Review: Bad Blood

Bad Blood by Robyn Bachar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is this my new favorite of the series? I think so!

While this book says it is book #5 in the series, you can really easily read this as a standalone book. In face, the only connections to the larger storyline and familiar characters felt a little forced. I'm eager to see how all this rolls up into the bigger happenings of their world, in the US, at least.

This book is about Nati, a researcher for a paranormal TV show (but not the same ghost hunters we already know). She's in Spain scouting locations, but also trying to learn more about some genealogy. This ends up taking her, on a roundabout way, into a cemetary and smack into the chest of a beautiful man. There's some twists and turns to get there (again) but ultimately we end up with her performing some filmed paranormal investigation on the house that the mysterious Spanish guy lives in.

The Spanish guy, Cris, is obviously hiding all sorts of stuff. Throughout Nati's reluctant investigating, they end up being more than friends and she gets exposed to all sorts of strangeness. We do see a pair of familiar faces, but briefly. This is all on Cris and Nati to solve mostly on their own. We get there, but it takes some doing! Like I said, this book was one of my favorites. You'd especially like it if you like some smutty goodness with your paranormal romance.

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Review: Fire in the Blood

Fire in the Blood by Robyn Bachar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Woah, that was a super quick read! Having slogged through the previous 3 books, I was ready for a bit of a ride here, but it was actually a lot more straightforward than the previous installments.

This book is about Patience, who we met in the previous books. She's one of the only summoners left in the world that is being inundated with demons. If that wasn't bad enough, then there's also the shadowy government agents trying to take out supernaturals, and a very unstable vampire who is throwing a hissy fit. When we had little hints of Patience in a relationship-ish with Faust, I was hoping we would see that grow in this book. Boy, does it ever!

We go right from "are they a couple," to hearts and love and all that cupid stuff. This read like a sudden fated mates story, which was a little weird because they had been hooking up for a while before now. There's even some sudden reveals about family and lineage thrown in (not in an incesty way), just to keep things shocking. As an overall storyline, I'm not sure a lot happened, other than the seemingly docile bad guy from the start of the previous book being suddenly out for revenge. The pacing was better here, so I'm down for more at this point.

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Review: A Few Pecans Short of a Pie

A Few Pecans Short of a Pie by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a short but adorably sweet novella that comes back around to Margot and Kyle.

In the previous book, we learned that Margot was pregnant (surprise!) and she is still adapting to life as an unmarried pregnant lady in a town that knows no personal barriers. On top of the usual pregnancy dramas, she's also dealing with planning a wedding. For a trained event planner, this should be no big deal, right? Well, all bets are off when the entire town wants you to wear their dresses and cater from their restaurants.

The one bright spot in Margot's life (other than Kyle, the girls, and her family, mostly) is the new bakery which makes the only food she can be sure to make her day - pecan pie. The descriptions alone make my mouth water. An unfortunate side effect to this book is the burning desire to eat an entire pecan pie on your own. That aside, it was super sweet to read about how Kyle and Margot and the girls all find their happy ending here.

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Review: Ain't She a Peach?

Ain't She a Peach? by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this quirky, southern series, and will eagerly read (or listen to) all they have to offer! While you can probably start here, I'd recommend going back to book #1 to get the full effect.

We join the Frankie/Eric drama already in progress if you read the novella previous to this book. I did, so I was ready to get some resolution to the sexual tension (is it still tension if they already slept together) between Frankie and Eric, and to watch that stupid teenager get punished. Yes, it takes a while to get the latter, but we get to go through all sorts of both good and bad stuff with Eric and Frankie along the way.

This world is so fun and fresh that I am completely invested in what happens to all the side characters, too. Especially the dogs. Don't worry, though, dogs get some good book time here. There's also our favorites from previous books, still with their own drama (Duffy, when will you make better decisions?!?). Ultimately, we get a good, solid HEA for these two oddballs. The only downside to these books is the yummy food descriptions end up leaving me hungry and, in this case, craving burgers, shakes, and pop tarts.

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Review: Peachy Flippin' Keen

Peachy Flippin' Keen by Molly Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, to set expectations appropriately, this is not so much a standalone novella, and instead more of lead in to the next full length book. Do you absolutely need to read this before the next one? No, you'll get most of this information in summary eventually. But I like seeing inside Frankie's head, so I'm all in!

Frankie is one of the most interesting characters we met in the first book of this series, so I was excited to see we were headed into her story next. This sets the stage for the two big stories in the next book - the annoying punk kid who is Frankie's boss's son who absolutely cannot stop trying to break into the funeral home, and the new sheriff in town.

The new sheriff, because that is the more fun of the two stories, turns out to be a guy Frankie hooked up with and snuck out on a little while ago. He ended up taking that personally, which makes their professional working relationship a bit tense at first. Frankie is also trying to find her own way to become independent, which means this is one more pile of drama she doesn't need right now.

The annoying punk kid storyline is... annoying. So much so, that I wanted to reach through my iphone and throttle him. Ugh, I can't wait for that to be resolved, but I'll have to go into the full length book to get there, undoubtedly.

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Review: Wolf Gone Wild

Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette Cross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a nice setup of what could be a significantly larger world, complete with all our favorites - vampires, witches, and shifters. I can't wait to see where it goes next!

Evie is one of several sisters who are pretty big deals in New Orleans. They owns and run a few businesses, represent the local enforcers, and generally try to help others. Except shifters, which is tested when Mateo wanders into Evie's job. He has been cursed and was told to look for Evie, the biggest baddest (and nicest) curse breaker around. Surprisingly, her family is somewhat open to helping the clearly suffering shifter.

This ends up shifting to a romance for a little bit, watching the adorable-ness that is Evie and Mateo's budding relationship. The dorkiness is nice, the way he supports her is even better, and ultimately we get a really great HEA. There's some mystery, a big bad, and lots of magic thrown around to get us there, but it was a great ride.

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Review: Hero's Haven

Hero's Haven by Rebecca Zanetti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm obsessed with this series and am eagerly gobbling up each installment. With each book we get closer to a big battle, but, don't worry, we're not there yet, so we get more!

This book revolves around Quade and his super duper reluctant mate, Haven. We met both these characters before, when things were looking dire and unsolvable. Things have only gotten worse from there and Haven's "insanity" has manifested in some pretty real ways. The most recent of which involves her pulling Quade into her world. The action just doesn't stop at all after that. There's just about every good guy and bad guy chasing these two while they somehow find a way to develop a relationship.

So, yeah, there is that whole fated mates business, but I enjoyed watching the tough warrior and the artsy painter find common ground and super duper sexy times. As far as larger storyline, we get more from the big bad, more from Hope, a quick check in with all our favorites in the Realm, and lots of Seven business. I wouldn't say this is the best place to join this series, but I'm sure these could survive as standalones (but why? This series is the best!). I'm looking forward to all the future installments and generations we get as we move along this large storyline.

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