Ruthless (Immortal Enemies #2) by Gena Showalter

Forbidden. Powerful. Ruthless. 
Micah the Unwilling, fae King of the Forgotten, can tame even the most violent of beasts. Forged on the battlefield, this iron-willed warrior considers his soldiers his family, and he will stop at nothing to reclaim their dispossessed land. Gearing for war with a sadistic enemy, he is disciplined and focused—until a feral beauty he encountered long ago wanders into his camp. 
Viori de Aoibheall wields a terrifying ability to sing monsters to life. Having spent her childhood in a forest, raising herself and her frightening creations—the only friends she’s ever known—she’s ill prepared for the scarred royal and his fearsome brutality. Not to mention the ferocity of their connection and the carnality of his touch. But the real problem? Her brother is Micah’s greatest foe. And though the sensual king makes her burn, she must stop him, whatever the cost.

Anyone want to take a guess about which book I read in the Immortal Enemies series first? I’m on quite a “reading out of order” streak, but in the case of Ruthless, I think it gave me an entirely different reading experience than if I had read Heartless first. Not that I’m recommending that anyone else follow my bad example, but not meeting Kaysar and Chantel in Heartless before reading Ruthless made things…interesting and a lot harder to tell the “good” guys from the “bad”. Of course, when you’re dealing with the Fae, it’s never easy to tell.

Vi and Micah had a complicated relationship – even before they officially met. They both had their secrets, that they each had good reason to keep. That, among a host of other things, made a relationship between this unlikely pair almost impossible. Honestly, even after reading Ruthless, I have no idea how it happened – there was just so much stacked against them.

Enemies disguised as allies and allies disguised as enemies – it became hard to keep track. That along with magic and a heated romance definitely kept the pages turning. I’m kinda hoping that there’s more to come, but in the mean time, I need to go back and spend some quality time with Kaysar and Chantel in Heartless.

On a Midnight Clear by Lily Morton

It can safely be said that Lord Barnaby Greenwood is not having the best of Christmases.
He’s penniless, up to his eyeballs in debt, and about to lose his estate. Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that when a local property developer offers a lot of money to buy King’s Wood from him, Barnaby is very tempted. But his father had always impressed on him that the green wood was sacred and must be protected at all costs, so he finds himself saying no.
He knows this will result in the loss of his home, but duty comes before everything. However, that fateful decision leads instead to a magical Christmas for Barnaby, complete with an old god who grants him a favour, and a beautiful statue that comes to life.
Cosmo is perfect for him. He’s funny and kind and completely enraptured with Barnaby, and for the first time in his life, Barnaby falls in love. But how can this lead to anything but heartache, when on the last stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, Cosmo will go back to being a statue and take Barnaby’s heart with him?

This is my first read by this author, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be my last. On a Midnight Clear was a sweet Holiday romance full of humor, magic and hope. Some of my favorite things 😉

Barnaby was down on his luck, but he wasn’t about to take the easy way out. He knew in his heart that selling King’s Wood wasn’t in the best interest of anyone, especially not the property itself. He knew that there was something special about the Wood, but he had no idea exactly how special or magical it really was. Not until he was visited by an old god and a statue that was special to him in a lot of ways came to life. It was all too good to be true and as much as he enjoyed his time with Cosmo, he dreaded the end of the short time that they had together.

Cosmo cared about Barnaby just as much and he was also dreading the end of their time together.He knew much more about exactly what that end meant than Barnaby did, but whatever time he had to bring joy to Barnaby was worth the pain of leaving him. Cosmo introduced Barnaby to the magic that had surrounded him all of his life. I adored the way this story unfolded and wasn’t surprised at all at how it ended. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who wants to experience a story full of magic and a sweet HEA. ❤

Dead in the Water (Gemini #1) written by Hailey Edwards; narrated by Stephanie Einstein

Camille Ellis is the Earthen Conclave’s golden girl. Her peculiar talent solves cases with a touch. She isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty, but every bright star casts a shadow, and her deepest scars lurk just beneath the skin. 
A routine consultation goes sideways when a victim’s brother gets involved in the investigation. Riding the edge of grief, the warg will go to any lengths to avenge his sister’s death. Even if it means ensuring Cam’s cooperation at the jaws of his wolf. 
When the killer strikes again, Cam is caught between a warg and a hard place. To save the next victim, she must embrace her past. Even if it means dragging her darkest secrets into the light of day. 

Dead in the Water is the first book in Hailey Edwards’ Gemini series and I love the world building so far. It includes a mix of Shifters and Fae and a lot of politics on both sides. Neither species trust the other, which makes Camille and Cord working together more than a little complicated. Especially when you add to that the attraction that at least Camille is trying really hard to ignore.

Both of these characters are also more than a little broken. Cord’s loss is fresh and right on the surface, but Camille’s is just as painful and something that she lives with every day. They have to put that pain aside and find a way to solve the mystery of who or what is killing young women before they find their next victim. The mystery, danger, suspense are enough to keep the pages turning, along with the growing attraction between Camille and Cord. The supporting characters were great as well. The story’s far from over at the end of the final chapter, which means that Head Above Water was listened to before this review was written and the rest of the Gemini series (and maybe a few others from this author) have already made it to my TBR list.

The only thing better than finding a new Urban Fantasy is discovering that it’s part of a series. The only thing better than that is finding out that the new series that you just discovered is a spin-off of another series. Yes, I may have a serious reading addiction, but hey, there are worse vices out there, right? 😉

Days Gone Bad (Vesik #1) by Eric R. Asher

A crashed wedding. A scorned vampire. Here comes the blood…
Necromancer Damian Vesik is no hero. At least, not according to the magical community that turns a blind eye to his battles against evil. So he chalks it up as one more thankless mission when he’s forced to stop his vampire sister from murdering her ex’s entire bridal party…
Infiltrating the ceremony to protect the innocent, Damian uncovers something even more sinister than a massacre. With the help of his berserker fairy friend, he may need to prevent an unholy union between ancient demons and the walking dead. 
Damian has one chance to stop his sister and ruin the wedding before one hell of an afterparty dooms the world. 

I’ve been aware of this series for a while now, so I’m not exactly sure what’s taken me so long to pick it up. I read Days Gone Bad as part of a collection of the first three books in the series. It didn’t take me long to get caught up in this crazy world created by Eric R. Asher, so I’ve definitely put an end to my procrastination. 😉

I kinda have a thing for anti-heroes. They’re usually just a little bit broken and their inner voice is brutally honest with themselves. Somehow it makes those characters a little more real, even if they’re fight agains supernatural evil. One book in and I’m pretty sure that Damian Vesik is that kind of guy. He’s already proven that he doesn’t always do the “right” thing, even if at the time he’s convinced it’s for the “right” reasons. He’s surrounded himself with a motley crew of supernatural allies and a few human ones as well.

A lot happens in Days Gone Bad and the story does go off in several tangents. I kind of liked the chaos though and it’s clear by the end of Days Gone Bad that there’s much more to come. Good thing I have Wolves at the River Stone and Winter’s Demon ready and waiting. (At the time I wrote this review, I had already read Wolves at the River Stone, so stay tuned.) And on a whim, I picked up the audio collection of Vesik: The Dufris Years – so yeah, I’d say that procrastination thing has definitely been rectified. 😉

The Elven King’s Forever (Fated Elves #4) by Devon Vesper

Can two enemies work together to save the one person they both love?
After all this time, Dustin’s transformation is nearly complete, and his happy ending is so close he can almost see it. His wedding is fast approaching, and he’s about to start school. He has his future, his lover, and his friends, and he at last believes that he can truly have it all.
Meanwhile, their old nemesis lurks in the shadows, ready to destroy any happiness Casersis might have. They knew Bradley is dangerous, but no one is prepared when he makes his move and kidnaps Dustin.
In order to rescue Dustin, Casersis must work with his old adversary, Erastus. They both love the almost-elf in very different ways, and if they can’t set aside thousands of years of hate, it’s Dustin who will pay the ultimate price.

As a book reviewer, there’s nothing worse than being behind in your reviews, unless you suddenly realize that you’re farther behind in your reviews than you thought you were. Yikes! Sadly, that’s exactly where I found myself this morning, so now, I’m scrambling to catch up.

That being said, I’m not sure how The Elven King’s Forever slipped through the proverbial cracks. It definitely wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy the final book in the series. However, this book more than any of the others, made me wish that I had started from the beginning of the Fated Elves series instead of starting with The Elven King’s Love. I still plan on rectifying that oversight by picking up The Elven King’s Captive… eventually. It’s not that I was totally lost, it’s just that the more I read in the series, the more I realized that I was definitely missing something. The author did a good job of filling in the blanks, it was more that I missed the emotion, connections and even drama that brought all the characters to where they were by the end of the series.

Speaking of which, a lot happened in The Elven King’s Forever. Some of it was mentioned in the description, so knowing the “who” behind the danger wasn’t necessarily giving anything away. Especially given the events that took place in The Elven King’s Promise. It was more the “why” behind those actions.

Dustin had a lot of patience with Cas when it came to his feelings about Erastus. It seemed that Cas experienced even more back sliding in The Elven King’s Forever. Enough that even I started to lose patience with him at times. The center of this story was love and forgiveness. Lessons that evidently are even harder to learn when you have several lifetimes to try to get over the pain of loss. The Elven King’s Forever eventually got there though and it was a satisfying end to the series.

A Bargain of Blood & Gold (Midnight Guardians #1) by Kristin Jacques

A novice hunter with a mission. A five-hundred-year-old vampire with a strong sense of irony. A town plagued by creatures in need of saving.
When Johnathan Newman arrives in Cress Haven, the last thing he expects is for his life to be irrevocably changed. Sent by a clandestine league of vampire hunters to investigate a string of murders, signs point to a vampire lurking amid the townsfolk. Johnathan’s attempt to enlist the locals leads him to an unlikely partnership with Vic, the town’s most eligible, enigmatic bachelor.
As the pair work to solve the mystery, Vic’s secrets come back to bite him. Revealed, the vampire fights his attraction to a man trained to destroy him, while Johnathan’s emotions land him in the middle of forbidden desires. Even if Vic isn’t the murderer, how can Johnathan yearn for his natural enemy?
As Vic leads Johnathan into encounters with terrifying beings straight from children’s nightmares, Johnathan learns that not only is the world stranger than he knew, but that those he once trusted have far darker intentions that will place hunter and vampire at the center of a conflict between realms.
Cress Haven holds more sinister secrets than its resident vampire, a secret so great, it could unleash Hell itself.

So, historical fiction is not my go-to (hmm… for an eclectic reader, it seems I have a LOT of “non-go-to” genres, but that’s a conundrum for another day.) That being said, something has to pique my curiosity to make me pick one up, especially from a new to me author. In this case, it was the vampire vs. vampire hunter. With that combination, how could I resist. A Bargain of Blood and Gold turned out to be so much more than I expected. I love it when that happens 😉

Nothing about Johnathan’s first solo mission turned out to be what he expected. From the time he set foot in Cress Haven it seemed that the mission, as well as Johnathan, was doomed. The only bright spot in his arrival was Vic, but nothing that’s going on in the isolated town was exactly as it seemed and the experience was destined to turn Johnathan’s orderly life upside down.

There was plenty of action, mystery, danger and more to keep the pages turning. Add to that a strictly forbidden romance and the fact that it was hard to tell exactly where loyalties should lie, A Bargain of Blood and Gold was a hard book to put down. The adventure was far from over at the end, so it goes without saying that I can’t wait for the Midnight Guardians series to continue.

The Elven King’s Promise (Fated Elves #3) by Devon Vesper

A carefully forged peace is threatened by unforeseen danger.
The prospect of going to college terrifies Dustin, and he balks at using Casersis’s money to do it. Along with his normal, human insecurities, Dustin is beside himself between going to therapy to deal with changing species and worrying about his omega’s upcoming heat. But Dustin is unprepared for the new twist when he accidentally soulbonds with an enemy. Erastus is crazed to get Dustin away from Casersis and will stop at nothing to get his way. 
Casersis is trying his hardest to put Dustin’s mind at ease, despite not understanding the very human hang-ups getting between them. But when his public relations officer attacks him, Casersis’s worries shift from Dustin to those trying to hurt him and his alpha. 
With his mate distracted, Dustin’s new soulbond could cost his relationship with Casersis. Or—even worse—his life. 

I know that I mentioned in my review of The Elven King’s Love that I missed the first book in the Fated Elves series, The Elven King’s Captive. At the time I also mentioned that I felt like I was missing integral parts of the story (Duh!) but it wasn’t too bad and I caught on quickly. Unfortunately, I felt those “missing pieces” even more in The Elven King’s Promise. It didn’t keep me from enjoying the continuation of Cas and Dustin’s story, it was just enough to let me know that there was more to the story. So, if this review is your first introduction to the Fated Elves series and it piques your interest, do yourself a favor and start from the beginning. You can thank me later 😉

Even though Dustin and Cas have come a long in their relationship, they still have some challenges ahead of them. Trust has grown, but there are still those niggling moments of doubt. Not so much about each other, but mostly about themselves and how they stack up to their mate. Cas worries that Dustin will get bored with him and eternity and Dustin worries that he will never be enough. Plus, Dustin is still transitioning, which just adds another layer to everything else that’s going on. As if all that weren’t enough, Erastus is a force that isn’t going to go away. He cares about Dustin and despises Cas. Cas doesn’t trust Erastus either, but neither one of them know the full story about the day that changed the course of both their lives. Throw in someone within Cas’s own ranks trying to cause him harm and it’s no wonder this was a hard one to put down.

I have a feeling things are about to get really interesting. The Elven King’s Forever is next and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

If A Butterfly Don’t Fly (Out of Underhill #2) by Mell Eight

Merridy has always loved music but can’t sing. The only job in the music business he can get is as a security guard for the Bard and Sons, a premier record label. He keeps their secrets and patrols their hallways, always wishing for a big break he knows will never come.
Changeling’s Court is a brand new band struggling to record their first single. Merridy chances upon a scrap of their lyrics without accompanying music notes and can’t help composing a simple melody for them. If he’s found out, he’ll probably get fired.
Instead, he finds himself in a strange new world of magic and faeries—and danger.

I can say with confidence that If A Butterfly Don’t Fly can be read as a standalone. The only thing that you’ll miss (other than a great story) is some world building that takes place in Kelpie Blue. Although I was kind of disappointed that readers weren’t given more of Rin and Blue’s story, I have to admit that I think I may have enjoyed getting to know Merridy and his introduction to the world of magic and faeries even more. 😉

Although their is a romantic element between Merridy and Fion (one of the band members) the main focus in If A Butterfly Don’t Fly is Merridy finding his place in a world that he always wanted to be a part of, but was always out of reach. He also discovered much more than he bargained for – including a world he had no idea even existed.

Merridy’s story was sweet, but it was also full of dangers he didn’t know existed. Not knowing about them didn’t keep him safe though. Changling’s Court was much more than an up and coming band and they needed Merridy as much as he needed them.

Once again, Mell Eight has woven a beautiful fantasy and I can’t wait to read whatever she offers readers next.

The Elven King’s Love (Fated Elves #2) by Devon Vesper

Casersis has been keeping a secret. And the longer he avoids Dustin’s attempts to pry it out of him, the harder Dustin chisels away at Casersis’s resolve. Throughout this push and pull, Dustin is so bored he’s all but climbing the walls. To battle this, Casersis takes Dustin on a series of long-overdue dates, bringing them closer both emotionally and spiritually.
When Casersis finally admits his secret—that he yearns for a fabled soulbond—he’s surprised that Dustin is completely fine with the idea of eventually trying for one. But when it happens by accident, neither are prepared for the fallout. Dustin still has enough human blood that the soulbond causes excruciating, debilitating flares of agony. And if the fits don’t calm down soon, the soulbond may just kill him.

Sometimes you can get away with not starting a series with the first book, sometimes… not so much. I’d like to say “live and learn” but I’ve done it too often to think that “knowing better” will change old habits. 😉

It didn’t take me long into reading The Elven King’s Love to tell that I was missing something. Evidently The Elven King’s Captive had a lot of back story that would have been helpful in understanding how Dustin and Casersis had gotten to where they were in this book. (Duh!) It wasn’t only the relationship between the two main characters that was important, but the relationship between supporting characters and their history that would have been helpful. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the continuing story, it just means that those missing pieces were, well… missed. *sigh*

So… other than those missing details (that I will go back and discover shortly), Cas and Dustin were an intriguing couple. Since I always find Fae stories interesting, I enjoyed the little twists added by Fated Mates. That’s basically what this story was about – Caserisis’s longing in battle with his protectiveness over Dustin and his fear that it wasn’t really something that Dustin would want forever.

There’s more to come in the Fated Elves series and I’m determined to keep up now that I’ve started. I’m not sure if the next book in the series will win out over backtracking to the first, so stay tuned!

Dawn’s Light (Duskblade #1) by Shannon Blair

Moranthus is an elf who has lost everything. With his lover dead and his career stagnating, he jumps at a chance to redeem himself by rescuing a human prince from the goblins hunting him—even if failure means death or eternal exile from his homeland.
Gerrick, a human soldier who bears an uncanny resemblance to his prince, has always chosen duty over desire. As the sole parent of his young daughter, he needs the extra coin that working as the prince’s body double provides—even if it may one day cost him his life.
When a case of mistaken identity puts the prince in the hands of a goblin raiding party, Moranthus’s and Gerrick’s paths collide. With winter closing in and miles of hostile goblin lands ahead, they must set aside their differences and work together to bring the prince home safely.
Their deepening connection comes with a growing certainty that rescuing the prince may be fatal. Moranthus and Gerrick must each find a way to reconcile his heart’s desires with his homeland’s needs—or die trying.

To me, Dawn’s Light was more an epic fantasy than a romance, but that’s not a bad thing.

Gerrick was a devoted father and loyal to his prince and kingdom. He took his position seriously and was more than willing to sacrifice himself to protect the prince. He had no idea what he was in for when he let himself take the prince’s place.

Moranthus had lost everything when he lost his lover – including his identity. When given the chance to win some of what was lost to him back, he jumped at the opportunity. Even though he knew it was too good to be true. It was an offer from someone he knew better than to trust.

These two warriors were an unlikely pair that found themselves thrown together through a case of mistaken identity. They fought against each other until they realized that working together was easier. It still took them a while to realize that they were both on the same side. It didn’t help that they denied what they were feeling for each other – well, at least Gerrick did – for most of their story. If nothing else, it definitely kept things interesting.

This is my first read by Shannon Blair, but since Dawn’s Light is the first book in the Duskblade series, I’m fairly certain that it won’t be my last.