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This is another book that’s been on my TBR for a long time. Since 2015, to be exact. Yowsa. I actually started reading the story last year, then it got put aside for other projects.  In a way, I’m glad I got to reread parts of the story again.  I liked it as much as the first time.

There are tons of vampire stories on Amazon, but Regina Morris put a different spin on their culture.  The COLONY is a group of vamps that protect the President of the United States from rogue vampires.  They’ve been in service for decades.  Most of the Presidents don’t even know they exist.  They report to only one person, the Director, a Human named Dixon.  When Dixon decides to retire, a hunt for a new Director gets underway.  Alex Brenamn is his choice, but she has issues of her own to contend with.

Regina Morris writes very developed characters.  The sexual tension between the leader of the COLONY, Raymond and Alex was superb, and it didn’t feel forced or contrived.  They each had their pasts to deal with.  Raymond, a dead wife he felt responsible for.  Alex, an attack and failed relationships.  Even the secondary characters were well-rounded out.  They weren’t one-demonical at all.  I see the next book In the series is based on Sterling, Raymond’s wayward son.  That ought to be very interesting.

The story was believable and moved at a fairly decent pace.  There’s enough action, drama and romance to please a reader’s soul.  At one point, when Alex is trying to save Raymond’s life, I couldn’t read fast enough.

There wasn’t much I didn’t like about the story, other than some editing issues.  Like I said, it’s been several years since I bought the book.  Maybe it’s been re-edited since then.  They weren’t significant, and certainly didn’t take away the enjoyment of reading the story.

As s side note, I really don’t think the cover fits the genre.  It doesn’t give the impression of a paranormal story.  If it weren’t for the tagline, I would assume it’s just a romance novel.

Regardless, I enjoyed the story and highly recommend it for vampire lovers.  I give it 4 fangs.

There has been such a shift in our culture and society about what constitutes a family unit.  I grew up in the era of mother, father, and children.  There could be no other way.  It was morally wrong.  For me, it had nothing to do with religion, just the way I was brought up.

Sure, gay and lesbians have been around since before man started walking.  Humans, after all, are very sexual animals.  But, still, they shouldn’t be allowed to raise our children. 

Reading Tally has helped open my eyes to some of the dilemmas same-sex relationships face, the restrictions regarding marriage and children.  It’s incredible the archaic laws that are still on the books.  Society changes but our laws don’t.  Doesn’t make much sense. 

Anyway, this story goes one step further by talking about tri-parenting and the legal ramifications.  I don’t mean for my review to be preachy, and the book isn’t either, merely stating an observation from a slightly more closed-minded perspective.

As for the story itself, Northup has risen to her same level of storytelling.  Her characters are richly detailed and believable.  The doubt and fears are very evident in Tally, Lex, and Kode.  My favorite scenes are between Lex and Jazz.  I’m not sure if I could abide a friend like Jazz, but she would be interesting to have around.  LOL.

If you’re not offended by same-sex or bisexual relationships and love an HEA, you will need to read Tally.  Highly recommend, and I give it 5 feathers. 

I have a penchant for reading mainly fantasy/sci-fi books, so it was enjoyable to be swept away with a well-written historical romance/thriller.  We start off in London during the Nazis Blitz.  Ms. Willis did a superb job showing us the terrible life Londoner’s faced on a nightly basis, waiting for death to drop on their doorsteps.

We start with a young woman, Jane, and the dangers she faces.  Not only from the nightly bombs, but from people who she thought she knew reasonably well.  Jane meets Will, a handsome and dashing actor.  A romance blooms between them, but little do they know Will is being used for nefarious reasons.  Who can they trust?

Unlike action-packed thriller plots, this one moves along, slowing drawing us into Jane and Will’s lives.  There were a few times I thought the prose a little wordy and redundant, but it also takes place during a slower paced lifestyle.  As with all good stories, I felt happiness, fear, uncertainty, and sadness. 

The ending is a bit strange and takes you into the fantasy/sci-fi genre.   Even now, several weeks after reading the book, I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending.

If you’re looking for a good historical/romance/thriller, I recommend this book.  I give it 4 feathers.

In this debut novel by Henaff, all the misfits and unwanted police officers are thrown into one squad; The Awkward Squad.  And the leader is Anne Capestan who has anger management issues of her own.  Their job is to solve all the old Cold Case files.  Out of the boxes of robberies, drug dealers, and other unsolved cases, two murder files come to light.  After years of being unsolved, how will they find the murderers and give the victims justice?

I haven’t read a crime/thriller for a while, and I’m glad I started with this one.  I hate reading crime books where I figure out the killer way before I’m supposed to.  Not with this case.  Henaff does an excellent job leading the reader through the crimes and the clues.  There’s a large cast of characters, but they are introduced slowly throughout the story, so we don’t get confused by who they are.  Another pet peeve of mine is an author drowning the reader in a mass of characters within the first few chapters.

Henaff’s characters are well-developed with their own demons to overcome.  The story is rich in detail and kept me engaged.  My favorite character is Eva Rosiere and her doggy companion. She’s loud, brash, and lonely. She found wealth and fame as a crime writer but also found herself ostracized by her fellow men in blue.

This is the first book in a series, and one I wouldn’t mind following. Especially if each episode is as exciting as this one. I also wonder, how many more of the unwanted officers will show up in the Squad?

Speaking of the Squad, the only part I found unbelievable is the squad itself.  In the US, any officers that had committed the crimes these people did would have been fired or retired.  They wouldn’t be shuffled around from department to department.  Maybe they have a different type of union in France that doesn’t allow that.

I received this ebook as a reviewer for Netgalley, and it does state it is an uncorrected version.  I just hope an editor does some work on it as the writing is passive and there are huge blocks of narration that need to be broken down to make the pace and story flow better.

If you’re looking for a new crime writer, I highly recommend this story, and I give it 4 stars.

This is the second book in the Angel’s Guardian series.  I’d been waiting for this installment with much anticipation, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I loved Angel and Max in the first book.  Who doesn’t love a good Beauty and the Beast story?  But this one went above and beyond.

At the end of book one, Max was being forced to return home and reclaim his role as King of the Vamps.  A role he has run from for decades.  With Angel and her children at his side, he goes to face his family.  Part of his family loves him and want him to take his rightful place. The other half want him dead so his Uncle, the Regent, can pass the throne onto his own son, Toma.  But Toma has plans of his own which ends up endangering everyone he loves.

Two minor human characters from the first book, Jonathan the lawyer and Devian Harris the Mercenary, return for bigger roles. I adore what Zeece did with their characters. Every vamp book I’ve ever read was about humans falling for vamps. What if it was the other way around? Devian may be ugly as sin, but he is a man’s man.  *swoon*

Once again, Zeece shows us how talented she is at developing her characters.  They spring off the pages, full of life and emotions.  Her books are never a dull read.  At least not for me.

This story is chock full of action, intrigue, treachery, and heartbreak. And I can’t wait for the next one. If you’re looking for a different vampire book, look no further. I give it 5 vampires.

One bad thing about loading your kindle with a ton of books, you’ll miss a book you wish you’d read when you first downloaded it.  This is one such book.  Almost a year later, and here’s my review.

I really enjoyed this story.  The storytelling was a bit rough in places, but that didn’t take me out of the wonderful world that Kilczer built.  I was hooked from the first chapter as Christine discovers a partial skull of a species unknown on the planet Tartarus.  A planet full of reptiles, but no mammals.  But it’s what finds Christine that moves this story onward.

The main protagonist is Jules Rammis, a man running from a past mistake.  Though, he doesn’t see it that way.  To him, his reason for staying on Tartarus, and not home on Earth with his wife and child, is to track down the missing mammalian link.  It’s not until he’s made a hunter-slave by the evil Loranth, Kor, that he finally comes to terms with his past. 

The world Kilczer built is alive with very unique and different life forms.  Even the different aliens that came to study the planet are varied and interesting.  I love the fact that Kilczer used phrases unique to the story and planet.  That made everything so believable.  I felt I was right there with Jules and Jack as they went to confront the malicious Kor and stop his diabolical plans to destroy all Terrans. Did they make it in time? 

Though the story didn’t end with any cliffhangers, I felt invested enough in Jules to want to find out what the future holds for him.  Will his wife take him back?  So, I’ve bought the next book in the series.  I just hope it won’t take me a year to read it. 

If you love a fast-paced, suspenseful, sci-fi space story, then this one is for you.  I give it 5 feathers.

I don’t normally like alternating first person POV’s.  Mainly, because it’s confusing to the reader to know which person is now the POV.  Even when the author heads the scene with the name of the characters, it’s still confusing.  The problem is, most writers just aren’t skilled enough to pull if off.  If each character doesn’t have it’s own quirks and habits, they blend together.  But Jessica Page was able to pull this one off.  I still don’t like that type of POV, but I had no problem following the characters. 

For me, I thought this was a fast-paced story.  It’s not that long, and I read the book in 1 1/2 days.  I loved Kendall and Kane and the chemistry between them.  They played off each other very well. 

As for the storyline, it was pretty standard.  Boy meets girl, girl’s in trouble, boy helps girl, they have HEA.  There were no plot twists.  Nothing unexpected.  I felt this was an average read, and I did enjoy it. 

BUT!!!  Anymore, I try to give some leniency for proofreading errors, but this book was so chock-full of them, I have to take away one star.

If you like HEA, hunky SEALS,  and a fast story, you’ll probably enjoy this one.  I give it 3 feathers.

First off, I have to say this book has been sitting on my kindle for over  1 1/2 years.  I’m not sure why I bought it, but I’m glad I did.  Since I started publishing my late husband’s stories, I’ve read nothing but indie books for the past three years.  Don’t get me wrong, I love indie books and their authors, but I miss the feeling of reading a professionally published book.  So  when I started reading this little gem, my reading persona gave a big sigh of relief.  Yes, I still found a few proofreading errors, but they seem to be popping up everywhere anymore. 

This is a long book, so be prepared to spend some time devoted to it.  And it’s not a fast-paced story, but there were times when I couldn’t read fast enough.  I loved the premise of the story, bringing different cultures and times from Earth to Arden to save the people and the planet from the Horde.  I could tell this was written by a military man as there is a lot of military jargon and strategies throughout the book. 

I became attached to quite a few of the characters, but like all war, people die.  So, this book is laced with emotions.  Especially the Epilogue, which brought tears to my eyes.  Now I read some 1 star reviews that felt the Native American aspect wasn’t used to it’s full advantage, or not needed at all.  I didn’t feel that way.  For me, it meshed nicely with all the other cultures that were trying to adapt to an extremely violent environment.  I also have a soft spot for the Native American culture, so I very much enjoyed their inclusion. 

My complaint about the book, were the nature of the transmuted Horde.  Weston’s explanations were sometimes confusing, but not enough to mar my enjoyment of this book.

If you love alternate history, military stories, and sci-fi, you’ll want to read this book.  This is book one in the series, but this ended so well, with no loose ends, I don’t feel compelled to read the next book.  I give it my 5 feathers.

I just want to say right off the bat, I’m not into zombies.  To me, zombie books are boring,  How many ways can you read a fight scene with zombies?  They eventually all sound the same.  I just can’t understand people’s fascination with them, but I had previously readThe Hand That Feeds by Garza, which I enjoyed, so I was hoping for another entertaining story.

What I was hoping for was a storyline, other than just fighting off zombie.  I’ve never seen the Waling Dead, but their fans tell me it’s the story of the different characters that keeps them involved.  And I have to say, this book is the same way.  It drew me in from the start.  I came to empathize with Rowan and Mia as they not only had to combat the zombies, but her father, and tribe, as well.  As they rushed across the landscape, trying to escape the horde of undead and infected, I read faster and faster.  I wanted to know what happened next.  I was really getting into the book, as Jacob and Mia started realizing there was more to Connor and the Canaan compound than they thought.  Then, it all came to a screeching halt. 

(Spoiler Alert)  What killed it for me is I found several plot holes that almost made me quit reading the book.  If I wasn’t already invested in the characters, I would’ve.  The first red flag was when Rowan is trying to find a way out of the compound, pushing zombie boy in front of him with his pole & leash.  Suddenly, Mia shows up.  Rowan and Mia hug, and now zombie-boy is gone.  The same one Hinu told them they needed to keep as he’s patient zero.  No mention was every made of him again.  Why was he so important, but then just written off?

The second red flag, when Himu had his hand nearly shot off, but yet, he doesn’t bleed to death, and he’s able to climb a rope, and a ladder.  Really?  And the same for Connor.  He falls off a platform, we know his knee is broken as it’s bent the wrong way, yet several chapters later, there he is walking with a splint.  There is just no way.  I’ve had a blown out knee.  I know how painful and impossible it is to walk on one, let alone broken.

There were too many other smaller instances that felt contrived, just to make the story.  If Garza had used some beta readers, or an editor, these issues would have been resolved before publication.  And all the proofreading errors would’ve been corrected too.

If you’re into the Walking Dead, and love zombies, you’ll probably enjoy this story.  Just be prepared to eat a lot of salt.  For me, I was disappointed how it turned out, so I give it 3 feathers.

This is the first book I’ve read by C.B. Pratt and I’m glad I did.  She did a wonderful job spinning a fanciful, adventurous tale.  It was refreshing to read a book without any foul language, and sex.  The book was well-written, and fit the time-frame for the story.  It’s full of references to the Greek Gods of old, and I could tell Pratt did a lot of extensive research. 

The story pulled me in from the beginning, and I loved following Eno’s character as he went from one situation into another, each one a tad worse than the first.  All he wanted was to collect enough money so he could marry a women he only caught a glimpse of.  But the God’s were against him, and the next thing he knows, he’s fighting for his life in the Underworld.  The action scenes are intense, and I found myself holding my breath, especially in the underwater battle with Eurytos.

Phandros was a fun counterpart to Eno’s personality.  All hero’s must have their sidekicks, and Phandros fit that role very well.  There were enough questions left at the end of the story to make me want to read more about Eno.  Who was his father, man or God?  And why must he go East? 

If you love a fantasy adventure with Greek Gods and mythical creatures, than you need to read this series.  I give it my 4 feathers.