Review: Waking the Bear

Waking the Bear by Kerry Adrienne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book in a new series about shifters that are soon to be at war. While there are romance elements in here, the real focus was the old rivalry that could start the war.

Amy wants to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend and a job that no longer appeals. The woods seem like the place for her, and when she finds an adorable rental that meets her severance package budget, she decides to stay for 2 months. Within minutes of wanting to sign the lease, she meets Griff and falls into lust.

Griff, a local bear shifter, knows she is his mate instantly. This is bad timing, of course, because the bears and lions are almost at war. Every advantage will be used, including someone's mate. He, just like every other male in paranormal romance, tries to protect her by staying away, but that soon proves impossible. A man who for some silly reason blames Griff for the death of his parents is looking for any chance to attack him and Amy provides him with that.

There's a lot of the standard elements here: girl ignores man's warning about danger in the woods, man tries to protect her without telling her the truth, bad guys abound, lots of miscommunication, etc. A bit of this book felt... incomplete. I'd be interested in seeing if this gets a final polish at some point to fix some of the inconsistencies in the dialogue and internal monologue. While not the most romantic or smutty book I've ever read, it was clearly trying to set up a building war and a new history of shifters.

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Review: Bitten by Cupid

Bitten by Cupid by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up with the intention of only reading the Lynsay Sands story. In an effort to fully compete the Argeneau series, I’m trying to be thorough in reading all the short stories along the way. This anthology, however, totally lured me in and I ended up reading the whole thing. While I liked some stories better than others, it was overall a 3.75 star read (rounding to 4). I have zero experience with the other worlds (Feral Warriors by Pamela Palmer and Offspring by Jaime Rush) but didn’t really have trouble diving in.

Vampire Valentine (4 stars)
The first story is the Argeneau tale. We FINALLY get to give Tiny his life mate! Tiny (for those of you who don’t know) is only of the only remaining mortals in a world filled with vampires and life mates. He seems to get along just fine, but he is obviously the weak link when sent out with other vampires. It must hurt his ego a little bit, especially because, despite his name, he’s pretty huge. Mirabeau is the punky misfit that has been on the periphery of a few stories but never really got her own starring role. Here, we see that they’ve both got things they have to wrap up before they can fully commit to one another. No matter how they get there, I’m still super happy that Tiny has finally gotten paired up. It was also nice to have a little follow-up on the youngest of the vampires.

Hearts Untamed (3 stars)
This story deals with a woman hiding all sorts of secrets from her long lost love. In a world where people can live for centuries but magical sorceresses are assumed extinct, Julianne is burdened with a secret that she’s not only a half-breed between the two magical races, but also being blackmailed into finding a precious gem. All of this drama is coupled with the abrupt return of her lost love, Zee, and now she’s got a recipe for disaster. She can’t really be expected to keep all these secrets from him and it seems he arrives at the exact time she needs him to. There’s some HEA and a relatively simple introduction to this world thrown in.

Kiss and Kill Cupid (4 stars)
This story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! We meet Kristy, a punky and awesome writer who just happens to also be able to read minds. During a job interview she happens to hear the thoughts of a serial killer identifying her as his next victim. Through a series of events, it turns out her soon-to-be-maybe-boss might also have some secrets of the paranormal variety. From start to finish, I had no idea who the killer was, which makes this an awesomely entertaining read. I will definitely be checking out this author in the future if this is just a small example of what they can do.


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Review: The Renegade Hunter

The Renegade Hunter by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am so sad that we still don’t have any real resolution in this book. After the previous 2 books had left me feeling like I was missing something I thought for sure they would deliver in book 3 of this story arc. Instead, what you get at the end is another rushed conclusion, without even finding out who is responsible! Ugh – if I wasn’t assured that eventually we get to find out “whodunit” I would probably just take a break from these books here. The promise of a short story after this was a nice little reward.

So, to go in reverse, the story is about Nicholas, the rogue who has made an appearance prominently in the last story. We know there’s more to the story than meets the eye since he just keeps saving people when he should be a crazy murderer. At the start of this book we join Jo as she is introduced to all of the enforcers (which Sam secretly set up to try to find her sisters life mates). After a night of people staring at her forehead, she tries to get some air and ends up getting attacked. Nicholas (of course) saves her and finds out – surprise! – she is his second life mate.

Aside from the unsatisfying ending of this book, everything else was fantastic. I *love* Jo and wish we could get even more of her. Watching her and some of the stone faced vampires interact was so hilarious I laughed out loud while reading certain sections. Maybe when her other sister hooks up with her life mate we will get another dose of this? I can only hope. I would recommend this book if only it could be standalone. Until I reach the book that wraps all this stuff, I would unfortunately not recommend picking the books up here.


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Review: The Immortal Hunter

The Immortal Hunter by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book continues on with the storyline introduced in Argeneau#10/RogueHunter#1. We might have met Decker last time, but this book is all about him. What starts out as a chance to hunt down his ex-partner/now-rogue grows into something much more complicated. We meet the no-fangers (who we might have been introduced to before) and see what happens when one doesn't successfully make the change.

Decker tries to do his job, even though going after his ex-partner has to have oodles of emotional baggage along for the ride. Lucky for him, he is soon swept away in the insanity that is finding your life mate. Dani isn't exactly in the right place to be wooed when she meets Decker. Sure, he takes a few bullets for her, but her sister has just been kidnapped (again) by some crazies and they have no real way of knowing where they are going or even if she is safe. An uneasy alliance is formed between her and some people who might be less crazy than the kidnappers.

The overall story of the crazy no-fangers and the kidnapping doesn't truly get resolved at the end of this book, leaving it feeling a little unfinished. Even the romance, while we get a HEA-ish, it seemed super rushed towards the end. I'm hoping the next book in this series delivers some good tying up of loose ends because there are now a lot of characters running around that need to be tracked down. Everyone seemed entirely too good with how things are being left in a rush and I'd like to see some of them address the lives they abandoned for their life mates.

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Review: Karma

Karma by Nadine Nightingale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me from the start, with its hints, mystery, and ability to dive right into the story. There are witches, zombies, and some really evil men that round out what I would call an urban fantasy.

Amanda is a witch who has been surviving by reading cards for people. There’s some mystery around whether or not she’s evil enough to get rid of the bad guys herself, but overall she seems like a morally flexible good guy. She is actually working on turning her life into something less nomadic when her ex-boyfriend Alex shows up. He’s your typical dreamy good guy with and edge. Oh, and he also happens to have a job that gets him to hunt down witches. Obviously, when these two started “dating” they were both hiding things from one another, which probably caused an epic breakup, but we join them well after the fact.

The visions that Amanda gets are a way for us to catch up with the history between these two as well as hunt down the real bad guy(s) here. The main story (other than the scorching chemistry between Amanda and Alex) is that Alex’s brother has gone MIA after trying to hunt down a powerful voodoo practitioner to (for some reason) bargain with him. Things get a little twisty-turny after that, with some clients from Amanda’s past and lots and lots of secrets being kept. I am 99% sure I figured everything bout about halfway through the book, but even by the end you don’t get a true confirmation of your predictions. For a starting book, this one sure has me hooked and dying for book 2. How long do I have to wait??


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Review: Jason

Jason by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I accidentally skipped this book while reading the rest (probably because it was so short and not really critical to following the next book). Is this even a full book? I’m not sure the page count is accurate because I read it in a handful of hours, with interruption.

This book follows Anita as she helps Jason out in his relationship with JJ. While that was the initial intent of the events, they end up showing Anita that she really has no business dating Jade. Girl-on-girl doesn’t do it for me, so the book was a little boring in that respect. Otherwise, not a lot of actual story got discussed. Sure, JJ and Jason come out of the book as a stronger couple. Anita and JJ have some good hooking up. Nathanial gets to enjoy some time in the bedroom, too. All of this is pretty “normal” for Anita so without the bad guys and guns it read as a short story.


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Review: Kitty Goes to War

Kitty Goes to War by Carrie Vaughn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I took a really long break between books in this series and was not quite sure where I left off. If you are in the same boat – don’t worry! These books are almost like standalones at this point, with enough backstory and reminders to keep even me up-to-date.

This book has two main story lines. The first story deals with Kitty and her radio show getting her into trouble (again). After years of being on the air, she is finally sued by the owner of “Speedy Mart” after talking about their possible supernatural ties. Some deaths and detective work later, Kitty might actually be on to something. Oh, and there’s the fact that his guy seems to be suspiciously located near big storms.

The second story deals with a secret group of army werewolves. The NIH reaches out to Kitty to try helping some soldiers who recently returned from Afghanistan as something more than human. Throw in some PTSD, the loss of their alpha, and wild pack dynamics and even Kitty isn’t sure she can help. But, being Kitty, she of course has to try (and beat herself up about any failures along the way). While we get some visits from pack members and there are some mysterious happenings, this story was pretty self-contained. On top of that, it was a super quick read, which inspires me to pick the next one up.


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