphael prepares to negotiate a treaty, Cyn is preparing for the inevitable double-cross that she knows is coming. Raphael worries about saving thousands of vampire lives. She only cares about one, and she will do anything to keep him alive and in her arms.
When Cyn is proven right, when it all falls apart and Raphael’s enemies draw on ancient magic to trap him, taking him away from Cyn and out of the war, it all falls to her—to find Raphael, to save the thousands of vampires who will die if she doesn’t succeed… and to kill every single being, human or vampire, who gets in her way.
Review
This is one of my favorite m/f romance writers and this series is amazing. In a nutshell we have a very, very tough Cyn mated to the uber-alpha Raphael, the most powerful Vampire in American and possibly in America. Throughout the series we have seen Raphael’s enemies fall as his allies have taken over the various parts of North America into Mexico and Canada as leaders, each time finding their own mates, always a powerful woman.
(In one case the woman was the vampire!)
What I love about DB Reynolds is that her women are tough but still feminine and the alphaness of the vampire does not require them to fold and quaver. The sex is really hot (and plentiful!) and the action is always exciting.
Cyn and Raphael have had several novellas and this is their second full length novel. Their relationship is not usually at question, but their safety is always at risk.
In this, the ninth book in the series, Raphael is facing off against the Europeans and has been taken captured by them. Cyn and the remaining vamps have to find him and rescue him and then defeat the evil vamps.
I love that each time Cyn and Raphael come together it’s like they’ve been apart for days. They are always so hot for each other, yet caring.
The final scene is an epic battle and victory for our team… but there’s the hint of the next phase to come…
NYPD Detective Alec MacAidan has always been good with weird. After all, his life has been a string of the unexplainable. But when an injured man gives him cryptic clues, then turns to dust in front of him, Alec’s view on weird is changed forever.
Cronin, a vampire Elder, has spent the last thousand years waiting for Alec. He’d been told his fated one would be a man wielding a shield, but he didn’t expect him to be human, and he certainly didn’t expect that shield to be a police badge.
Both men, strong-willed and stubborn, are still learning how to cope with the push and pull of being fated, when fate throws them another curveball.
Rumors have spread quickly of turmoil in Egypt. Covens are fleeing with news of a vampire who has a talent like no other, hell-bent on unleashing the wrath of Death.
Alec and Cronin are thrown into a world of weird Alec cannot imagine. What he learned in school of ancient pharaohs and Egyptian gods was far from the truth. Instead, he finds out firsthand that history isn’t always what it seems.
Review
What a great new direction for a favorite author! NR Walker always delivers quality writing with well developed MCs and an entire cast of secondary characters that are three-dimensional and fully developed. I love paranormal books and I love NR Walker – so this was an excellent combination!
Since Alec and Cronin are fated lovers – another tick on my box of likes – we get to see the “insta-attraction” that makes vampire/shifter books so compelling.
In the nature of NR Walker books, I know that there will be more “lovey dovey” moments in the sequel – so I am holding off judging the overall “feels” for now.
Suffice it to say that this book sets up the back-story and puts our two MCs together and (I expect) book two will wrap up their love story and give us the ooey gooey happy ending I know NR Walker delivers.
Rise of the Revenants by Poppy Dennison
Vampyres are on the loose in Detroit, and novice hunter Taz Cohen is on the job. The mission seems simple: stop the vamps. But Taz knows nothing about the mythical creatures, so he’s in for the fight of his life. Then he meets insanely attractive construction worker Darren Foster, who jumps into the battle with both feet. Sparks and bullets fly as they struggle against the vampyre horde and their attraction to each other. Avoiding gruesome death from the undead might be easier than shielding their hearts from each other.
Legacy of Blood and Death by Rhys Ford
For Javi Navarro, Detroit will become another blood-splattered city in his rearview mirror after he puts its dead back into the ground. Expecting an easy hunting job, Javi instead finds a kiss of ancient vampyres on the hunt for a descendent of their long-dead creator.
Reclusive Ciarnan Mac Gerailt abandoned his family legacy of blood and death magic after it nearly destroyed him. Unfortunately, the Motor City can only be saved if Ciarnan resumes his dark arts and joins forces with Javi Navarro, the hunter who brought the vampyre apocalypse—and hope for the future—straight to Ciarnan’s front door.
Review
(From Previous Site)
Rise of the Revenants:
Taz is a hunter of werewolves (not shifters) and now vampyres (kind of like zombies but with more reasoning ability). Some old and powerful witches made these vampyres and now it is up to Taz (and later Javi) to clean up the mess.
Darren is a construction worker who happens to be working on sites that these vampyres are haunting. We find out there are no such things as coincidences, and there’s a reason for the vampyre’s location choices. Darren has lost a friend to their attacks so he is devoted to the idea of taking them down. It helps that he and Taz are super attracted to one another and that by chipping in he gets to help keep Taz close and safe.
This story “bleeds” into the next and at the end Darren and Taz have won the battle if not the war and are headed toward a future together.
Legacy of Blood:
Javi is a hunter of vampyres and is hot on the trail of one of the descendants of the witches that created the monsters. When he meets him he finds a powerful witch who no longer practices because he’s afraid of what his power can do. He convinces him to help as a layman and the two plan a trap for the “ticks”. Along the way, the two manage to find lots of common ground and chemistry together. When the final battle occurs, our boys are victorious and Javi and Ciarnan plan on sticking together to fight for Detroit’s future. We also find that Taz and Darren are still together and planning a future in Detroit as well.
Both stories were pretty detail oriented, laying lots of back-story, and focused a lot on the battle/action. I am hoping this is because there is a series planned? (Would be awesome!) The ending certainly leaves it wide open for such an occurrence.
Taz and Darren’s story isn’t as sweet or loving as Ciarnan and Javi, but you definitely feel their feels, and trust that they have a future together.
Rhys, in the way that she does so well, manages to throw the Kincaids (Hellingers) into her story and maybe we can see a cross over in the future.
There are also lots of “hunter” references, both boys drive Chargers and Javi can’t understand why anyone would drive an Impala unless it was to get busy in the back seat.
Both stories are funny, full of action and some hot sex and all around fascinating tales.
Thanks to his good-for-nothing brother, Andrew Hughes is up to his eyeballs in debt and needs a job fast. When a nursing position opens up in Myerson, Arizona, Andrew has no choice but to take it, despite a warning about how difficult a patient Caleb DiMartino can be. Andrew can deal with a little trouble—but Caleb’s strange family, the armed guards, and the unknown cause of Caleb’s mysterious illness may be beyond his skill set.
Landslide by Mary Calmes
For three years, paranormal courier Frank Corrigan has been working for incubus demon Cael Berith. Cael knows Frank is his mate, but Frank is pretty sure Cael doesn’t even like him, never mind want to spend the rest of his life with him, so their personal relationship is at an impasse. When Frank’s sister, Lindsey, gets bitten by a werewolf she’s sleeping with—and possibly witnesses a murder—Frank rides to her rescue. If he’s lucky, he might just save his love life too.
Review
(From Previous Site.)
Diagnosis Wolf:
Andrew is a nurse sent to the house of a shifter (not a werewolf) who has been possibly poisoned by enemies of their family. Caleb (the shifter) finds Andrew to be very attractive and it’s his protective instincts of Andrew that help him to start the recovery process. Andrew’s brother has gotten into deep water and is hoping to use Andrew’s connection to the rich DiMartino family to get out of debt. When push comes to shove, Caleb and his family manage to solve the medical mystery and defeat the bad guys (with Andrew’s help, of course.)
Landslide:
Frank is a special human, immune to most effects of paranormal power and as such acts as a liaison between the various “species”. On one mission he meets Cael, a demon of great power, who claims to be his mate. Frank doesn’t believe him and makes the poor demon wait 3 years before finally succumbing to seduction and finding true love. In the meantime they defeat some bad guys and mostly make you giggle.
**
This is the first time I’d read anything by Poppy Dennison and it was wonderful. It is a full story, richly detailed, and though it lacks the “fated mate” scenario in some shifter stories, it has enough of those elements to keep my sappy heart happy. The love was sweet and the sex was hot and the action exciting.
And then there’s Mary’s story… how can you NOT love a Mary story. Frank is hysterical. Ever the doubting Thomas, he thinks Cael (like the vegetable Kale) is “repulsed” because he’s not a twink and therefore not Cael’s type. Of course, Cael is ridiculously patient and let’s the misunderstanding go on for three years… three years! (Mary must have a thing for three years… remember Sam and Jory?!? ) But when they do get together it is sweet and sexy and very, very satisfying.
Audio
Jeff Gelder does a nice job with both narrations. The recording takes a minute to get used to, there is a vague tinny sound to it, but it kind of lends itself to the creepy nature of the stories and it blends into the background after awhile.
He didn’t do any over the top voices or any serious “acting” but he doesn’t distract from the stories themselves either and it was a nice listening experience.
I give the book a 5 of 5 hearts, the audio a 4 of 5 hearts and an overall 4.5 of 5 hearts. I highly recommend both the book and the audio version.
Gay teenager Hart could finish his fairy tale for class if his horrible stepsiblings would stop harassing him. Talia’s depression is like a sleeping curse and may kill her if she doesn’t ask for help. Independent, overweight bisexual Sienna deals with her “nice guy” neighbor while visiting her grandmother. When a mysterious girl climbs up Rachael’s fire escape, Rachael might finally break free from her overprotective mother. Transgender Amelia is bullied regularly for her identity, but she’ll show everyone exactly who she is. Princess Rellyn must face down a dragon since she’s seventh in line and battle her father since she’s not a boy, and she’s not sure which one is scarier. An adventurous knight whisks away genderfluid Noll when all they want is a quiet life on their farm. Mermaid Astrid wants revenge on the man who betrayed her, but is confused by her attraction to the one sailor immune to her song. Asexual Myka might love Princess Lysandria, but Myka must learn to control her inner werewolf before the king marries her off to “cure” her. With the help of a witch, blacksmith’s apprentice Malcolm must find his missing prince.
You’ve never heard stories like these at bedtime
Review
These are short – sometimes way too short – little LGBTQ takes on the old fairly tales. In each there is a character or character that falls into that community who takes on a more modern/unique role. Each story is a different set of people, using an old fairy tale as a template for a modern story.
The writing is good. The idea is magnificent. I really think that for the YA audience these will really ring true and find a home in the heart of the LGBTQ YA community.
However, for me, it felt like just as I was invested in the story – it ended. So it was a little off-putting and frustrating. I’d like to see these stories more fleshed out, I definitely think there is more that they have to offer.
I really liked that it wasn’t just gay or trans but a variety of gender roles/sexual orientations. There really is something for everyone in this anthology.
Overall, I give it high points for the attempt with a little bit taken off for brevity.
If you are a YA fan I’d give this a try, it really is remarkable.
For Killian Marsden, werewolf romance is overrated. After all, he should know, since he’s a half-werewolf and an editor for a romance-publishing house. He’s tired of reading mate bond fairytales, because real life doesn’t work that way. In the real world, Alphas abandon their half-breed children. Not that Killian’s jaded or anything. Simply realistic. So when werewolf Alpha Brett comes knocking, demanding explanations on a rejected manuscript, Killian reels away, or at least tries to.
Brett is a walking, talking Alpha cliché: big, possessive, and growly. His last name is Wolfe, for crying out loud. But Brett is also trustworthy, devoted to his pack, and a little silly when in love. Soon, Killian discovers that maybe, just maybe, he might love Brett in return.
Unfortunately, Killian is not the only one who wants to claim Brett. He will have to set aside his beliefs about mate bonds and deadbeats if he wants his own happily ever after werewolf romance.
Oh, I really liked this book! It had all of my favorite elements: hot gay men, shifters, romance and sex. Killian is an editor who was accused of stealing the book of Brett’s girlfriend. Brett meets with him to the editor to defend her honor. Things don’t go as planned when it turns out that he is Killian’s true mate.
Of course Killian fights against it. At first you think Killian’s going to roll over (no pun intended) and give in. That is far from the truth because Killian is a spitfire of a man. He’s a lot stronger than he lets on and that is what I loved about this story. The fact that he fought against the mating and attraction to Brett made me like him all the more. Of course it wasn’t long before he did give in but he made Brett work hard for it. That was another thing that I appreciated about this story: she didn’t let Brett pull the alpha card on Killian; he had to prove that he was worthy to be Killian’s mate. The book was short, but well written and it’s the first in a series
Which is good because the story ended in an odd cliffhanger and I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Joseph Anderson was heartbroken when his childhood best friend Dominick Levent moved away. Years later, Joseph is a successful real estate broker with good friends, an easy smile, and a stunning house. When he finds a dying mountain lion who miraculously shifts into Dominick’s sister, Joseph must find Dominick and reunite him with the two young sons she left behind.
When mountain lion shifter Dominick gets a call telling him his sister is dead, he rushes home to protect his nephews and avenge his sister. Seeing Joseph brings back the feelings Dominick tried to bury and he dares to hope Joseph’s newfound knowledge of shifters means they can finally be together.
Review
Joseph “Joey, stumbles upon his childhood friend and her two children, just as she’s morphing from a mountain lion into a dying woman. Wow! Talk about a mind melter! With her dying breath she asks Joey to take the kids and find her brother (his other childhood friend Dominick “Nicky”) because the kids are in danger.
Though he is thoroughly freaked out, he does as told with the help of his friend Vicky.
When Nicky hears about his sister’s death he’s torn up but he’s also a bit relieved because now he can share with his friend all the secrets he’d been hiding. It was those secrets that drove him away from Joey all those years ago. The secrets and his feelings for Joey.
Together, Nicky and Joey must figure out how to track the killer of Nicky’s sister, raise the “cubs” without a pack, keep the whole shifter thing a secret while both of them are at work and manage to confront the simmering feelings between the two of them.
Nicky manages to stumble on to Gray and Simon’s pack through a work related investigation and that leads him to the answers to several of his problems. He and Joey also manage to figure things out between the two of them and we are left with a very HEA.
**
I just loved the Triad series. I loved watching Gray and Simon’s slowly developing relationship, the intense world building, the climactic finish… all of it.
I’m not sure what happened here.
Joey and Nicky’s story as a couple felt like barely a footnote. It isn’t until 85% in that they even get together physically. Most of the book is about Nicky the boys and their need for a pack. That aspect was very interesting and I loved the tie-in to Gray’s pack and the involvement of Riley, but the story (for a m/m romance) felt really lopsided.
My need for Joey and Nicky to work on their relationship, to develop their relationship, to have a relationship was essentially given one chapter of 15 and could be described as anemic at best.
Watching Nicky find a place in the world again was fulfilling and I was so happy everyone found a home in the end, but I was disappointed by how little Joey impacted the ending.
Overall, I wouldn’t say this added much to the series and as a stand-alone was not very satisfying at all.
I give the book a 2.5 of 5 hearts
Audio:
I found Robert G Davis’ narration to be of equal quality as his previous work. He still does a great job with dialog but has a tendency to lilt upward on his sentences in a way that can sometimes be distracting.
The sound quality and editing were good and I enjoyed listening to the book more than reading it as he does add to the experience with his voice changes and modulations.
An Introduction to Ellis O’Neill
Ellis is our reluctant hero in Blind Man’s Wolf. Originally from Yorkshire, he’s run off to London with some of dad’s loose change (understatement) and set up his own business as an art dealer.
He was doing bloody well at it, too. He’d always loved art, but wasn’t very good at it himself, so setting up a gallery of his own seemed the next best thing. He started small with a little space above a bigger shop but after a few years on the scene and a bit more money in his pocket he was finally able to move to a property in Mayfair, the heart of London’s art scene.
It took Ellis a long time to realise that he had trouble with his eyesight. He’d bump into things he hadn’t seen in his periphery and assume he hadn’t paid attention, and it wasn’t until the tunnel vision became more pronounced that he decided to see an optician in case he needed glasses.
Alas it wasn’t good news. He had a form of retinitis pigmentosa. The cells in his retina were dying, it was progressive, and there was no cure. He would be completely blind within a few years and there was nothing that could be done to slow or stop it.
Because life wasn’t going wrong quickly enough for Ellis, he decided to go out and get completely mashed, and ran into someone who would change his existence forever.
Now Ellis is a vampire. He’s not very good at being a vampire, but at least he still has his gallery, and with the assistance of the only friend who knows his secret he keeps his business ticking over while he wonders what exactly he’s supposed to do with eternity when his own guide dog seems to be going crazy…
Excerpt:
“Stop.” Ellis crouched and placed his right hand light against the wet grass. There were leaves, too, covered in leftover rain. He stood and patted his hand dry against his trouser leg, then reached for his glasses and slid them up his forehead. He peered around slowly, searching for any glimmer of light.
Before he had been turned, Ellis was utterly blind even in twilight. What little vision hadn’t been stolen entirely during the day needed a lot of light. Now that he was dead… undead… whatever he wanted to call himself, his senses were sharper. If he was lucky he could potentially make out the headlights of a car coming straight for him so long as it was mere seconds away from impact.
Trying to see was a last-ditch effort, and proved about as worthless as Ellis had expected. He found dim, colourless spots in the sky which were probably street lamps, but that was all. He pushed his glasses back into place and the dark lenses cut out even that small reminder of what was lost.
The clues taken together seemed to indicate that Tiberius had taken him to a park, and his mental map of Mayfair unfurled as he tried to figure out which one. Berkeley Square Gardens were closed after dusk and didn’t re-open until after sunrise. Grosvenor Square Gardens were even more restrictive, as were Mount Street Gardens. He should have noticed if they had crossed Park Lane, but Hyde Park closed at midnight anyway. Tiberius shouldn’t be able to enter any of them after midnight except Green Park; they all had gates which were closed and locked after hours.
Were they in Green Park, then? That wouldn’t be too bad. He fell still and listened again.
In the distance, a small rodent met its end, most likely to a fox. He waited, and heard a flutter of leathery wings high overhead and the rustle as tiny bats grabbed tree branches and came to rest.
Ellis swore, keeping his voice quiet. He had to have reached St. James’ Park. How the hell had he not noticed crossing Piccadilly or The Mall? How had they walked all the way through Green Park without him realising it? If he followed the path all the way to Buckingham Palace he may be able to attract a guard for assistance, but he figured that was likely one of the most densely-packed areas for CCTV cameras in their natural habitat. He’d be even deeper in poo if Her Majesty’s Finest discovered a man who didn’t show up on security screens.
Amelia Faulkner was born in the rolling green countryside of Oxfordshire, and moved to London once she was mostly grown up. She has a degree in Computer Science, and spent quite a long time working with computers until her childhood love of writing could no longer be ignored. Since then she has written for corporate clients and personal pleasure, and finally stepped away from office-bound working in 2011 to freelance from home. Amelia is also a keen photographer and film-goer, and resides in the city (not the City) with her husband. She is notoriously camera-shy, so please enjoy this picture of her cat!
Blood runs soul-deep. Cormac hasn’t been the same since the night the High Moon Pack was attacked. With his magic weakened, he’s consumed by a bloodlust he hasn’t felt since he first became a vampire. His need to replenish his power makes him a danger to his last remaining family member, and his hunger makes him careless. And that’s just the beginning of his troubles. Feeding from pack, beta Liam Benson was supposed to slake his appetite, not leave him craving more.
Simon Osborne and Gray Townsend are trying to fight a being history says shouldn’t exist – one with all three types of magic. The pack must use all of their resources to combat the mysterious triad, even turning to the shady Council of Mages for help. While Cormac struggles to reconcile his past failures with his current desires, Simon must attempt the impossible: An alliance between mind, body, and soul.
Review:
In the final installment of the Triad Series (yes, there is a book four but it is unrelated to the original series), we finally get to find out who the bad guy is and what he wants and how to stop him.
Some of the story is about Liam and Cormac as a couple (yippee!). First, we see Liam merely trying to keep Cormac from hurting himself, Simon or anybody else. Then, we see their mutual attraction and need for each other. Finally, their deep devotion.
However, the bulk of this plot is the story-line regarding the evil being (who I won’t name here) who keeps causing trouble for Simon and his pack. It turns out the being knows Cormac and that gives everyone a clue as to how to stop him. But… not before he attempts to steal the children again. The attempted kidnapping forces Simon to do something so horrible that the entire pack wonders whether or not Simon should even be allowed to stay. (It’s very sad – just a warning!)
Fortunately, Simon’s actions are from the heart and they also inadvertently lead them all to the necessary magic needed to defeat the evil being, so he is quickly forgiven.
With some tremendously heart rending speeches to the tune of “If I die I want you to be strong without me” Cormac, Gray and Simon set out to defeat the monster and (I’m not surprising anyone here) emerge victorious!
We also get a really juicy Epilogue (I’m a sucker for the Epilogue!) and the entire series ends neatly tied up – bow not included.
**
I really enjoyed the magical storyline in this series. The subtle moral stories about intolerance and acceptance. The learning and the magic passed down along family lines. The power that is to be had by joining seemingly disparate forces. The entire world we saw built was well thought out and thorough, without constantly banging it over your head with new words or terms.
I also really enjoyed watching the growth and development of Gray and Simon as a couple over all three books. It was nice to see their insta-love being worked on into a strong and devoted (but still lusty!) relationship.
I was disappointed that we didn’t see more from Cade and Rocky (other than they are still together) as I thought they were a great couple with a lot of potential. But… I really enjoyed Cormac’s and Liam’s relationship. And watching Garon and Riley grow was an added bonus!
I’d say the romance was at least equal to the fantasy elements in this series but, all in all, the romance was really nicely laden in this fantasy about wolves, vampires and warlocks. I found myself saddened by the end of this delightful series, as I had really enjoyed Poppy’s world.
Audiobook:
Again, Robert Davis did excellent work narrating book three. I loved his grumbly Liam, his stuffy mage Councilman, the grumbling Were councilman and his little kid voices.
He infused emotion and tension at the right times and did a tremendous job with the dialog.
As I noted with book one, I was still bugged on occasion by his inflections here and there, but mostly I was impressed and entertained.
I really enjoyed reading (and listening) to this series and give both the book, the audiobook and the series a 4.5 of 5 hearts. I am looking forward to seeing where Ms Dennison takes us with book four.
