Dead in the Water

Dead in the Water by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is part of a spinoff? Oops. I randomly chose the first book in another series by an author I have enjoyed and here we are.

Cam is a member of what amounts to the fae FBI, investigating big bads with her special Gemini gifts. What’s a Gemini? Well they are traditionally loners and wanderers who can borrow the powers of others they “sample” and are always twins. What makes Cam especially broken and more easily manipulated is that she lost her sister at a young age due to a water related incident. It’s this combination that put her on the path of a water related killer fae.

On one murder scene, she meets up with a mermaid and a shifter. Said mermaid ends up becoming a friend to Cam, almost accidentally. The shifter, Graeson, ends up a mix of stalker/love interest/manipulator, all in the name of finding his sister’s killer. I was not and am still not really on team Graeson because he seems a little too comfortable with questionable consent. We do, however meet someone I think I might like more through Graeson, so that redeems him a teeny bit.

The mystery in this one is sort of resolved at the end - we manage one threat but the bigger one is still out there. The ending is also a bit of a cliffhanger, which is frustrating, but this author seems to go for the “to be continued” angle, stopping books wherever. Having been prepared for this, I immediately plan on diving into the next book.

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Never Been Witched

Never Been Witched by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I kind of wasn’t expecting the series to end so quickly, but I guess this is the “end” (although it certainly feels like only a midway point based on the epilogue).

Alice has been the quiet, conservative part of the witchy group up until now. Right out of the gate we learn a gross thing that she’s been hiding from her friends for some weirdo reason. Oh, and she gets to meet Collin, the new owner of the hotel down the street. They are both flawed characters and it was a teensy bit frustrating watching them both get steamrolled by people that are supposed to be friends/family. The larger storyline of the locks does get wrapped up here in a truly bizarre twist, but don’t worry - we still have the house and some haunting guests at the end.

So, back to the romance - Alice and Collin are a good match in their timid natures, but it is kind of hard to find other good interactions, especially once Collin’s ex shows up. Perhaps there was too much fast forwarding in their shopping trips to truly appreciate the building bond, but I found that a little lacking here. There was a bit of insta-forgive, too, which frustrated the feminist in me. While I’m glad we get matches for all the coven girls, this one was not super satisfying. I was more interested in the youngest coven members, and that says a lot. I definitely ended this series more interested than when we started, but it may have peaked at book 2. Will I still read another book by Molly Harper - you betcha!

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Cursed

Cursed by Gina LaManna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very quick and easy read, told from Alessia’s perspective, as she navigates a brand new fantasy world.

Alessia is part of a wealthy family, paired off with a soon-to-be husband who controls anything her parents don’t, and she’s completely unhappy. While wishing to escape her over-the-top wedding, a mystery person shows up. Silas is the mystery man, and he transports her to a magical island. It’s on this island that Alessia learns about her true nature and discovers her calling. The romance between these two feels more like fated mates due to how quickly things progress, but it wasn’t too fast for me personally.

Their love story is a bit of a secondary tale to what truly needs Alessia’s attention - the curse that has descended upon the island. A magical curse has begun to take down the many varied paranormal inhabitants. Lucky for them all, not only is Alessia a trained doctor, but she also has some magical abilities that you can quickly figure out the source of. Couple this with Silas and the rest of the island’s support, and you get a rather quick resolution to what could have been a world-ending plague. I see this is listed as book#1 so I assume we get more adventures for this world and if they are all as quick and satisfying as this one, I will eagerly sign up!

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The Twice-Sold Soul

The Twice-Sold Soul by Katie Hallahan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was definitely something different than my usual read. Sure, it’s in the paranormal romance genre, but it is told in a sort of “joining a story already in progress” sort of way that had me on my toes.

We join McKenna years after a very big event that left her on the run, blocking her magic, and essentially playing martyr. You know how we usually have to deal with someone making that martyr decision (e.g., to protect everyone I need to run away without a word!) - well in this book, that decision and events leading up to it have already happened, and now we get to dive right into the ramifications. It’s bad - as expected. McKenna’s ex ends up finding her and trading back a favor to get her back home.

Can we pause a moment to celebrate the truly gender bending demon, Remi. It’s weird and awesome and something complete new, which I love. Does Remi do demon-like things? Uh, yeah, she’s a demon (using she as that is the most common form), but I found myself somehow excited about these two potentially hooking back up, during a high school reunion of all places. We get to meet all the people who used to be McKenna’s close friends in a way that had me more interested than maybe I would have been had we gone through a book 0.5 to set this one up. The big magical story here is about this magical town’s defenses failing and the truth about McKenna’s big traumatic event coming to light.

As an introductory book, this checked all the boxes. We met a wealth of characters, all of which felt big enough to dig into for future installments. We have a complex magical system with all the paranormals you’d expect and then some. You’ve got family drama, owed favors, loose ends, and demonic hierarchies all ready to fill many more installments. While this book started a little slow and strange, by the end I was all in.

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Intense Feelings

Intense Feelings by Nomi Palmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was definitely a departure from your average read. If you could somehow encapsulate a soap opera in a paranormal romance book, this is what you’d get. It is high drama, so much pairing/unpairing up, mystery, twists, turns, and contains oodles of POV swaps. If you would rather not be in each and every character’s head, this is not the book for you.

I don’t think I can even give a good overview because there is just SO MUCH going on in this story. There are two warring families who have bad blood between them, but still are in the same rich person social circle. A lot of dark and tragic things happen that give their feud a little reprieve but it is all stirred up again when an estranged family member returns, hellbent on revenge. It’s this revenge that lures in some big supernatural bads (with some good paranormals too). We’ve got vampires, witches, demons, and so much more I’m sure. I don’t think there was one romantic storyline that outshined the others, but they all had a definite tragic edge. I can’t believe this book has a sequel because I’m not even sure where they can go from here. So much jammed into one book!

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A Bloom In Winter

A Bloom in Winter by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I quit the prison camp series, so I think that I am missing a lot of the backstory here, but was able to dive in with this story of Callum and Apex, among other folks.

While this book gets a 0.5 designation in the overall series numbering, I don’t see this as a short story at all. This is a full length story, complete with many parallel storylines. I think the main story is supposed to be Callum and Apex, but they were definitely overshadowed by the plot line of building animosity against the king, a budding romance between a disowned daughter and a reckless misfit, and even the butler’s guest appearance.

Callum and Apex apparently have a broken past, involving sexual abuse (warning - this book is DARK), and Callum ran away from Apex rather than facing his potential future. They end up “accidentally” running into one another while stranded in a blizzard but it goes much less sexily than you’d want it to. Their romance was very… painful. A lot of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, emotional baggage and all from a romance that maybe never was? Like I said, the Mayhem (probably spelled not like that - I audiobooked) storyline was much more engaging. I was rooting for those two from the start! We do get some good HEA to make the darkness more palatable, but this was a sad romance, so be prepared.

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The Beloved

The Beloved by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ugh, this one is a reluctant four stars, but it kind of hurt. This is where not reading blurbs and instead just downloading the next in a series bites me. I was unprepared for the time hop that we get here and that we would need to spend more time with Nate in his dark, dark world.

This story is kind of like the turning of a page. Could the series have ended with the “death” of the king and started a whole new world with just the next generation? Sure - but as is the common complaint I have of these books, we need at least 5 or 6 parallel stories to tell in a book to make it into the BDB world. In this book we have Nalla, her family, her job, her friends, etc. Then we’ve got Nate, who is just… terrible. Unlikeable and a real struggle to see as a romantic interest for anyone ever. Then we also have the return of the king (ha!) and what all of that means. Then there’s still the lessening war and all the bad guy POV that comes along with it. Side story/teaser for next book also delivers the king’s son and Bitty. Oh and a new adopted kid of the BDB via the tech sector. I’m probably leaving something out.

These books are a tangled mess, but somehow I can’t quit them! There are definitely elements I enjoy, hence the rating, but Nate was pretty painful. I guess he came out as intended, since he is like what you’d get with an angsty teen who can’t get killed. I just kind of wanted something better for Nalla, who already had the burden of being one of the elder second generation. I liked how she stood up for herself, but the HEA is a little underwhelming. Maybe we get to revisit that? Probably not. I was way more interested in the king element and am just tired of the never ending war. I guess we will see where the series takes us with the new generation, but at some point we need to stop adding characters just to complicate the plot.

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