Fangs, Fate, & Mondays

Fangs, Fate, & Mondays by Hayley Reese Chow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m not sure what I expected from the blurb and cover, but this book really surprised me. It is definitely building a world that feels enormous so we better get some future books to pay this all off!

Dessa left town a while ago to get away from a lot of things - her best friend being murdered, the guilt of having set her friend group on the path for that trauma, and all the ghosts that come from that. After her life implodes, she crawls back to town only to be offered a job at the paranormal office that she swore off when she left. Tasked with leading a very strange team of folks in even more strange and secret vampire, werewolf, and magical investigations, she also ends up with an intern.

Jamison was never in the magical know in town, so was not part of Dessa’s friend circle growing up. His family, however, has been struck with a curse that has opened his eyes. It doesn’t hurt that he gets the intern offer to work with his crush from high school, but he’s more than happy to add value somewhere. He can’t openly talk about his curse (part of his curse) but being surrounded by those in the know lifts some of the burden off him. It turns out he is kind of good at this job, too.

The larger story is a bit of a detective mystery that involves all the paranormal factions, a missing girl, some big betrayal, and somehow a bird, too. All of the excitement definitely bonds Jamison and Dessa, but we don’t get a big HEA so don’t get your hopes up - slow burn all the way. At the end we get a nice step forward but there are enough unknowns to keep it interesting.

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Just my blood type

Just My Blood Type by Katherine Dyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book can definitely be read as a standalone, because I honestly forgot this was part of a series until part-way through.

Florence is a vampire who works at a lab facility drawing human blood. Clique? Maybe, but it obviously works and is a great source of discard blood to consume. Her immortality has been difficult and she’s still not over her long lost love. Quinn is impulsive and has just gotten out of a marriage that was probably not the right idea for him. He has been spending a majority of his life diving into things with his whole self, but now he’s determined to take a step back and think. That lasts about two minutes before he meets Florence.

For Florence, seeing Quinn is like seeing a ghost of her long lost love. They are related, which is weird, but give it a. Chance. These two begin their friendship determined not to take it anywhere else, but some startling vampire-adjacent news ups the timeline for them taking chances on love again. This book was sweet, sad, sexy, and fun. It didn’t take itself too seriously, and I love that for a good paranormal romance.

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A Curse of Beasts and Magic

A Curse of Beasts and Magic by Jeaniene Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gosh, this was a really great book. It had all sorts of unique elements and some very familiar dynamics all rolled into a world I want more of.

I knew I should just trust that this author would delivery a fun mix of smutty goodness, dark paranormal characters, and a series that you quickly get addicted to. I can’t believe I have to wait so long for book 2 - but I’m getting ahead of myself. What’s this book about? We start with Raine, a bit of a nomad ever since becoming “infected” with a beast (à la Venom). She’s found a sort of balance by working in the ER and siphoning fear from there into the “beast” but she’s also redirecting some of that power to heal patients to. It’s that activity that has her trolling the streets for bad guys to feed off of when she gets sucked into Remy’s world saving a relative of his.

Remy’s public face is one of a successful investor, wealthy hotel owner, and eternal bachelor. Underneath, he’s the Warden of the area and he’s angry that Raine has snuck in under his radar but also thankful she could be the answer to at least some of the mystery around this latest attack. I can’t have loved this dynamic Remy and Raine have more - it was very reminiscent of other paranormal pairs that I also adore. There’s a healthy level of smutty goodness but also some fun hints of something more peppered throughout.

I should note that while the cover seems to make this book out to be high fantasy, it very much fit into my paranormal romance category. There’s a good blending of fantastic worlds and creatures with a very gritty city vibe. This book just barely resolved a messy, bloody, insane feud, leaving us with a lot to dive into for future books. I can’t wait!

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Mermaid Mimosa

Mermaid Mimosa by Gina LaManna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very satisfying ending to this 8 book series. It ends with even more world-building in the form of the mermaids, but does manage to tie together all the folks we’ve met along the way.

At the end of the last book we knew Lily’s life was about to get complicated again (or continue to be complicated?). What should have been a relaxing day ended up getting Lily pulled into some mermaid drama. Their king was poisoned and an uprising is brewing - building on some clues from the previous installment. Why can’t Ranger X be the one who fixes all this? Well, it of course requires a single person to eat a strawberry tasting thing to breathe underwater then detective out the type of poison so they can brew an antidote.

Pulling that together with some very random breakup hijinks, while also managing her Liam and daddy issues, Lily does a great job multi-tasking. There’s a lot of pull through from previous books, showing that it was worth it, how we got here. One missing element that bothered me until the very last page? X’s family! We met a powerful spell-maker yet we never use him in any capacity and I can’t tell if they even resolved that divide in the end. Bummer. All the other elements, thought, perfect. Every character gets to help fix the future and build a very satisfying end for them all.

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Magic Julep

Magic Julep by Gina LaManna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These books are such a unique little treat. Each time, they give me something new and exciting - light, but with real issues underneath that make it darker than your usual binge-reading.

In this installment (almost the end?!?!) Lily’s world grows even further. We are introduced to the royal courts when she gets an invitation to dinner with the royal family of one of the courts. It is, of course, just a cover for them to ask for her help. Their kingdom has been cursed into eternal winter and they can’t survive much longer. As if Lily needed more on her plate - isn’t she supposed to be getting married at some point? The mysterious quilter shows up again, sort-of apologizing but also throwing another wrench in Lily’s life plans.

As usual, we get a huge set of new world-building, side quests, misdirection, and mystery rolled into only a few days of Lily’s extraordinary life. Her dad drama sort-of gets mostly resolved in this one in an OK way, Ranger X sort-of gets the talking to he needs to get about his hypocrisy when it comes to Lily taking risks, and we get the mystery tied up in a neat bow. The happy ending here was surprising but I’ll take it. Since we are so close to the end here, I’m willing to forgive some shortcuts to Lily’s HEA.

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Love at First Bite

Love at First Bite by Katherine Dyson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was such a fun read. I loved the opposites attract setup here and all the gothy goodness made it even better. It had that light, playful feel that makes a book easy to fall into, but there was still enough going on to keep it from feeling too fluffy.

What I really liked was that it kept surprising me. Just when I thought I knew what kind of story I was getting, it would shift a little and keep things interesting. And that ending was so satisfying, which always bumps a book up for me. This one just left me happy, and sometimes that is exactly what I want from a romance.

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Dragon King

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

I love these bite sized stories that let you spend a little more time in a bigger world without asking for a huge commitment. The romance does move quickly here, but in something this short I can forgive that pretty easily, especially when I already know where the larger story is headed.

What made this one especially interesting for me was reading it with the benefit of knowing where everything ends up. It is always fun to go back and see the earlier pieces falling into place and spot the little things that matter more later. This felt more like an in-between step than a fully standalone story, but I still had a good time with it and was glad to fill in that part of the journey.

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