#BlogTour Stars Descend by Kara Jaynes

Today it’s my pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Stars Descend by Kara Jaynes. It’s paranormal urban fantasy with a flair of sci-fi.

About the Author

Kara Jaynes is a fantasy and children’s book author. She loves rainy days, long walks, and fairy tales. She’s been writing since she was very young, and has more stories in her head than she could possibly write.

Follow @KaraJaynes on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Bookbub, on Amazon com, Visit karajaynes.com

Buy Stars Descend

Join Kara Jayne for the Stars Descend Facebook  Party on June 12th

Calling all book readers! Join author Kara Jaynes as we chat about her urban fantasy novel STARS DESCEND on June 12th from 8 PM to 10 PM EST (5 PM PST and 6 PM MDT).

Grab your favorite drink and snack and be prepared for a fun time of chatting with Kara, games, and giveaways.

Special guests Janeen Ippolito and Sarah Ashwood will also be sharing their books and joining in the fun. Follow this link to join the party – Stars Descend Facebook Party

About the book

The elves have come down from the sky in their ships, their countenances full of light and their bodies, power. But they rule over us humans with iron fists, and without mercy.

Vampires stalk the streets, lurking in shadows and the cover of darkness. Their lust for blood is never sated, and the nights are filled with the screams of their victims.

I’m just a street rat, a trash picker. I didn’t expect him to choose me. The Prince of Elves could have anyone, so why me?

Even as my heart sings at the elf’s close proximity, I still love the boy who left me, disappearing into the city’s corrupt underworld. I don’t even know if he’s still alive.

Stars reign. Rebellion brews. And with my already uncertain future disintegrating into chaos, I don’t know who to turn to, or who to trust.

Review

Stella is a trash rat. A human reduced to sifting through garbage to make ends meet for herself and brother, after their parents died. They live in a world run by elves, who have deemed the earth redeemable and they are the ones to do it. Humans spend all their time fighting each other, so it is up to them to help humans get back on the right track. How helpful of them.

It’s the elven rules that dictate the actions of others. From when they can roam the streets to whether they can rummage in skips. Stella has no choice though, she has to break the rules to keep Quinn safe. He doesn’t function well in this altered world and it is up to her to make sure he stays healthy and happy.

The real problems start when she encounters the prince of elves, under less than fortunate circumstances and ends up in a twisted situation. She finds herself inexplicably draw to this rude snob. He on the other hand finds himself with a bit of a conundrum, because having the hots for a trash rat human – well it just isn’t the fae way.

I’d like to see Jaynes develop the more complex and creative ideas she brings to the table with A game of Stars and Shadows. It’s easy to fall back on the tropes of paranormal urban fantasy, but going beyond those and developing new ideas and following through on them is a wee bit harder. This author has plenty of ideas to bring to the table.

This is paranormal urban fantasy with a flair of sci-fi. Tell us more about the space elves, their world and their culture. Hopefully that will happen in the second book Shadows Grow.

Buy Stars Descend (A Game of Stars and Shadows #1) at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Beltane Bliss by Lilliana Rose

Today it’s also my turn on the BlogTour Beltane Bliss by Lilliana Rose. It’s paranormal romance with plenty of heat and heart.

About the Author

Lilliana is an Amazon Bestselling author, who writes romance in the subgenres of contemporary, paranormal, steampunk, and rural. She enjoys helping characters overcome problems, or issues, and the misunderstandings that often plague relationships, to help them fall in love. Whether it city heels being replaced with country work boots, or some magic beyond this world, or cogs and gears and corsets, each story shows how love can prevail.

Follow @LillianaRose2 on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Goodreads, on Instagram,  Visit lillianarose.com

Buy Beltane Bliss

About the book

Edi Court is training to be a modern-day white witch, her unique ability is healing. Emotionally wounded from her ex, Anto, she has run away from the covenant with a need to heal herself. Following her psychic ability, she finds herself south, along the coast from Melbourne Australia, where she decides to set up her own healing shop, Crystal Sands.

Voltaire is a down to earth guy, a plumber by trade, he believes only what he sees in the physical world. The loss of his mom and sister to breast cancer and his ex, who stole his money and left him with a debt to work off, has caused him to close his heart.

Can Edi stop herself from rescuing another man and landing in deep water? Or with the Beltane energies thick in the air, can this be the start of a new relationship between two wounded souls?

Volt must become a believer in the Magiks and allow his heart to heal. And Edi must learn to trust herself again.

Will a non-believer and a believer find love over Beltane?

Review

Edi hasn’t exactly finished her training to be a white witch. The need to heal herself was more important than completing her training. Her heart is still in pieces after her relationship with her ex. She stumbles upon the perfect location to take a moment for herself and in doing so meets someone who awakens quite a few emotions in her.

Not just the I like you kind either. More like the I want to eat you like a buttery croissant or an ice cream covered in chocolate sauce kind of way. Every time Volt is around her she feels like taking a bite. It seems to be a mutual affliction.

I enjoyed the way the author approached the aspect of healing. The combination of holistic healing verging into the area of white witchery and the use of both to heal a broken heart and to soothe a grief-stricken person. It speaks to the fact that not everything works for every person. There is no exact science for healing someone to overcome the death of loved ones

Rose clearly knows what kind of ingredients you need to write a paranormal urban fantasy romance. A little bit of magic, a pinch of witchery, a smidgen of romance and an undeniable physical attraction. The basics are all there, as is the plot, however it does need fine-tuning. It needs a good copy editor. Just for slight glitches in flow and grammar. I think this author has the capability to create smoldering reads whilst honing her craft.

It’s paranormal romance with plenty of heat and heart. I would love to know more about Edi’s pre-story, her training and the world she is running away from.

Buy Beltane Bliss (Pagan Pleasures #1) at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This is the first in the All Souls trilogy and has just been made into a major Sky television production, so if you haven’t read the books yet the show might entice you to read all about Matthew and Diana.

Diana, who is a witch reluctant to use her magic, inadvertently calls up an influential magical manuscript, which in turn sets a series of disastrous events in motion. It is also the event that brings her together with a suave vampire called Matthew.

I know her reluctance to use magic is a major part of the plot, but man I really wanted to shake Diana at times. A lot. Come on woman zap someone, drown them, fly or cast a freaking spell. Enough with the virtuous witchy spiel. Surely being all sanctimonious and non-witchy gets tiring when someone is trying to spell you to death?

I was a little surprised by the strong focus on the romantic side of the plot, especially because the rest of the premise is very interesting from a magical perspective. It has elements of quite a few popular urban fantasy series including time travel, conflict between demons, witches and vampires, and a fateful connection between soulmates.

Harkness delivers to the romance and urban fantasy readers in equal measures, which is probably why the series is so popular. It’s full of drama and tender moments of craving mixed with the new throes of passion and love. It isn’t exactly what I expected, but I am interested to see where it goes.

Buy A Discovery of Witches (All Souls #1) at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @DebHarkness @headlinepg on Twitter

The books have been made into Sky TV series, which aired September 14th in the UK follow @ADiscoveryofWTV on Twitter.

Buy Shadow of Night (All Souls #2)

Buy The Book of Life (All Souls #3)

Publisher: Headline Books

The brand new book by Deborah Harkness was released on the 18th September 2018 it’s the story of Marcus (progeny of Matthew de Clermont) and Phoebe Taylor. Buy Time’s Convert here.

#BlogTour Medium Wave by Rose

Today I am delighted to take part in the BlogTour for Medium Wave by Rose Zolock. Medium Wave is the story about a woman who makes the mistake of sneering at the dark by using it to make money and herself famous, then the dark comes looking for her…

About the Author

Her Irish grandmother first told Rose about the Banshee when she was just a small child. How the wailing sound of the spirit of the dead and dying could be heard when someone was about to pass.

It was family folklore that the women in the family had ‘the touch’, the ability to see spirits and other dimensions. Rose listened and grew up fascinated by those who claimed to have supernatural or psychic abilities.

Rose does not claim to have those powers. Take her to Venice in February when the mist swirls over the canals, walk by her side along the darkened streets of Greenwich Village in New York City in high summer, listening to a ghost walk tour guide tell the stories of death, murder and the unexplained – Rose would say those stories and our belief in them gives her a power to see into the shadows within our imagination.

As a journalist, Rose takes every opportunity to explore and investigate strange stories, myth and folklore. Living in rural Yorkshire, with a rich library of ghost stories and literary tradition, Rose also has a sceptical and forensic insight into those who peddle the stories which feed our imagination but of which we have yet found no proof. She has listened to the debunkers who argue against those believers who are convinced that sand the dark side exist.

Rose’s mind is open. Is yours?

Follow @RoseZolock @caffeinenights

Visit rosezolock.com

Buy Medium Wave

About the book

Becky Moran has built a career claiming to talk to the dead. A successful clairvoyant medium, a Cambridge graduate with her own radio show ‘Medium Wave’ and a team dedicated to crafting the celebrity myth – because Becky Moran is a fake. Until, one night, something supernatural, inexplicable, breaks through live on air as she is broadcasting. Becky Moran discovers the paranormal is real, the dead can indeed speak and she is being pursued relentlessly towards a battle for her very survival.

‘This thing has no defined shape. Whatever energy exists within it, it cannot settle on a shape. The strands of darkness curl out and then wrap back inwards. The bulk of the shadow becomes concave, then bulbous, the height building in on itself but lacking any skeletal structure to wrap itself around. There are no eyes, no clearly defined head shape. It is creating itself from darkness, like a swirl of ebony ink dropped into a vat of putrid water, spreading silently….’

Review

Scientists will tell you there is a logical explanation for every unusual occurrence or events very often described as psychic, unexplained or mystical. The majority of us want to believe in entities beyond our reach or in a higher power we cannot see or hear, and yet feel as if we it-they-him-her is there with us. It’s what faith and most religions are based on.

Fact and logic based arguments will apply scientific knowledge to any experience termed as impossible or mystical in nature, but the truth is not even scientists know or can explain everything, so perhaps there is some small avenue for the unexplained or mysterious events none of us have stumbled upon as yet.

Mediums and so-called psychics make a profitable career out of scamming the vulnerable. Let me say this though, some of their clients want to believe the dead can speak through someone, despite knowing it isn’t true. They want to be comforted by the thought that their loved ones are at peace and happy on the supposed other side.

Becky Moran is one of the really experienced cold readers, who makes a lot of money and celebrity from her status as a medium. It is kind of ironic that she ends up connecting with the dark side that she has sneered at in the past, and doesn’t exist according to her.

The dark, the occult and the evil finds a path to her via an ancient object, and after that door is opened Becky finds herself inundated with visions, images and new perceptions. Suddenly she can pass on real messages and interact with the other side. Sounds like a good business venture right, except for the fact evil seems to be trying to find a way to take control of her.

Zolock combines a gothic horror vibe with a paranormal urban fantasy. She plays with the aspect of our hidden fears and shadows in the dark like a violin virtuoso. Do you believe in monsters in the dark? Have you ever invited them in to play? Well this author invites them in, plays with them, and then hands them back to the main character and asks her to deal with them instead.

Buy Medium Wave on Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Ashes Reborn by Keri Arthur

The connection between Emberly and Jackson is one of the more intriguing elements of the story. Neither of them have any real idea how their fusion is going to evolve or whether there will be more negative or positive repercussions for either one of them.

Their strange partnership, and the odd new powers one of them seems to possess, have to take a back-seat so they can focus on a threat to the supernatural and human community. Rinaldo is willing to kill anyone and destroy anything to get his hands on any research relating to a plague-like virus. A virus that can drive the contaminated person to madness.

Arthur delivers a fast-paced fiery urban fantasy with strong characters and a story that ends with a hook so the readers will come back for the next book.

Arthur’s Riley Jenson urban fantasy series is outstanding, and doesn’t get as much attention as it should. She has a flair for innovative ideas and strong female leads. Her Souls of Fire series offers readers both of these elements.

Buy Ashes Reborn at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read Winter Halo by Keri Arthur

Follow @kezarthur @BerkleyPub @penguinrandom

Visit keriarthur.com

Ride the Storm by Karen Chance

My head is spinning and the little grey cells are hurting after all the time-hops, battles and intrigues. At times I felt it was a bit much, and then the author would bring it all back to the Cassie we know and love.

There are perhaps one too many action scenes, too many moments that are almost repetitive, which then takes the pleasure out of the story, because you know what is coming.

One of the aspects I particularly enjoyed was the way Chance brought in facts and story-lines from older books and even from the Basarab series. It is no secret that I think the Dorina Basarab series is superior to the Cassie Palmer one, so I was really excited to see her appear in this book. It was more of a secondary and explanatory role, but it was still a nice touch. I would love to see a Basarab and Palmer novel with both receiving the same amount of attention.

Mircea spent a certain amount of time clearing up certain things about Dory, and in doing so also reveals a secret that connects all of the Pythias throughout the centuries. It is also a betrayal on a certain level, as far as I am concerned, because he admits to planning ahead and wanting to use the Pythia, ergo Cassie, to achieve his greatest desire.

Now she is armed with this information will Cassie finally stand by her attraction to Pritkin and accept that perhaps she was nothing more than a means to an end for Mircea.

I find that Karen Chance manages to create more complex plot-lines and scenarios as the series goes on, as opposed to less interesting as the ideas dwindle. The trick is keeping the element alive that keeps the readers coming back for more. Chance is one of the more underrated stars of the urban fantasy genre, especially when it comes to the Basarab series, and definitely an author whose books I look forward to.

Buy Ride the Storm at AmazonUk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read Reap the Wind by Karen Chance

Wildfire by Ilona Andrews

The Hidden Legacy series is young fresh and quite steamy. It has the complexity of a more seasoned urban fantasy and the lightness that will attract younger readers.

The whole marry and procreate to create the perfect magical being for your magical house has a eugenics feel to it. Perhaps not so distanced from real life and the quest to create the perfect human.

In a world where we can already manipulate the choice of gender, hereditary diseases and general appearance, the need for magical or indeed perfection is actually quite a popular topic.

Nevada has done some growing up and is stepping up to protect her family by making the correct political moves and planning strategically instead of with her heart. To beat the the rules of the houses you have to be able to think and act like them.

One of the highlights of the story is of course the romance between Nevada and Rogan. The two of them are like a well-tuned machine in both a professional and personal sense. The chemistry is explosive, which of course is one of Andrews specialities. Being able to create tension, longing and pure animal attraction between the main characters.

It is what readers have come to expect from Andrews, a solid urban fantasy with memorable characters and plenty of potential for further development.

Buy Wildfire at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @ilona_andrews @AceRocbooks

Visit ilona-andrews.com

Snared by Jennifer Estep

You have to admire the way Estep manages to keep this series fresh and captivating after so many books and years.

There are still so many nooks and crannies to explore when it comes to Gin & Co. Plenty of secrets to uncover, and most importantly there is always an adversary waiting just behind the corner to try and eliminate The Spider.

In this 16th book in the Elemental Assassin series Gin has to find a criminal of the more everyday garden variety. A serial killer with a penchant for pretty blondes.

Now we all know Gin is a sucker when it comes to helping people, regardless of who they are. When one of the mob bosses approaches her for help finding her sister, she doesn’t even think twice about lending a hand.

At some point during the investigation Gin figures out that someone is pulling strings behind the scenes, she just isn’t sure whether they are trying to divert attention away from the killer or simply pointing her in the right direction.

Then there is the whole Hugh Tucker thing, it’s interesting. It sort of makes you wonder why he keeps stacking the deck in her favour. There must be more to it than simply liking Mama Snow. It’s not just my imagination right?

Estep knows exactly how to thrill and enthral both new readers and readers who have been following Gin and her Merry Band of Misfits from the very beginning. It is urban fantasy with a slice of snark and topped with a cherry full of violence, courtesy of our very own quirky assassin.

Buy Snared at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

The Awakening by Amanda Stevens

The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens hasn’t really garnered the attention it deserves over the years. I think her books sail a little under the radar.

It is a solid paranormal urban fantasy series. Stevens delivers strong characters and an interesting plot.

Amelia seems a little more susceptible to the ghosts and the evil spirits this time. Her heartbreak might be weakening her high wall of protection. She also appears to be more afraid in general. Her tough exterior is crumbling slowly like a wall of sand.

She is haunted by a young ghost and the signs of impending doom. Someone close to her is in danger, someone is going to die.

I do think The Awakening is one of the weaker books of the series. Perhaps weak is the wrong word. Hmm, the author, or rather Amelia, does a lot of contemplating in this book, so it’s a slower and less eventful, as opposed to the usual action packed read.

Unfortunately it’s the last in the series, which might explain the nostalgic air about it. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, which is probably the real reason I found this slightly underwhelming. It just feels a little premature, but I can understand wanting to end on a high note.

I would recommend reading from the start of the series to get the full flavour and the complete back-story, although this can be read as a standalone novel.

Buy The Awakening at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

The Turn by Kim Harrison

This is the very extensive prequel to The Hollows series by Harrison. Saying that I would suggest reading it after the rest of the series, as opposed to before or as the start to the series. I believe the author recommends doing exactly the same thing on her website.

Why? Well I think the prequel assumes that the reader will know the characters and where the story will eventually lead. Personally I don’t think it does The Hollow series the justice it deserves.

What the prequel does do is inadvertently shed a light on a can of worms called genetically modified crops. In this case it is woven into the deaths, extinction and survival of certain supernatural species and of course just normal old human beings.

It shows the positive side of being able to feed the world, and yet also the dangers of eating something that has had its basic code changed. Hopefully we won’t find out a century down the line.

I am still shaking my head at the whole Trisk and Kal scenario, especially the ending. If, as a new reader, you don’t know where the series ends up then it all might seem a wee bit exaggerated. If you do then you’ll probably have an aha moment or two during the read.

What Harrison does excel at is the bursts of creativity and plotting that any urban fantasy author needs to keep their audience captivated.

Buy The Turn at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.