Fury Bound

Fury Bound by Sable Sorensen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Meryn just can’t get a break here! This book is full throttle the entire time, leaving me feeling like she just needs one moment to breathe and all of this would become clear. Poor girl who is now somehow queen?

At the end of the last book we saw that her sister had been transformed and that’s obviously bad news. She and her inner circle have to keep it quiet while also magically using the necklace from her mother to control some of the darker urges and links to her evil ex boyfriend. You know who ends up being an unshakable ally? Stark, the big bad alpha who was such a thorn in her side. This book, while about destroying her ex, is also somehow about these two getting together.

Oh sure, there’s other things that happen (exploring the vampire territory, making alliances, betrayal, so many secrets, and shocking loss), but the most important part, and apparently terrible decision at the end, is shacking up with Stark. Throughout all the side quests and searching, I began to doubt that this was a trilogy and instead headed towards wrapping up in two books, but no - the ending of this very clearly leaves us with a cliffhanger.

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Paranormal Payback

Paranormal Payback by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a great and diverse collection of payback stories! This book had all sorts from horror to mystery and everything in between. We even get a little teaser from the Hollows thrown in for good measure.

I won’t go in to all the stories, but rather review as a collection. This was the perfect book to bring to the beach - each story was a different length giving you the flexibility to start and stop easily while still carrying through the theme. I was completely sucked in for each story, easily caught up on the characters, the world, and of course the payback in question. I admit - my favorite was probably the Jim Butcher one, but I’m sure my own preferences have something to do with that. If you’re looking for a great collection to chip away at - I’d recommend this for any type of reader.

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The Goblin in the Sink Drain

The Goblin in the Sink Drain by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We join back up with this story immediately where we left it. Ana’s life has been upended and she now has to question everything she ever learned. At least she’s got her new bestie and the Walsh clan to help her navigate this world.

There are a few points I have issue with in this world - it is apparently one that has supernaturals kept secret from humans, but there is an awful lot of dragons about to make that a reality. I don’t know, but it bothers me and takes me out of the story because of the inconsistency. It obviously didn’t stop me, though, because I’m plowing through to book 3 right after this because you can’t leave me hanging! I need to see Rian and Ana get together, or at least kiss!

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The Vampire in the Potting Shed

The Vampire in the Potting Shed by Hailey Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this book is somewhere around a 3.5 but I continued on either way! How can you not? This book definitely does not wrap anything up and I was left wanting much more. This is a very short read, so be prepared. As someone who is now on book 3, it’s starting to pay off now.

This book introduces us to Ana, the latent daughter of a wolf pack leader. She’s never shifted, but has been treated like a pampered princess (with some wolf pack fighting thrown in - even with her inability to shift) her entire life. Her mother left her when she was a baby, so she’s never known anything but the overprotective and smothering she’s had her whole life. When a mystery dog shows up at the grooming shop she owns, her entire life changes.

We don’t get to know much in this first book, but we do get to see loyalties tested, some secrets revealed, and a not-vampire in a potting shed. There are the first inklings of romance potential, but there are years and years of trauma and lies to cut through first.

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The Gate of the Feral Gods

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love everything about these books. The ending of this one, though - that was a lot and I’m sure we are in for it with the next installment.

Flying gnomes, balloon airships, evil-ish children, and so much more end up hunting and hurting our crawlers in this book. Looking back, it seems like a chaotic situation, maybe even more so this time around than the previous levels, but that could also be because there was a big time out in the middle of it all because Carl is a genius. Without spoilers I was especially proud of how Carl has been sneaking in tidbits from the cookbook in the most dramatic ways possible. I did feel like Donut took a little bit of a back seat in this book, which was disappointing, but it allowed for Carl to work with the rest of the core crawler group in a way that may be setting up the guild features in future levels.

I’m sure there will be repercussions from the way Carl ended up saving himself and everyone else, but another jaw dropping moment that shocked me to the core. There are so many things that we haven’t seen pan out yet that I’m so worried about - the ring, does Carl know anyone who wrote in the cookbook, what’s he doing with that head, etc. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

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The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook

The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am flying through these audiobooks one after the other so forgive me if this review is a little light. I forgot to come back and review immediately following so I’m already done with the book after this one at time of review.

I hear some people don’t like this one for some reason but this saws a bit of a turning point for me with Katia. I really did not like her in the previous but this one sold me on her as a solid addition to the ever evolving group of characters that orbit around Carl and Donut. There were some genuinely jaw dropping events in this book that had me completely shocked. There are also, as maybe more expected, a huge number of laugh out loud moments (some very gruesome involving Mongo).

I don’t really know how to review these books other than in very broad strokes - we get a lot of trains and we learn a lot about how Carl will be using the cookbook. Maybe it’s my own experience in other series, but I found myself worried about every decision this crew made with the spaces, prizes, and teaming up to save so many others. I shouldn’t have worried, though, because Carl is the best. This book is also a bit of a turning point for the NPCs and how they are used or manipulated both by the crawlers in this case and the evil corporations. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the beautiful moment with the hats. These books are like wonderful candy for my brain so I’ll continue reading them until I catch up.

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Second Time's a Charm

Second Time's a Charm by Taylor Epperson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that takes place at an indeterminate time in history where magic is about but we still use carriages and wear bulky dresses. That, coupled with this small town vibe, make this a unique world that I’ve not encountered before.

Reece doesn’t have great control over her witchy powers, and a bit of a slip up led her to run away from home (as an adult). When her dad leaves her in charge of their magical animal rescue to go on walkabout, she reluctantly returns only to find that it is deeply in debt. Oh, and the boyfriend who ran away from her (before she ran away from home) has for some inexplicable reason been running the rescue in her absence. Things only get weirder from there.

Laken, said abandoning boyfriend, ends up confessing that he’s a secret assassin now and other bad guys are after all the magical creatures she is protecting. There’s even more surprises, but this story also somehow maintains the heart of it all - concluding with a lovely reminder that support might show up where you least suspect it.

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