The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne 5 Star

Title:	The Duke With the Dragon Tattoo
Author:	Kerrigan Byrne
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperback
Series:	Victorian Rebels
Genre:	Historical Romance, Victorian
Publish Date:	August 28, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	384
Ages:	18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

I am getting to continue my current dragon theme with The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo. This was another NetGalley ARC that I received that I am delayed to read. Super thankful for the opportunity I was given to read this pirate-themed romance.

I have never read a book by Kerrigan Byrne before. I am completely new to the Victoria Rebels Series. So I just want to let you know that you can absolutely pick this up and roll with it. There is zero confusion about other characters in the world. This could very well be a beginning to the series if I didn't know any better. It is written so fantastically. I don't have a wonderous vocabulary like a lot of other reviewers. I am not in denial about that. So there were so many words that I get to add to my vocabulary because of this book. Kerrigan Byrne did a fantastic job, of keeping the Victorian feel by using words that would fit into that time period. Instead of just saying "if she had her preference, the word that was used was druthers. There are tons of little words like that that I appreciated. I have read a Victorian style book and the words used are too close to current time.

I enjoyed this book so much not just because of the personal gain with the vocab, but because of the change for the characters. You have a physically weak and nurturing woman who grows to be strong and commanding a little by the end. You have a man who has lost his memories of his younger years and is only left with memories of pain, torture, being a slave traded off to the highest bidder. He has created a hard life for himself as a pirate. He had become almost revered as a god to his crew because of how ruthless he was. The self-discovery for each character takes a well-planned path.

I think the only thing that I didn't care for was how Lorelei acted the same as she didn't when they were younger. If felt like an infatuation. Although she claimed to have grown up from the abuse from her brother, she still had a girl feel to her. I would have liked her to show a little more of her confidence a little earlier.****Spoiler**** There is another part to her adult character that I didn't like also. It felt like it was put there to add a little extra to a scene but it didn't really have to be there. The fainting I could have lived without. It happened once, and her sister in law said that it happened all the time. And why wasn't her afraid later to make her faint again. I guess if it was later and he had a thought maybe one or two more times like "what if I cause her to faint"... I might have bought it a little better.

This is a great Victorian style read. If you like pirates and whispy shy women,

 this is a perfect book for you. 

Check out below for a Free Sample of The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo by Kerrigan Byrne.

Dragonfire by Donna Grant 5 ✭

Title:	Dragonfire
Author:	Donna Grant
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series:	Dark Kings
Genre:	Romance, Paranormal Fantasy, Shifter
Publish Date:	October 30, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	400
Ages:	18+

Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

I was lucky to receive an ARC of Dragonfire from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. 

Dragonfire begins with a girl talking to her grandmother about her mom taking her away from her gypsy family. They have gifts and the family has been hiding a secret. For generations, the story of why they're on the run is passed down. There was a dragon king who had a magnificent battle sword. But one of the gypsies saw that he would use that sword to kill all the people in the village. So six families took waited and stole the sword from him, and split up. Always on the run. That is just the prologue too. 

That was right before Sabina and her family to leave the caravan because townspeople were after them and murdered her father. Her grandmother had the "Sight" and could see the future. It was a gift that was passed down through the family lines. Both Sabina and her brother have the Sight. Now Sabina and her half-brother live alone in the country. The rest of the gypsy family have moved on. Sabina and her brother Camlo also have the Sight. Camlo can communicate with animals and is gifted with wood. But even though he has grown to the size of a man, he has kept the mind of a child. Camlo is an important character in the story, and I just adored him. Sabina was a strong character too. She has to change within the book. Her fears end up being used against her, and there is a little twist/reveal. I like her, I want more of her and Roman. I honestly wished the book didn't end. 

Roman is a whole lotta hunk. The book starts with V and Roman going to Romania where V, aka Vlad, use to rule to search for his sword. Well, that's where Sabina and Camlo are at, so the obviously run into each other. This part made me adore Camlo because of his childlike excitement of knowing who the Dragon Kings are. As it continues we see more Druid and Fae involvement and that they need to search Roman's homeland, Iceland. This is where it gets all Indiana Jones with magic. Maybe not quite Indie, but it's the best example I could think of at the moment.

We get like one scene with Con and Rhi development. It isn't enough. It's just enough to tease. Whenever they get their book it better be 600 pages and amazing. I am glad there isn't too much bouncing around to other side plots in the world. This really focuses on Roman, V, Sabina, Camlo. I think V's sword is such an important part of the world that you need to focus on them and the challenges that they face. 

I loved this book. It was hot and it was serious. Fire & Ice indeed. If you decided to just pick this up off a shelf you wouldn't be too lost. There are minor references to previous books and if you haven't read them it will trip you up for like a couple pages but it's easy to move on. Like I said this focuses on a select few rather than everyone in the world. This series is really vast and I love it. I want to soak in it and just enjoy this massive world that Donna Grant has created. 

Please, do yourself a favor, check out Donna Grant's Dragonfire. Read a Free sample below without leaving the page. 

Dark Alpha's Hunger by Donna Grant 4 ✭

Title:	Dark Alpha's Hunger
Author:	Donna Grant
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series:	Reapers
Genre:	Romance, Gothic, Paranormal
Publish Date:	August 7, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	158
Ages:	18+

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

Dark Alpha's Hunger is another super short novel by Donna Grant that you can easily eat up in a day. I feel like the story here is better than my last read. This had angst, desire, passion, a quirky female main and it added a bunch of new characters to the ever growing world. I foresee more Reaper novels in the future for sure. This novel doesn't talk much about the current events in previous books, but it all fairness Eoghan has been in some terrible dark dimension. So if you were writing true to the characters feelings, yea he isn't going to be filling you in on the current state of the fight with Bran. So this book really deviates from where it felt like the story arc was going. I enjoyed this book because it was short and well written. I think that the events from this book will impact other story arcs within the world. It would be easy to do. I don't want to reveal anything, but I feel like there are a couple characters that when their books hit, fans are gonna go apeshit.

Moving on. So from what few books I have read, it seems like fae halflings have a specific power that makes them unique and one of a kind. Thea has a gift with music. She was abandoned at an orphanage as a baby and grew there her whole life. She hasn't thought about who her parents might be in a long time. So when she plays music, it just comes to her naturally, straight from her soul. She also was drawn to locations. There were childhood stones that drew her to them, and she still went to them as an adult. You know those stones in Outlander that the chick goes back in time from, yea those. So as an adult, she goes back to some stones in this one location and starts playing her violin. The music feels like its being pulled from her by the stones. Then she sees a hand reaching from her out of the dark entrance to the stones. This hand becomes a body as she helps pull him out, and reveals Eoghan. He heard her enchanting music and followed it out of that nightmare realm he was stuck in.

I feel like this book deserves its higher rating. I really liked this novel, it really pulls me into the world while it is expanding. I love falling in love, which I've said before. I think if I hadn't received a free ARC, I would buy it. I am really looking forward to whenever Cael gets his book. And Rhi, I want Rhi to have a book.

If you would like to check out the beginning of Dark Alpha's Hunger, you can read below without leaving the page. 

Dark Alpha's Night by Donna Grant 3 ✭

Title:	Dark Alpha's Night
Author:	Donna Grant
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperback
Series:	Reapers
Genre:	Romance, Gothic
Publish Date:	March 6, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	158
Ages:	18 +

 Rating: ✭✭✭
I want to start off with an apology. I was lucky enough to get many ARC's this year. With buying our first home, getting my daughter started with pre-k, and getting adjusted to the new routines has set me back so bad with my books. I feel disappointed in myself especially when I see that I have gotten 4 total ARC's for this series. The last one I got was released last month on the 30th. To the publishers who gave me the books, I am so sorry for the delay. With that, I have decided to knock out all of my Donna Grant books in a row. Are you guys ready? I don't think putting all three books left into one post will be a good idea. I will continue my same format for each book.

I have read a book by Donna Grant before and I really enjoyed it. I like the author, so when I had an opportunity for other ARC books by her, um... hell yeah. After a little bit, I realized that this is a HUGE world, and all the different series that Donna Grant has written are connected. I love the big series. I am really wishing I got to this at the start. So I looked up the reading order for myself just so see it visually and it is easy to find on the author's website. Another author that has a huger series that I got 20 + books deep into like that is Sherrilyn Kenyon. So Donna Grant is on the list of author's that I will scoop up because dedication to a series like that makes me happy. 

Picking up a book when it's in the middle of the series is risky. You don't know if you're going to be missing out on a bunch of backstories for the characters you're reading about. You don't know if there are attributes to the characters that were mentioned before. I know I have said similarly before since this isn't my first starting somewhere other than the start. However, I have at least read a book from the world that this book belongs too. So I'm not totally lost. If you wanted to pick this up without reading the previous books, I think you would be fine. This isn't Donna Grant's first rodeo connecting readers to previous books. Dark Alpha's Night is thankfully one of those where chapter one gives you a quick breakdown of the world from Daire, one of the main characters, POV. So you get a feel for his personality and what the first four books involved. Who has coupled up in the previous books, and who have they been fighting? It really only gets into the Reapers series previous info, but there is mention to the other series that are connected. The Reaper's are working to defeat Bran, a former Reaper, in their series. Bran is trying to kill Death for revenge. There is a rule that since Reapers are the fae executioners, another fae can't know about them. The consequence is the fae who knows about the Reapers is killed. Now Bran has a special sort of rage since most of the Reapers are now paired up with someone. Each booth Bran finds a sort of loophole to siphon Death's power from her, and he is close to killing her in this book. Bran discovers a new loophole which leads him to Ettie and her two sisters. They are his descendants from his time before he was a Reaper.

Ettie is the bland sister out of the three. She is pretty but not as astounding as the other two. Each sister has a gifted characteristic that they get from their half fae lineage. Carrie has like a chef power, lol. Jamie is brilliant with mechanical things. Ettie doesn't know what her quality is till later. The only thing she knows that sets her apart is she's a better fighter. Her father told them about the fae and told them to train and prepare. Which is what he was told. So her good fighting in her mind is just from her dedication. Daire was sort of boring to me. He seemed bland, and that isn't bad because these two seemed more like a normal person you would meet on the street. Not overly brooding, or any of those typical steamy romance guys. I appreciate that every now and then when it's done right. 

It looks like this is a six book series for the Reapers alone, not the whole world. That's how many it looks like so far from a quick goodreads.com check. All the books are decently priced at $3.99. It was on sale at the beginning of October so I would keep your eye out for another sale too. I would recommend this Author and her series from what I have read so far. Dark Alpha's Night was a good story, steamy, and quick enough to get through. I can't wait to continue the series from here. 

Read below for a short free preview of Dark Alpha's Night, without leaving the page. 

Now or Never Moment: Omnibus by Katie Kaleski 2 ✭

Title:	The Now or Never Moment: Omnibus
Author:	Katie Kaleski
Genre:	Teen, Young Adult, Depression, Mental Illness
Publish Date:	January 23, 2018
Sold by:	Amazon Digital Services LLC
Pages:	481
Ages:	Teen

Rating: ✭✭

Shelby is getting ready to go off to college and her best friend hands her a package. She is to not open it until she is happy with her life away at college. The omnibus is set up with two perspectives. Shelby is a present day and Tanner in the past. In the package, Tanner is telling Shelby how the past events and their friendship has gotten to where it is now. You become emotionally invested in Tanner and what the future holds for him.

It touches a lot of different topics like bullying, suicide, and depression. These things could be hard to read about. When I was in school, I was bullied. So these things matter to me. It touches so close to home. Eating lunch in the bathroom, crying every day after school, but trying to hide it from everyone because you just know deep down (or think you know) that no matter what nothing will change. If I had talked to the right person, I might have learned what I know now about those miserable days. Now I know how much those times shaped me to understand others better, but also how to be true to myself and my feelings. Let's be honest here, I am over 30 now and some of my high school situations still pop up in my head and haunt me. That's why bullying is such an important topic. So I think this book really helps you feel for Tanner and what he goes through. I think this book did a good job with that.

I did have some problems with the book. I feel like scene transitions were rough, especially for Shelby scenes. It felt like there was no transition at all. It was better when you were reading Tanner's well thought out letter to Shelby. The best way I can explain it is sometimes when reading through a chain of scenes for Shelby, I couldn't visualize what was going on right. It ended up feeling a little like reading stick figures. This really brought the story down for me. It may have even come out better without those scenes altogether. I don't know. I'm not the best writer myself. Or maybe with a younger generation, those scenes for Shelby were just right.

If you have Kindle Unlimited this is a Freebie that you can pick up. It's only $1.99 if you don't have Kindle Unlimited and wanted to give it a try. I think that this is a very moving story. I personally just thought it was ok and that it may appeal to a much younger generation who is fine just the base story meaning. 

Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope 3 ✭

Title:	Song of Blood & Stone
Author:	L. Penelope
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Series:	Earthsinger Chronicles
Genre:	Romance, Fantasy
Publish Date:	May 1, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	384
Ages:	18+

 Rating: ✭✭✭

Within the first few paragraphs of the prologue, I felt like this would be an amazing read. It was like poetry in the prologue and it felt like it was setting this big amazing tone for the story. However, the prologue is about the lore of the world and the rest of the book isn't quite like that. I like the different concepts in the book and I liked it overall.

Jasminda is a tough and unique in a world that looks down on her. She has Earthsinger powers which originated as something beautiful but has devolved over the years. There is a mythology created for this world that I liked. This world is divided into two countries. Honestly, at the start, I was a little confused about which side was what. I think that’s because of her location geologically in the world, but also her bi-racial heritage. I feel like this could have been done a little better in the beginning. So her father is from Lagrimar where the Earthsinger magic seems to be located, and her mother was Elsira. She lived in Elsira but right on the border. The two countries had been in multiple wars up to this point in the story. Jasminda has a little of the Earthsinger power, healing, emotion reading, etc. Her family is gone and she is alone trying to keep her family's land. With the deadline coming up for her to pay her taxes owed, her world gets complicated. While walking home she sees a man laying wounded in the road and heals him some with her powers. He ends up being captured and she rescues him. The man is Jack, an Elsira soldier.

The romance between them is young, but it isn’t for a teen to read. Jasminda is twenty-two if I remember correctly, so they are in the new adult age group. When they’re touching hands is still “tingly” and all that. That isn’t a terrible thing. It just isn't what I was expecting when I started reading the book. I love the cover. It is stunning and vibrant like the world that was built. I just wish there was more world building to read about. I would love to hear more about the looks and feels of the world. 

You can check out a Free sample of Song of Blood & Stone below without leaving the page. 

Darkest Night by Tara Thomas 3 ✭

Title:	Darkest Night
Author:	Tara Thomas
Publisher:	St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series:	Sons of Broad
Genre:	Romantic Suspense, Thriller
Publish Date:	February 27, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	352
Ages:	18+

Rating: ✭✭✭

Now, I am still trying to catch up on all the books I have requested from NetGalley. I love that site. I love getting copies of books to read. I love reading. This, as you can see, was released a while ago but I am going to continue to read through what I requested.

Darkest Night is the start of a romantic suspense series by Tara Thomas that takes place in Charleston. The series features one of three brothers romance in each of the books. While I am writing this, there are only three books in the series, and I haven’t researched to see if there are plans to go beyond that. Their family is being targeted by someone trying to destroy the Benedicts. 

The first book is the introduction. So you usually try to give it a little to help build up the story, but they rushed the first 25% of this book. It is all murder chaos, rushed character introductions, and few descriptions of what's going on. Most of it feels like just conversations.  

It starts with Tilly Brock and Keaton Benedict. They were best friends throughout childhood and first loves until they charged her father with embezzling funds from the Benedict‘s family company. At that point, it gets weird with the writing style. Keaton’s mother told him Tilly and her family moved to Texas, and he never contacted Tilly again. She was even hinting for him to date another family’s daughter, Elise, right after. There is only a handful of mentions about the embezzlement scandal and it leads you to believe it was a mistake. It doesn’t touch that plotline at all after those few sentences. Then Elise moving in and practically promised to Keaton because her father worked with his father. Apparently, marriage is all business then. That character felt odd, because she was angry and vindictive, but turns out to be a throwaway character in a bizarre turn of events. It felt clunky and thrown in for some hopeful intrigue. Not to mention there is a murderer who is targeting Tilly specifically. Why because she knew the Benedicts almost 10 years ago…. what… like she is from the deep past childhood, why is she a lynchpin to taking the boys down? It is written like the killer intended for Tilly and Keaton to meet, but they wrote the scene like a random meeting. There are so many random plot things in the book. The murders, a family affair with a half-sister, there is a mastermind with minions who murder. I think there is a human trafficking element.

I want to touch beyond the story and hit the characters a little here too. Keaton is supposed to be this “notorious bachelor” but he feels like just some random college kid in a rich family. The family doesn’t feel like they are as famous as that label suggests. Maybe one of the other brothers would fit that description better, but beyond their own household, they don‘t feel like they are that renown to the community. They really could just be any slightly rich people. It just added to the rough feeling of the story.

There is a lot of unanswered questions left in this book. The writing got better as the story progressed. It ends well to lead you into the next book(s) I feel. I just don‘t know if it is a strong enough start to pull people in for the whole series. I almost quit myself at the start. There are issues with the story I have, but again, that will hopefully be resolved in the future books. I’m just not sure if I am interested enough to try and finish it. I try to push through tough points in books. I am glad I did it with this book. I appreciate this story, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. 

If you would like to take a look at the start of Tara Thomas' Darkest Night, you can click below to read a sample without leaving the page. 

Colllision Point by Lora Leigh 4 ✭

Title:	Collision Point
Author:	Lora Leigh
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Series:	Brute Force (#1)
Genre:	Romantic Suspense, Military Romance
Publish Date:	February 27, 2018
Sold by:	Macmillan
Pages:	331
Ages:	18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

I’m always nervous about starting a book series that is a spin-off without reading the original that it came from. Thankfully, this never seemed like a spin-off because all the information to understand the story is there for you to read. That made this an easy beginning to a new world for me. Which is funny because my notes from reading the book completely contradict how I started this post. I know how that sounds, but bear with me, the confusion there seems like that is completely authors intention here. 

See Amara is like a Russian crime lords daughter. At the start of the book, someone breaks her body while she was being held captive. Then as she is weak, she gets rescued. So my first thought while I was reading and as she is seeing people she knows are rescuing her. On top of that, she is already completely in love with one, Riordan. During the rescue, she knows it is a trap that is meant to kill Riordan. So as they are escaping, she trying to warn him of the trap and he gets shot carrying her. As they are making their escape on the helicopter, Amara hears that Riordan is dying from one of the men helping with the rescue. He dies but comes back a time or two. Amara wakes up completely forgetting him and a bunch of stuff from the past year. So you get to read the journey while she rediscovers her love for him. Amara forgets a lot, from meeting him on to waking up in the hospital was completely gone. She couldn’t remember any of it. There is only one thing that she remembers and it is an intense loss. She lost someone that day.

Flash over to Riordan because he isn’t just a hunk of meat to throw at the reader to enjoy super hot romps. I mean he is in a way but... Anyway; he is a good a good Irish boy that has a family attribute that is magical. It’s not actual magic but it might as well be labeled that way. Basically, Malone men if they have the soulful Irish eyes and when they fall in love with their one soulmate, they have this intense bond with them. It reminds me of a bond you find in some vampire romances. Where they instinctively know how the other is feeling or thinking. Oh, they also connect to each other through dreams and nightmares too. It’s called “finding their way” which I like. I like that it has its own family legacy to it.

Having that soulful connection and her memory loss was a strong way to explain that soul connection that they share. There are few surprises that I feel were predictable and then some I didn’t expect. I didn’t see it going that way. The whole journey through the book was good as she rediscovered her memories and her love and loss. I really like the book and how well the whole story was written out. 

Now I have heard Lora Leigh over the years and I know that she has tons of books but I have never read one. If I have it was so long ago that I completely forgot the story. Although I really don’t think I have. So my opinion is this is a pretty good book with a little mystery and “magic”. I’m calling it magic.

If you would like to read the beginning of Collision Point by Lora Leigh for free, you can click below. You won’t even have to leave the page. 

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones 4 ✭

Title:	Wintersong
Author:	S. Jae-Jones
Publisher:	Thomas Dunne Books
Series:	Wintersong
Genre:	Young Adult, Dark Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Publish Date:	February 7, 2017
Sold by:	St. Martin's Press
Pages:	448
Ages:	Teen

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

Wintersong leaves you feeling open. Your base emotions felt. You have a bewitching enchantment. S. Jae-Jones wrote some really cool scenes that feel spooky but completely captivating. This is for a person who appreciates someone having an actual style to their writing. 

This haunting romantic tale reminds me of older horror novels. The ones that lead you on a trail into their enigmatic world. I guess it starts with the world building right. There are key scenes in the book that are unforgettable. For example when Liesl can’t find her sister in the market, or when she finds her sister eating a forbidden fruit in the goblin grove. You could almost feel the juices from the fruit yourself just reading about it. There are so many little pieces that make it the story such a good read. The confusion Liesl feels, and the reader’s anxiety knowing what she has forgotten. Their grandmother’s constant reminder of the tales of the Goblin King.

The characters are set in a different time than us. It is distant but not so distant that it isn’t relatable in Germany. Which that caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting that, but I found it appealing. They have a drunk for a father and a nagging mother. There are three siblings in total. The older daughter is the prized beauty to be sold off into an arranged marriage. The younger, Liesl, is to watch after her old sister and sort of end up the old maid. There is a brother who relies heavily on Liesl’s support to maintain his confidence.

Overall I couldn’t be happier with reading this novel. It was thrilling for me. I always love a bit of romance to my stories. I really liked that this wasn’t as cookie cutter as I was expecting when I initially read the blurb. I am very thankful to have received an ARC copy to enjoy.

You can check out a preview of Wintersong below without leaving the page.

Consumed by J.R. Ward 4 ✭

Title:	Consumed
Author:	J.R. Ward
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Series:	Firefighters
Genre:	Romance, Mystery, Suspense
Publish Date:	October 2, 2018
Sold by:	Simon and Schuster
Pages:	416
Ages:	18 +

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

Thank you Gallery Books for giving me this ARC copy of consumed. Reading Consumed was like coming home. When you read a book, and you easily enjoy the complexity of each individual character instantly for however brief the introduction you get to them, you know that it is going to be a good series. To me, it felt like meeting a new set of characters with that same quality of the OG Black Dagger Brotherhood characters.  I say OG BDB because I haven't read the last few books and I lost a little interest in them. I want to continue but it isn't high on the list. This makes me not a superfan but a fan. So when I say I have that original feeling of expectation to a great new series, I mean it.

There are a ton of good characters that get some screen time here. It isn't just a story about Anne and Danny, although their story is amazing, you don't have to focus on them. This is a whole crew of people who all have their own life problems. So seeing everyone in this world interact through the rest of the series as it comes out should be really good. They're all relatable in their own ways, and if you can't relate, you understand the character type in general.

One of the things that I really liked was reading J.R. Ward's acknowledgments section in her new book. She wrote about how she worked with police and fire while there were working. It sounds like they gave her some job shadowing time to help her learn more about the careers behind her characters. They answered her questions and got to see their selfless heroism, her words not mine, in action. I think that truly helped her story feel even more real. You get the feeling of pride in what they do, but also that they're regular guys/gals who are just doing their job.

I really recommend Consumed. It is a great beginning to a series. It isn't drawn out building a world or characters, they develop as you go. The cliffhanger is just enough that you want to continue the plot without having to stress out about it until whenever the next one is. I personally appreciate this. I hate when books leave you with more questions than answers. Thankfully this doesn't do that.

 Consumed is slated to release on October 2, 2018. The prices at the time of this review are $12.99 for Kindle, $17.70 for the Hardcover.