A Demon Faerie Tale

A Demon Faerie Tale: A Rifter Novella by L.R. Braden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mira and Ty are up to adventures again in this short story. It’s got a fast pace, a mystery, and maybe some nudges in the right direction for this reluctant partnership.

Mira and her internal partner are actually starting to get more in sync in this installment. While they may differ in their opinion on how to go about romancing Ty, I do think Mira has begun accepting her attraction to him. Ty is still the uptight agent that he has been in previous books, but he is certainly challenged when he inadvertently ends up the victim of a fae item of power. After being assigned the case where a handful of folks ended up killing themselves or almost doing so by going after the object of their desires, a quick touch of a coin puts Ty in danger.

Mira and Ty try to work through his obsession and still solve the mystery of where it came from to free Ty. There are a few challenges but nothing a random romantic assault won’t cure, right? I can’t wait until this pair becomes a real couple! Of course, they manage to sidestep any romantic stuff and solve the mystery without anyone else becoming the coin’s victim. This was a fun read.

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Fangs for Nothing

Fangs for Nothing by Steffanie Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my gosh, what a fun and wonderful read! This book had all the romance, vampires, family drama, and HEA you could ever wish for and it also gave all the feels!

Alaric is a bit of a reclusive vampire. He doesn’t feed directly from humans and is sustained by his hobbies. Said hobbies, however, have proven to be a bit of a challenge when his vampire mother insists he host a ball in his overly cluttered estate. Winnie is a professional organizer and anti-clutter enthusiast. She’s created a system (which her partner has taken co-credit for with very little actual work) and she’s always eager to apply it to just about everything. When her boyfriend leaves her for her best friend, she may have begun to spiral into over organization land, which is why she jumps at the chance to get out of town and help someone de-clutter.

Alaric hides what he is and how he feels from Winnie for wayyyy too long, but it was adorable to watch. These two dance around each other, each hiding different things - Winnie her history growing up in a hoarder house, Alaric his killing past and vampiric state. The way things play out is ever so satisfying, even if we do get the standard couple chapters of misunderstanding/martyr activities. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the smutty coven that adopts Winnie. There is clearly another series about that, but this book served as a great introduction. I hope there are more books in this series!

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Still of the Night

Still of the Night by Donna Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These books are really building to some gigantic showdown with lots of pieces moving into place along the way. While we don’t get the ultimate battle in this book, we do make strides to uncovering who the key players are. Oh, and Killian & Ariah’s story, too!

Ariah is the local tea maker we have interacted with in various capacities in previous books. She is a member of the core group, but not directly involved in any battles. That doesn’t negate her power, however, which is largely drawn from nature and the forest. She had a brief love affair with Killian, a non-magical man who visited the island years ago, and whom she never thought to see again. He ends up accepting that he can’t live his life without her and shows up on her doorstep just in time for the big bad to turn everything upside down.

I really liked how we got to see Callum through this new person’s eyes. That story really needs to be fully told in future books and I can’t wait for it. Ariah and Killian, though, were fantastic! We ended up skipping over a bit of the romance, but it was still very satisfying. The big strides we end up making in identifying who is working with the big bad(s) were also super satisfying. This was another great installment in the series.

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The Little Coffee Shop of Terrors

The Little Coffee Shop of Terrors by Hazel Graves
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I briefly glanced at the description before grabbing this book and thought it was going to be a fun, paranormal romance based in a coffee shop. That is not this book - it is a slow building mystery with lots of side-trips down sometimes dark and sad side streets. It had a lot more to the story than I expected. Oh, and prepare yourself for more broadway references than you’d expect, too!

Adele is a failing broadway hopeful who suddenly inherits a coffee shop and apartment from a relative she never knew. The only stipulation is that she keeps Ben on as an employee. This coffee shop roasts in house beans, a task which is done by the aforementioned Ben, so it doesn’t really bother Adele that he continues doing the heavy lifting there. When folks start disappearing, though, it gets a little suspect.

The crew of the coffee shop patrons was a highlight of this story. The regulars create a community that, even when Adele is following the suggestions of some random dude she ends up dating, can’t be deterred. Adele really does her best to alienate them, but they persist! I really struggled with Adele, the main character. She clings to this really terrible guy when Ben is right there and knows the store better than anyone else. It was frustrating to read and made for some difficulties in getting through this book. This book also includes a lot more melancholy than I was prepared for. Paranormal? Sure! Mystery? Yes, please! Ending in a bit of a bummer? No thanks. I wasn’t prepared, so make sure you enjoy your romance to come with some truly heartbreaking twists. Oh, and I guess we’re all OK with murder by the end. The paranormal elements were pretty light, but the moral questions truly left me confused. All in all, if you’re OK with sadness rolled into your romance, and love broadway shows, this may be a read for you.

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Perfectly Wicked

Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovise
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a really fun and unique spin on the enemies to lovers standard romance (with paranormal elements thrown in). What an adorable couple we get!

Holly is the eldest sister and is the leader of the “Wicked” apple farm family. They’re a close knit bunch and doing kind of terrible at making a profit, especially with a much more fancy and organized orchard in town. Their cider, though, is known to be the best ever and they’re just barely keeping afloat on that alone. When a paranormal ghost hunting show offers them money to film there, they say no so they can continue to keep their secrets. This prompts Connor, the dreamy host of said show, to come knocking on their door.

Holly & Connor have an immediate love/hate thing going on. Holly, of course, says no, but when the family stresses that they could really use this, she caves. These two are adorably drawn to one another and it was really fun to watch something unique and special develop. This story is definitely more than your typical PNR and I found myself seeing an honest relationship develop instead of just a surface attraction. Definitely a great fall season read!

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Casket Case

Casket Case by Lauren Evans
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book made me sad. There were some shining moments of romance, the typical “I’m over him” time, small town friends and family, but I finished the book just very sad.

I guess I should have known this was coming from the description but maybe I thought there would be more quirky goodness or lightheartedness to break up the truly dark depression scenes. Nora lost her parents and has given up her career to run her family’s local casket business. She is still firmly entrenched in her depression when she meets Garrett, who just so happens to work for Death. It was very much like that show Dead Like Me, where he gets dispatched to help people not die alone. He hides this from Nora, but pursues her pretty intently.

The truth ends up coming out, because, hello, it’s a very small town where everyone knows everything about each other, but when it does, Nora goes back into a tailspin of depression. If you’re following along, that means you will need to trudge through two separate phases where we are in this with her. It was tough. Eventually we trudge to a happy ending, but then we cap it off with a truly heartbreaking ending. The writing was good, but you need to be mentally prepared to go through all this with Nora.

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Dirty Lying Wolves

Dirty Lying Wolves by Sabrina Blackburry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I’m sure I read the other books in this world, it’s been so long that I can assure you starting here is just fine. That being said, this book has a very slow build at the start, but once things start going down, it is pure chaos until the end.

June has a relatively normal life until she tries to save a woman writhing on the ground in a local part. This one action ends up getting her bitten by a werewolf and thrown into a really weird roadtrip with her new “pack.” Dom, the second to the bitey leader who is indisposed for quite some time, is on a mission to bring his pack or sort-of-rogues back to their original pack’s land. Said pack has been led by a bad guy for a while so now that they are fresh off their win in previous books, they decide to push their luck here. June got to represent us, asking all the basic questions, learning how the change happens, how the pack is organized, and eventually detectiving out why everyone tiptoes around the badness in their previous pack history.

This book has some really great characters introduced outside the slow sizzle romance of Dom and June. I would eagerly check-in on a lot of these folks after the conclusion of this story. The pack has obviously gone through a lot, but when the dust settles (or when the truth is revealed) people do the right thing in a crazy battle. I really ended up liking all the characters and got swept away in the HEA by the end. I hope we get to see more from this world.

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