Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Victoria Marmot and the Dragon's Rage, Victoria Marmot and the Road to Hell by Virginia McClain --YA review







Victoria Adelaide Marmot is a one-off incredible heroine you will instantly like and if she doesn't succeed in saving the universe, you will never get to meet her. So read any one of her series of adventures while you have this chance.

I was plunged into the midst of her struggles and updated on the previous developments very smoothly in the course of the adventure, meaning I felt no lack from not having begun with volume 1 at all. That's a great skill by itself. And although I do feel a bit of itch to find out what happens when Vic manages to use her dimension-hopping ability to claw her way back to Earth AGAIN (because in this volume alone she leaves and returns several times), I am comfortably aware that because I am here and typing this review, she did make it. Because the Universe is still here; the villain got thwarted.

Well, all right, I'd like to know more and I will probably try to get a few more volumes into my reader, because Vic and her colleagues are an international, inter-species magical shifter supernatural rainbow of diversity, including gods and demons. There is snogging and flirting but it remains YA suitable without sacrificing realism very much.

I think the shocking sexy stuff happened more in volume 3 where she meets the succubus :D



 Victoria Marmot and the Road to Hell


 Yes, that is our Victoria on the cover. She hasn't even assumed her final form!

The witty asides, and breaking of the fourth wall (in which Vic berates the author for dropping her from the frying pan into the fire repeatedly) continue in this final volume of the series. Goddess Gwyn explains things, Vic and her friends manage to save the universe and what is more, save her loving family as Vic finds it within her to finally forgive.

Any story with a succubus among the good guys and polyamory front and center is going to mention sex, but is through tasteful elisions and fully YA compliant IMO. Only kissing. And there is a kitten.

Highly recommended, entire series.
"I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review."


 https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-McClain/e/B00LMISTLG?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000


Sunday, September 1, 2019

Review: Obsidian Awakening (The Rose Vampires Book 7) by Ivana Skye

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47968958-obsidian-awakening



  Sara Obsidian is a whole new creature, and she has appeared just in time to save her city of Ye Libelula from an all-out bloody factions war. If only she can remember how to live in her own body! Her unusual new abilities require some getting used to. Luckily she has all her loving consorts on her side.

Modeling a way forward for her new vampire society to live together in harmony is first order of business for this bonding of love. Seven heads in accord are so much better than one. And it's STILL all-ages appropriate! Thank you Ivana Skye.

Review: Battle of the Hexes




Battle of the Hexes: A Paranormal Academy Series (A Witch Among Warlocks Book 4

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2960483205

Giving up her powers in order to save Harris, trapping her familiar Firian in his human shape along with her, was all worth it to have her 'really cool' mom back again too. But Charlotte finds herself at loose ends as a normal human, especially one with four gorgeous and still magical consorts. What worked for the werewolf band the Wild Boys and her grandma won't be so easy for them.

Then a historical first, a letter from the Faerie Queen, arrives and opens up a path to a return to both magic and deadly peril. Wyrd wants an outpost in the human world and equal status with the other realms. If anyone could manage it's the Wyrd witches like Charlotte.

Will the strength of her mating bond with vampire, incubus, familiar and ethereal warlock sustain them enough to survive leading a revolution, straight out of Magickal society's dirty tricks loony bin, 'the Haven'? That's where her dear friend Daisy is now, drugged and coerced into 'seeing' things that bother her conscience...

It's probably better than being a boring human housewife. Go for it, Charlotte!

This is a full-blown kinky erotic romance and exactly what we have been waiting for all series.

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Review: Magic In Disguise (Agents of A.S.S.E.T. #3) by Katie Salidas

This is the 3rd installment of the Agents of A.S.S.E.T series featuring Sage Cymwrig. She grew up in Phoenix unaware of her mother's actual profession as one of these buffers between the regular human and the arcane world. Her mom died in the line of duty and Sage discovers she is actually a Terran, one of the great lineages created with absolute immunity to magic. Heritage obliges her to continue the family profession, but in the previous episode she has come up against something beyond the usual, and it's kept at bay only by being stuck to her, literally.

This episode is about how the spreading blackness in Sage's left hand is finally remedied, and in the process, all manner of conspiracies and power schemes are exposed. Also exposed are the vulnerabilities in her partner Grey's past that have been scuttling their effectiveness as a team. While the rest of her life is literally burnt to the ground, Sage and Grey race against time to get assistance and materials for a showdown with the Goddess Herself.

I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. But I would gladly have gotten this action-packed heart-wringing adventure on my own.

Although there is romance, it is never explicit enough to make the series wrong for young people. The characters are much too busy surviving frequent injuries to do more than cuddle.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42315877-magic-in-disguise

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Andrew Einspruch, Utopian: The Western Lands and All That Really Matters

Andrew Einspruch, Utopian
Einspruch is also known for science books for young readers.

 But if you have never read a FICTION book by Andrew Einspruch, you are missing out.  The saga of the twin princesses of the Western Lands and All That Really Matters is top-notch, all-ages utopia, quite as real as Narnia or Oz. They are delineated in a pleasant blend of puns, darkness, puns, whimsy and wit, in the spirit of William Steig, Roald Dahl, or indeed, Lewis Carroll. Yes, I opine that every child needs to know about Princess Eloise Hydra Gumball III ! and her world.

The universe of the Gumball Dynasty is truly utopian in one important sense, in that all its creatures are sentient as well as able to speak. Naturally fellow citizens don't eat one another either, which means the inhabitants of this series of kingdoms tend not to be predators. You will be entertained greatly without mention of cats or dogs, much less lions or wolves. And what they do eat is just as entertaining! 

For one reason or another, obligate carnivores did not make the evolutionary cut leading to this possible future. Whether those who insist on eating one another even still exist is moot; these tales take place in areas where leeches represent the Bloodletters Guild and your hairdresser is a platypus; that is, it's civilized.

That is not to say that Princess Eloise the Heir, or Princess Johanna the Second-Born, cannot have exciting and taxing adventures.  This world contains rather a lot of magic, not just scholarship and useful inventions, though there is not as much magic as in The Tme Before.  Both girls have 'weak magic' for minor things, such as Johanna's way with plants, or Eloise's ability to throw things.  Eloise's best friend, Jerome de Chipmunk, is son of Maybelle, the Court Seer, whose prophecies turn out to be quite accurate, if sometimes misunderstood.

The books in the series may be read in any order, although The Purple Haze rather begs one to quickly read the Star of Whatever. They follow the heroines from childhood to womanhood.

The Wombanditos: 
 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F657YV6/


 A young princess and her chipmunk friend play truant in order to attend an agricultural festival, then have to use their wits to get free of a family of wombat thieves.


The Thorning Ceremony: 




  Coming of age for a Gumball Dynasty princess is a big deal indeed! The herbal ore and imparting of life skills is handed down via a very ceremonious series of ordeals, some private, some public, and all fraught with significance for a princess's future. The twins, being each her own girl, handle the trials they face very differently from their mother, or one another, with consequences for the rest of their lives.




The Purple Haze: 



 The monarchs of the Western Lands and All That Really Matters receive a state visit from the twins' uncle, King Doncaster of the Northern 'Half-Kingdom'.  His invitation to Princess Johanna, who is his favorite neice, to visit him is accepted. But then the Royal Seer, Maybelle de Chipmunk, has a devastating vision just after they have left,  prompting the King and Queen to dispatch Princess Eloise to fetch her back.  The adventure commences, including a dismaying number of stretches spent in the royal dungeons of different kingdoms, as well as a cliff-hanger, or should I say haze-hanger, at the end.

The Star of Whatever:



  Princesses Eloise and Johanna find themselves in a place where everyone and everything is dead, except them. They face a quest to rid their world of an ancient magical mistake. It will make them into true monarchs, as well as the heroes they were born to be.



The Light-Bearer: (forthcoming) 




 The formulaic Westernlander wish, 'Boring journey,' still hasn't come true for our princesses.  A prophecy of the Central Mountain Kingdom is about to be fulfilled, and it involves Princess Eloise Hydra Gumball III, who still hasn't made it home to the Western Lands and All That Really Matters.



~



This world and its stories give readers hope for a future where things may go haywire, but with the help of love for all beings, things often go right. I for one welcome our vegetarian Einspruch overlords.



Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Free Love #ebook Giveaway

https://artofthearcane.wordpress.com/July-Free-Love-Giveaway-Giveaway

 

 

get your own copy of The Incredible Heidi Wasabi or any of scores of other erotic romance reads, for a limited time!

 

 

https://artofthearcane.wordpress.com/July-Free-Love-Giveaway-Giveaway

Paranormal YA Review : Scion's Delight by Jeffrey Bardwell


 This heir to the kingdom is partisan to artficers and mechanisms, and cannot forgive the mage guild for having such an odious power-mad schemer on the Royal Council. Everything changes when a northern barbarian MAGE becomes her most trusted servant, using his abilities to aid her experiments, and more. The book keeps us reading as we follow the maturation of the princess, emotionally as well as intellectually.  


https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2427054298?source=facebook_share&fbclid=IwAR1rJI6OJwFrKe1DdVQr3TFJwgycIUWHW-HOKWQakIBs0wHi2_bl2l3_DsM


A cunning trap. A whiff of magic. A burst of steam.
Princess Cordelia has steel plate ambition, a mind like twisting brass gears, and the political might of tin foil. The girl aims to ratchet the Iron Empire into a glorious new day of gears and steam. The entire palace is arrayed against her. The chambermaids disdain her. The emperor ignores her. The mages, championed by Lord Oriolanus, lead a brisk campaign of lies and coercion. Those evil magic users threaten to tighten their grip upon the land even though machines are clearly superior. By the gods’ oil-stained hands, why can’t anyone else see her vision of the ideal future?
Just when Cordelia’s future threatens to slip back into medieval quagmire, a lone stranger with ice blue eyes and flowing blond hair arrives from the savage north. The handsome barbarian is destined to make both the hearts of the empire and the princess tremble. Does this spell doom or salvation for the girl’s fragile dream?
Explore The Scion’s Delight, the fantasy romance prequel novella of The Mage Conspiracy series. Discover a world of adventure and intrigue where lies cut deeper than any sword.


Though there is some mild sexual content, it is hardly romantic because Cordelia simply is not made that way.  And that is just fine.

Monday, July 8, 2019

REVIEW: A Fine Necromance: A Paranormal Academy Series (A Witch Among Warlocks Book 3) by Lidiya Foxglove





 
by





There is closure! And it's not what we readers expected at all.

The administration at the Mage Academy is positively hostile to the students whose magic is non-Ethereal, which means that Alec and Montague are targets for 'purification', along with our heroine Charlotte, whose magic is necromancy and whose wand is from Wyrd. Imagine the frustration when trying to get rid of her werewolf heritage by force has no effect at all, due to Wyrd intervention! Not only is she the wrong sex, she's beyond the control of the Council, including her own prejudiced relatives.

Alec is forced to choose a heritage, and his art is too entwined with his succubus side, which means his familiar dies. Harris has to play at obedience in order to help his true friends to even survive, much less defeat the Withered Lord; it turns out that survival requires both. Daisy finds out that her new fiance is an overly ambitious rat-fink. Charlotte's mom has been brainwashed by demon lies. Montague has to hobnob with other vampires just to keep up with his clan. And everyone has to make huge sacrifices in the name of love.

It's a thrill ride through hell realms and shopping malls and Fae gardens and haunted chapels you have been waiting for all series.

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2888415586

I also reviewed volumes 1 and 2  

The Fairer Hex (A Witch Among Warlocks)

 



Friday, June 28, 2019

Crucify my Love: Gay Book Reviews: [87-ENG] Review: Bernard's Diary - S.L. Danielson ...



Crucify my Love: Gay Book Reviews: [87-ENG] Review: Bernard's Diary - S.L. Danielson ...: Series:  - Volume:  1/1 Publisher:  Self-Published Genre/s:  Contemporary M/M Romance Length:  44 000 words Pages:  142 R...

Heidi Wasabi is available again for free for ALL of JULY


https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/4uBRhsZziyIA7vQUieSL 

Group Giveaway, Pulse-pounding Romances 

 

July 2019 Romance Book Club 

 

 Summer Nights Romance Giveaway   July 2019

 

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Review: Kingdoms of Ether by Ryan Muree

The kingdoms are based on the use of multicolored magical emanations called ether, perceptible to the gifted. It's a well-crafted universe full of intrigues and steam-punk style adaptations of advanced technology, even pollution and exploitation in 'ether mines'.

On top of that the attraction of star-crossed lovers from different kingdoms unfolds. A botched burglary in the Stadhold repository of grimoires gives a rebellious Scribe the chance to escape and follow her dream of becoming a Caster. And as the kingdoms disintegrate into chaos and war around them, she and the Revel squadron of magical combat talents she's joined might be the best hope to root out corruption from all the realms.

It's very well written, and the young lovers confronting the problems at all scales never seem outlandish. None of the characters are without depth and unique personality either.






 https://www.amazon.com/Kingdoms-Ether-Book-ebook/dp/B07L1ZD54T/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 

https://www.bookbub.com/books/kingdoms-of-ether-kingdoms-of-ether-series-book-1-by-ryan-muree

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43165068-kingdoms-of-ether


Thursday, February 28, 2019

Helgaleena Healingline's Reviews > Virgin Vampire: Vivian

 There are very few modern erotic authors whose work I can recommend across the board, sight unseen, and SCinders is one of them!  She's imaginative and really puts you deep into each character, has a great sense of humor, and never leaves out the happily ever after we require to know in our hearts that love will triumph.  Whatever sub-genre she takes on, it never disappoints.

Now she's embarked on a four-part expose of vampire politics and cultish fundamentalist 'hunters' who terrorize them.  Seize and celebrate the consequences of being yourself, special sexy snowflakes!  Because of course the solution involves sex and more sex, as it makes our worlds go round no matter how we fill our bellies. 



What's the worst that could happen on a prom date gone wrong? You wake up in a shrubbery miles from school with blood all over your dress and two guys putting handcuffs on you? Well, that is just the start of how Vivian's idyllic small town life is turned upside down until she ends up finding out she's a long lost heir to a throne she didn't even know existed.

It's an amazing and amusing and erotic journey into all corners of the debate on Nature vs. Nurture. The kaleidoscopic imagination of SCinders hits it out of the park again.



https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44073662-virgin-vampire

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Review YA : A Crown of Flames (Dragonriders of Skala #3) by Pauline Creeden, Melinda R. Cordell

**spoilers**
This is the volume where love re-makes Dyrfinna's world. Ibn, the Iberian envoy to King Varinn's court, once had the same problem with his spell-singing that Dyrfinna has suffered from. As she recovers from a death blow delivered by the evil Nauma, healed of it miraculously by Gefjin and the magical roses, he shares his methods with her of affinity song.

There is a council of dragons, who reclaim their community powers from their long alliance with humans, for the good of the entire Earth. Then with the help of the gods, there manifests a solution to the imbalance of the dark powers, in the form of the flaming crowns.

You will be glad to know that Gefjin and Dyrfinna's sword friends Skeggi and Reyjna are not dead after all. And once all this is over, Dyrfinna resolves to have the most fun possible in her world! and it involves quite a lot of kissing.





 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41056808-a-crown-of-flames

Friday, January 4, 2019

Review: Rend by Roan Parrish

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2657096273

As I am a healing healer myself, I identified much more with this book than I did with the recovering addict musicians in Parrish's prequel, 'Riven'.  And you will be permanently turned on by the nearly BDSM level situations this married couple enjoy.

Matt was abandoned at a young age, spit out without many coping skills as an adult into New York City, all he's ever known. Yet he's made his way as a wounded healer, helping those who are in the same position he was such a short while ago. He's drawn like metal to a magnet by musician Rhys and his effortless joy. But like all humans Rhys has insecurities and they rush into a 'forever' bond.

Despite their mutual desire to make it work, Matt's never been able to imagine himself as a happy and loving 'normal'. Even his best friend from the orphanage left him to live in Florida eventually. Even though they have fabulous sex, he's haunted by fears of sabotaging their marriage and poor at articulating his true feelings, thinking he always has to be pleasant. It takes therapy, a dog, and a stubborn dom husband and his ex-addict musician friends to ease Matt into the happily ever after he can hardly believe is real. But it is. He's part of a family for the first time.

And the moral of the story is, love is all around, no need to waste it.