Prophecy was given and now appears to be in play. Drakis, a former warrior slave, has awoken from the magical stupor that ruled his mind and life and flees into prophecy, with his masters in pursuit. Much more than a single slave is at stake for the Elven nation. Indeed their rulership of the world will shatter or hold if Drakis is allowed to fulfill the path that destiny laid out for him. Through deceit and manipulation of the flow of magic, the Elves have enslaved a world and will not free it lightly. Read More »

Jacey finds herself in a psychiatric hospital after she tries to slit her wrists. When she wakes up, there are no scars, no blood, nothing. While in the hospital, she meets Devin who is trying to escape because he claims that if someone touches him, they will literally burn to death. Read More »

In a Season of Dead Weather is a collection of seven short stories ranging from twisted macabre horror to total mind-screwing. Mark Fuller Dillon uses very descriptive words, making one visualize his bizarre worlds. He calls this book a collection of weird stories on his own blog.

“Lamia Dance” is about a college student who decides to take in a movie one night with some fellow students. We learn this person already has an aversion to films due to a weird childhood, but feels the need to be out. The movie itself is bizarre and by the end we find out the wants and needs of this lonely student. Read More »

Jean-Michel La Grenouile is not your average prince. Sure, he is handsome, charming, and very rich, but there is something that overshadows all of the that. He is the fabled Frog Prince—the victim of a curse that caused him to spend his first several years in a pond on a fly-only diet. The kiss of his One broke the curse when he was eight, but with a caveat: he has to find and marry her before his thirtieth birthday if he wants to remain the charming, handsome, rich human prince he has become. Read More »

Blood Price, the fabulous first installment in the Blood series, hooks the reader from the first page and does not let go even after the last page gets turned. Former homicide detective and current private investigator Vicki Nelson comes upon an attack in a Toronto subway station, arriving too late to help the victim but in time to see some sort of shadow disappear into the darkness of the tunnel. Vicki’s deteriorating eyesight, Read More »

This is a very short, very good story. We follow Dana in San Francisco as she is out getting a poster for her mother at the local boardwalk. All of a sudden there are dragons flying overhead, burning bridges, buildings and cars. They have been dropped to earth in pods to attack simultaneously. We don’t know their ultimate goal, but it is safe to assume it is our complete annihilation. Read More »

Slade Aesus is a government agent working for NOA, the National Otherkind Administration-an agent that only the highest levels of clearance even know about. He also happens to be a demon who likes working alone. On his latest mission he crosses paths with a dark elf named Annwyn who gets in his way and needs a little help out of a touchy situation. Even though he knows it is stupid, he helps her out and in the process ends up bringing her more fully into his dangerous world. Read More »

It takes only a few days for Sara Giddings to realize her new home is going to be even more different than she and her father had hoped. Moving quickly from one town, job and school to the next in an attempt to outrun their grief and addiction problems, Sara and her father have unknowingly landed in Ashbrook, a tiny Washington town that just happens to border on a magical thin place between the everyday world and the land of magic and monsters.
Read More »

Vengeance Born, the excellent first installment in the Light Blade series, effectively draws the reader in with its opening sentence. The world of the series has two main components: the Na’Reish vampiric demons who enslave humans, and the humans, led and protected by Light Blade warriors, who worship a feminine deity they refer to as The Lady. When the story begins, Annika, a half human/half Na’Reish healer, goes to the dungeons to see to the wounds of a captured Light Blade warrior. Read More »

On her graduation day from high school, Grace finds out the hard way that she is the daughter of the legendary Pandora, from the Greek myths—when a deadly and beautiful woman tries to kill her. She is saved in the nick of time by her Aunt Phoenix and a gorgeous young man, and then dragged on an impromptu road trip. It turns out that her guardian, Phoenix, is actually a centuries-old faerie, who has been entrusted with protecting Pandora since her mother died. Read More »

Sweat & Seduction by Darragha Foster introduces the reader to the world of jinnis. It tells the story of Maggie Abbott, a regular person who has the unbelievable pleasure of having a jinni in her life. Adanto is said jinni, a member of the Sila Djinn society and hers to command. When Maggie finds out she has a medical issue and makes some changes in her life, it is Adanto who comes forward with a proposition that she can’t say no to. Read More »

In Dragon’s Heart, we learn that dragons are real. They existed on the Earth in a time of free-flowing magic until the time of man brought the fear about any who are powerful and different. When their species became hunted due to the betrayal of one of their own, they had to flee to another world called Akgon. But leaving Earth cut them off from much of their powerful magic and their truemates, many of whom had to shed their dragon bodies and go incognito as human. Their kind are called the brethren and they are back to reclaim their magic. Draakar, the Dark Lord, the King of the dragons, comes to find his true mate, a crucial enterprise for the survival of his people and for his own heart.
Read More »

The Order of the Blood by Nicole Vlachos and Lane Morris was a great book. The storytelling and background of the characters made for an interesting story. The writers spelled out their story in such a manner that you could relate to the characters and look forward to what’s coming next.

Ian and Robin had been friends as mortals over ten years ago. Finally they are reunited, and Ian is a newly turned fledgling vampire without a Sire while Robin has managed to stay human despite others’ attempts to do otherwise. The Brethren is looking for both Robin and Ian to kill them both. Robin takes Ian to Simon, an angry man who’s application to become a member of the Brethren was denied centuries ago. He is now the leader of the Order of the Blood and has a constant rivalry with the Brethren. He even went so far as to create an army to kill all the Brethren they could find. Read More »

This Haunted World is a dark and disturbing graphic novel that will be published at first digitally. The storyline is very disconcerting and the artwork is shadowy, at times violent, and others gloomy.

This Haunted World is set in an apocalyptic world that is full of suffering and blood. Many believe that this is what is called the End Times and God is finally punishing humanity for its greed and ego. Whatever religion you believe in, all can agree that this is the beginning of the end of civilization. The characters we follow are all shades of a sort. We don’t really know them, as they don’t know themselves, only chaos and death. We have a Corporal who has just (barely) survived a raid, a student who is accused of murders, a Senator and a tribal leader. Read More »

I stay up until the candle burns down and the light fades away.

Then I go back to sleep. Knowing that ghosts and monsters are real.

In fact, some of them are my very best friends.

Fathom by Merrie Destefano takes the normal concept of a legend and completely flips it. It’s a fabulous premise: creatures of the sea* tell the tale of a Kira Callahan, a young woman who mourns the loss of her mother and sister. The legend so captivates a group of these sea creatures that they take the dangerous journey from their homeland (I use the term “land” loosely) to Crescent Moon Bay where Kira lives.
Read More »

The third book of the acclaimed Atlantis series, Atlantis Unleashed, packs a punch exploring a lot of new settings for its heroic cast and taking some great risks with its edgy hero, Justice. The novel continues the storyline of the Atlanteans’ search for the missing gems of the mystical Trident of Poseidon but takes the ongoing quest away from the vampires already met throughout the series; instead, Day takes her readers through a story of healing and self-acceptance, largely centered in the lush jungles of Guatemala.
Read More »

Well here we are on book four of the Collegium Chronicles. I cackled when one of my all-time favorite creatures put in an appearance. If you love Lackey like I do, you will be tickled to know the Suncats show up in this book. Here we move more into the romance with Bear and Lena as well as Mags and Amily.

This story dwells a lot more on the young ones learning to stand up for themselves. There are some SERIOUS plot holes. One had me paging backwards and rereading an entire chapter to see if I have missed something. I had not. Too much is not explained.
Read More »

Did you read my last review of this series where I was singularly underimpressed? Color me surprised but this one did not do it for me, either. You get dibbles and dabbles of story but so much is left to the guessing of the reader. And, children, this cranky old Southern Belle does not like to have to guess. I did enjoy the kirball, although it is such a nod to quidditch that it is hard to divorce my Hogwarts from my Heralds.

I am enjoying the newness of the Collegium and the old guard vs. the new guard. That is an interesting bit that I wish would be delved into more. Read More »

Jim Oster, a bio-engineer, inadvertently tears a hole between two realities, and in the process, his beloved wife Val is killed. A grieving Jim must enter this world and find the Dark Gulf, a place where souls eventually ascend or are forever swept away in darkness, if he ever hopes to be reunited with his wife.
Read More »

Catherynne M. Valente follows up on Habitation of the Blessed with a solemn, melancholy journey back to the mythical lands of the Ancient and Medieval Middle East. Prester John, a priest of the Catholic Church, has settled and become king of a nation of legendary creatures. John has married the blemmye Hagia (a humanoid who lacks a head and has facial features in her torso) and sired a daughter with her named Sefalet. Sefalet is bald and featureless, with her mouth and eyes in each of her hands, one of which speaks ugly predictions of death and desolation. Sefalet intensely feels a sense of anguish and alienation at her strange identity as the flawed daughter of the King and Queen.
Read More »