Gray Witch

Gray Witch by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gosh, a lot happens in this book. I’m going to include spoilers from the last book because it is important, but who starts at book 5 anyway?

This book picks up in the aftermath of the big end of book reveal. The promise to stay in contact? Well the first message arrives right as the crew has to take off for a case, shaking Rue’s life again. This is an even bigger road trip book than the last one - they bounce around A LOT and I don’t have that good a grasp on southern geography to tell you how far/how long they drove. The big case they are working on is the seeming resurrection of some famous supernatural big bads, or at least famous ones. They also happen to be assigned this case by the second in command because the director is MIA.

Just when the group gets their feet under them at one crime scene, another crops up, then another, splitting the group up so that they can at least finish chasing down leads for one of their stops. Highlights in this one? The demon making a wolf friend. And getting treated like a true person. There is big demon/demon politics happenings in this installments that likely deserves a whole paragraph but it wasn’t the good stuff. The good stuff was Rue leaning into her power and officially choosing a side in the battle that her dad is silently pursuing. I liked that this book wasn’t just the usual levels of gross, but also found time to throw in a bit of role play geekdom outside of the mystic realms stuff.

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Black Wings, Gray Skies

Black Wings, Gray Skies by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hmmm, I think this is a turning point book in the series. If you’re reading along with me, I detoured to the short story and was baffled about why it needed to be read where it was. I think it helps add some weight and maybe a little more understanding to some of the emotional scenes in this installment, without giving spoilers.

Rue and the gang (including Colby!) are on the road hunting down a child killer. That’s bad enough, but what it actually ends up being is even grosser and worse. Yay for the monsters in their supernatural world! Being on a bit of a roadtrip, we don’t get a ton of the “extra” characters in this installment, minus the check-ins from “the shop” and the mysterious dark magic lurker they report on (ending aside). Instead we go on a true case with the crew trying to figure out how things in Charleston got so out of hand.

Some good things? We get to meet some other shifters and see that they are maybe the most human characters in the bunch. The team is really doing an amazing job with all the odds stacked against them. What frustrated me enough to almost scream at the book was by the end you realized there were SO MANY loose ends. They do eventually come to bite Rue, or at least maim her emotionally. Usually she is so on top of her many priorities that the fact she “forgot” about something big seemed very out of character for her.

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Anders

Anders by Margo Bond Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This series is shaping up to go all over the place - first book was about breaking pack assumptions and finding balance in pack leadership (even sharing it!) and now we’ve got super secret evil government mind control!

Anders has just stepped into the role of pack guardian and had a bit of a mess to contend with. The previous pack leadership made sure nobody trusted anybody else, so he has been putting his robotic, analytical mind to good use, detectiving out weaknesses, strengths and ultimately making the pack more stable. He also used his military training to install security throughout the town, alerting him to a newcomer one night.

Etta believes she is just an ordinary reporter, assigned to a middle of nowhere town, but when she stops a diner and an imaginary record scratches upon her arrival it is clear she’s walked into something. Who knew they were right to be suspicious of her? Turns out she’s being plagued by headaches and some distant memories which all comes to a head when Anders confronts her. Oh, and he recognized that they are mates, even though she doesn’t appear to know she’s a shifter of any sort.

There is a lot of hidden stuff, big reveals, but I won’t spoil all of that. Suffice it to say, there is a bigger plot afoot which I guess we will address fully in the coming installments. For Anders and Etta, they manage to beat the odds here and find their HEA. This book had much more of a spy thriller or sci-fi/futuristic feel than previous ones.

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Not always an angel

Not Always an Angel by Christi Barth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oops, this is book 3 of a series I have not read. Maybe book 3 of 3? I didn’t really have any issue catching up given my expertise in paranormal romance at this point. Out of 3 angelic warriors, we are down to the last single one, so you can kind of assume what will happen.

Liss is the only human in the bunch, having had her BFF paired off, then expanded her social circle to include a belly dancing witch and an ex-hell resident lady. No matter how hard she tries, though, she feels like she is not contributing enough to the cause. That cause? There is some big world ending threat in the form of the Titans or something like that. Even without this threat over her head, I think Liss would have still felt inadequate. She is one tough cookie, though, as seen in how eagerly she is able to hit back when a sleazy guy attacks her.

Zavier is the last single warrior guy in the bunch, but he’s got some issues to work through. He was kidnapped for… a very long time and tortured. His brothers in arms ended up rescuing him, but he’s a big messed up because of it. He acknowledges his attraction to Liss early on, but fights it for the same martyr reasons guys always fight the attraction in these types of books. He doesn’t want to sully her with his darkness, etc. etc. etc.

Liss, of course, ends up being the one to push the issue of their attraction to the forefront. And then, shocker, the only human person involved in supernatural insanity gets hurt by some supernatural bad guys. This forces Zavier to break some rules to save the woman he denies loving. This continues, but it gets even more twisty-turny, with new powers emerging, lots of creatures I’ve never heard of, Atlantis, some old mentor showing back up, an angel with a broken wing, demons, and all of the other things you can think of. The showdown is epic, but we still get our beloved HEA.

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Black Soul, White Heart

Black Soul, White Heart by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I blindly followed the order of reading that Audible set in front of me, and it said I had to read this before book 4 in the series, so in I went! I don’t actually think I needed to do that, and this can likely be read at any point, unless I’m missing something.

This short story gives us a glimpse into the unlikely courtship of Vonda and Hiram, Rue’s parents. Neither goes by the right name in the story, but it’s easier for me to use their real names for review. The previous book ends with Rue receiving a photo of her parents, so maybe that’s why I needed to read this right after? Either way, we dive right into Vonda’s mischievous life tempered by her required time spent working her parent’s apothecary-ish stall at the market. It’s there that she meets Hiram and their taboo love affair begins.

Her warg BFF supports her shenanigans, so is her partner in crime for most of this, as we learned in the previous books. While Vonda doesn’t know at the start that Hiram is dark/demon/whatevs, she knows he is not necessarily the “good” match her parents would expect. That doesn’t stop her and likely drew her closer to him at the start. By the time she finds out his secret, she is in too deep to give him up. It was AWESOME seeing her stand up for herself, her family, and who she loves. I love a good, strong, female lead, and after spending so much time with Rue it’s no surprise her mom was like that.

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Black Truth, White Lies

Black Truth, White Lies by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book, I think, is a turning point for Rue and Asa’s relationship. While Clay knows all her secrets (mostly) and Colby knows all the things (of course), in this book we see the trust hit the tipping point for Asa.

Poor Rue finally has her shop back and someone (or something) murders a reindeer at her town’s Christmas celebration. Ugh. This, though, does get us a new adoptee into the house of Rue and I think it’s worth it. So the Reindeer thing spirals into more weirdo aquatic fae and gets a sprinkle of aquatic fae family drama sprinkled on top. It’s Colby’s research, however, that ties all of this somehow to Rue’s family.

As if she needed more family drama, there are oodles of reveals at the end of this book, enough to keep this story going in all different directions! I like where we landed and while I’m a little sad these books are not yet smutty, I can understand that a demon/fae who has an invisible hand slicer-offer slicing hands off if anyone touches his hair, well, he might be less experienced in the romance department. I like this slow burn for them, and something about this very dark band of misfits manages to bring a smile to my face.

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Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir by Wil Wheaton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think this lands somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me, sadly. I really like Wil Wheaton and love his narration in other audiobooks. I also *LOVE* Star Trek and all things geekdom so I thought this was going to be a real winner. Did I think it would get dark because of his childhood? Yes, but I was prepared for that. We almost didn't finish this audiobook and that was while being trapped in a car for a long roadtrip. Maybe that was the issue? Maybe it could have been more enjoyable broken up over long periods of time, but I would not recommend doing it back-to-back for hours at a time.

So - what was great? The anecdotes and stories at the core were great to hear. I hadn’t heard a lot of Wil Wheaton’s history in Hollywood so I learned a lot. What distracted from those bright spots was I believe mostly due to the format. The original book is based on blog posts, then there is new content layered on. The original book has footnotes, then there are new footnotes layered on top of those. All of this is surrounded by a very repetitive apology narrative. I’m not saying there isn’t original content that doesn’t a warrant an apology, but it is near constant and takes you out of the already very confusing and hard to follow layers of content.

Am I saying to just go back to his original book? No, that’s probably not the right answer either. I guess I don’t know who the target audience is for this, because I thought it was me. Maybe audiobook was the wrong format? I’m not sure and sad to have not enjoyed this one.

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Samael

Samael by N.J. Walters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the start of a new series and I’m loving the unique world intro we got here!

Samael is a reaper, specifically the son of the grim reaper. He is probably a workaholic, but not in the reaper field. He seems to augment his reaper life by collecting real estate deals, playing the stock market, and appreciating women. After he plays a little too fast and loose with the rules, his dad “grounds him” by taking away his powers and sending him to a town called “Redemption” with little money or resources. It’s there that he meets Adrianne.

Adrianne is a great female lead - she’s got her own issues and baggage, yet she still stops to pick up a stranger on the side of the road in need of help. These two mange to somehow work through a few issues, begin a romance, and navigate small town gossip all in a short amount of time. I’m not gunna lie, I started the story not liking Samael one bit, but I trust this author and have never been let down before. The way he is able to protect Adrianne even when he knows he will be charged with taking her soul was something to behold. This story does involve stalking so if that’s an issue for a reader, that may be the only reason I’d say to stay away. Otherwise, buckle up because I’m sure this series will be a crazy ride!

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Dragon Marked

Dragon Marked by Donna Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fair warning - this world is gigantic and we are several books deep in this Zora spinoff, so if you aren’t familiar with this world, these characters, or the baggage we’ve accumulated along the way, you probably aren’t going to quite get the same thing out of this book as I did.

I’ve been along for this wild and crazy ride since the start, so I know all the players. This book is about Merrill and Katla. Merrill ran away on purpose (sort-of) from his fellow dragon kings to help process some of the anger and hatred he never got around to dealing with for… a lot of years post-human war. Now on Zora, he was given a unique opportunity to hide out with the enemy but ultimately join the gang again. Now lurking around a kingdom without a ruler, he finds himself taken by Katla.

Katla is also a bad guy turned good guy in this story. She was capturing and probably resulting in the horrible death of many many dragons over her countless years. Was she duped by the big bad? Yes. Does she maybe have special powers above-and-beyond standard Druid powers? Probably. Either way she is struggling with her guilt and on her path to redemption. She’s taken some of the kids that were supposed to be sacrificed and treated them like her own. When Merrill offers them sanctuary, she reluctantly agrees and then they set off on their very poorly planned attempt to track down the current big bad. As is the case with these books, we don’t see the big bad get theirs, but we do see a coupling between these two guilt-ridden folks and progress in the larger story. With a world containing so many active characters, you can’t accomplish everything at once!

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Wulf’s Pack

Wulf's Pack by Jackie May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whoops, I read this book without having read the two other series by this author. Looking back, I did pick up a few books in Nora’s story, but must’ve lost track and never come back. That being said, I was able to dive right in fine, so don’t let that scare you off!

Wulf (yes, his name is Wulf and he’s a werewolf, you get over it) is a flirty, eternally single lone wolf who is happy as a member of a clan, but without any pack of his own. His nature seems appeased by his situation until Skylar walks into his bar. There’s a rapid shift in instincts, leading to many shifts, a quickly growing pack of his own, and one scared woman who is suddenly his mate. Skylar has abilities that essentially tranq those around her if she’s not careful, so she’s obviously a great asset to any pack. Unfortunately her previous pack abused her and left her locked up for most of her life. This has led to a bit of a lack of experience and support that Wulf is eager to remedy.

There are a few side-quests here but it was a great and wild ride from start to finish. I was a little worried that the darkness of Skylar’s past would color the book as a whole, but somehow it channels more healing and family vibes than abuse and torture. There are definitely dark spots, but overall this reads as a good redemption and escape story. I’m not sure if this is a spinoff but I’d enjoy more in this universe. Perhaps I’ll go back and fill in the stories I missed along the way.

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Black Arts, White Craft

Black Arts, White Craft by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a crazy weird premise but I am loving this random group of paranormals and their insanity.

As book 2, we are diving right in where we left our band of misfits. Rue’s life has sort-of been blown up since her shop was destroyed. She has been left with some traumatized friends/employees and a town rallying behind her for the most part. Her cover for helping out the Black Hat Bureau is that she’s leveraging her experience with her “ex” as a way to help consult on other abuse cases. Oh, and Rue is also dealing with an irritating hair bracelet (gross, right? Yet somehow not) and cupcake deliveries as she is being courted in the weirdest way possible by Asa. While they navigate their very very slow burn relationship, Clay and Colby are just instant BFFs.

This book revolves around what seems to be a new case but is actually a continuation of Rue’s weird starter case from last book. Stress on the “book” part of that. There’s wendigos and zombies and death and secrets but it is all rolled together in a fun and exciting glimpse into a recovering black witch’s struggle to stay good. I am loving this female main character that’s a recovering heart eater. I can honestly say that I’ve never read a series like this and probably never will. For that alone, it’s worth a read.

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