Under the Gun Definitely Hits the Target

Under the Gun

By Hannah Jayne

Copyright February 2013

Publisher Kensington Urban Fantasy

When you’re near the top of the Underworld Detection Agency, the claws really come out…

Quick thinking and loyalty have taken human Sophie Lawson a long way in the UDA—along with a healthy dose of magic immunity. But when her old boss Pete Sampson asks for help after a mysterious two-year disappearance, she’s determined to find out what high-placed demon has put two ruthless werewolf killers on his tail. Of course, sucking up to her icy vampire department head and negotiating a treacherous inter-office demon battle are the kind of workplace politics that could easily get a “breather” way worse than reprimanded. And sexy fallen angel Alex is doing whatever it takes to heat up Sophie’s professional cool and raise feelings she’s done her best to bury. Too bad their investigation is about to uncover the Agency’s darkest secrets…and powerful entities happy to sign one inquisitive human’s pink slip in blood…

What would you do if your former boss, who everyone thinks is dead shows up at your apartment?  If you are Sophie Lawson you will be looking for a way to help him,  and at the same time find out who is killing supernaturals .

This is the fourth book in the Underworld Detection Agency series, and each adventure gets better and better.  Sofie and her friends have to use all their wits and any and all luck they have to stay alive long enough to solve multiple problems.  I love this series and have been following it from the first book.  I hope you will pick up a copy, enjoy it as much as I do, and share it with your friends.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my ARC of this book from the publisher who only requested a fair and impartial review.

Warrior Prince Will Fly You Off Into Adventure

Warrior Prince

By Nancy J. Cohen

Copyright: September 2012

Publisher : The Wild Rose Press

When mythologist and Florida resident Nira Larsen accepts a job as tour guide for a mysterious stranger, she’s drawn into a nightmare reality where ancient myths come alive and legendary evils seek to destroy her. To survive, she must awaken her dormant powers, but the only person who can help is the man whose touch inflames her passion.

After a dimensional rift in the Bermuda Triangle cracks open and an ancient enemy invades Earth, Zohar—leader of the galactic warriors known as the Drift Lords—summons his troops. He doesn’t count on a redheaded spitfire getting in his way and capturing his heart.

Nira has the power to defeat the enemy and to enslave Zohar’s soul. Can he trust her enough to accomplish his mission, or will she lure him to his doom?

My Review

This is the first in a new series by the author. It is a Sci/Fi Romance series and totally enjoyable. It features Nira Larsen a Grad Student who specializes in Mythology.  Nira is taking a year off from school to earn money for school. After a few bad interviews, Nira Larsen hopes that this next one will go well.  She enters the offices of Drift World, a new adult role playing park.

The first thing she notices about the office is how shabby it is. Considering how well done Drift World’s park is, she is a bit apprehensive about her interview.  After waiting a few minutes she is introduced to Algie Morar and escorted into a back area for her interview.  At that point Nira begins to feel like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole.  A person is brought into the interview room and she is asked to “make him appear more human”.  ???????  Say WHAT?

She attempts to leave saying she’s changed her mind and heads for the door. While she is attempting her escape at this point the door blows open and a group of masked hotties enter the room and the battle begins.

If you grew (like I did) watching Flash Gordon on television you will absolutely love this book.  The sense of action and adventure and the feeling that you truly have fallen down the rabbit hole will keep you enthralled until the very end.

FTC FULL DISCLOSURE: I received this book from the author who only expects a fair and impartial review.

Tami Dane has Another Winner in “Blood of Innocence”

Blood of Innocence

By Tami Dane

Copyright June 2012

Publisher Kensington Urban Fantasy

 

Gifted profiler Sloan Skye joins the hunt for an elusive serial killer–and discovers a breed of criminal few know exists . . .

A cynic by nature, Sloan Skye wasn’t thrilled when she was assigned to the FBI’s Paranormal Behavioral Analysis Unit. But her doubts are slowly easing, especially when she sees that working on the fringe allows her to use some of her more unconventional tactics. Most of all, Sloan’s grateful her career is on track–because her love life, if you can even call it that, is in shambles.

Sloan is searching for a suspect who slays his female victims at night, and bizarrely drains their bodies of blood. Bad enough, but when Sloan learns what the killer is really after, she can barely sleep at night. When the suspect guns for someone very close to Sloan, it’s time to throw out the rules and face her deepest fears . . .

 

Sloan is not sure going to keep her lunch down at the new crime scene she and the team she’s summer interning with have been called to.  The victim (a woman) appears to have been exsanguinated and all her blood somehow removed without a drop of blood spatter at the scene.  .  All they have is a small puncture wound in the groin area.  On top of that the woman has been tucked back into her bed with the covers drawn up around her neck.

The team begins their own investigation of the crime scene, and the only thing Sloan can find is a hole in the window screen.  How the heck does someone or something enter and leave a room without leaving a single bit of evidence behind? As they are finishing up, JT the other summer intern voices an observation that stuns the group. “I think she was pregnant” causing Sloan to lose it, she races to the window, flings it open and loses her lunch into the garden below.

This is the second book in Tami Dane’s new Blood series.  Sloan Skye and the members of the FBI’s Supernatural Profiling Unit handle any case that has even a whiff of strange to it.  The characters are well founded and 3 dimensional both in their actions, and their backstories.   I highly recommend this to anyone who love a good CSI type story and a paranormal setting. This is an Urban Fantasy you can really sink your mind into.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher who only asked for a fair and impartial review.

His Dark Bond Will Enthrall You to the End

His Dark Bond

By Anne Marsh

Copyright February 2012

Publisher Brava

Zer is no angel – well, not anymore. He’s explored every flavour of sin imaginable, drinking in the pleasures of humanity. But now he must find the woman who carries his salvation in her very blood…a woman like Nessa St. James.

Nessa has considered the bargain the Fallen offer. Anything she wants in exchange for accepting Zer’s bond? No way. Not her. Not when she finds out about the mind-blowing ritual involved and the marks of surrender that will ink her skin. But with a serial killer to stop and centuries of experience on his side, Zer will do whatever it takes to change her.

Nessa is one of the country’s leading geneticists.  So she is more than a little upset when she is called into the Dean’s office and told that her funding was cancelled and her lab was being closed.  It was her own research that was coming to bite her in the backside.  She’d developed a fast system of DNA testing. Just like a pregnancy test, you peed on the stick and it would tell you if you were human or paranormal.  Now the answer to that test is being used against her by someone who was not an academic.  He was a bean counter.

Nessa was given 3 days to find new funding or she had to vacate her lab. Desperate to find an answer she heads to the building where her lecture hall is and pulls out her cell phone, dialing while she walked.  She is contacting a company called Genecore which had contacted her with an interest in her research. She is determined to find her own funding and keep her lab open.

Zen is the leader of the Fallen (called Goblins on earth). They had been Angel’s and Heaven’s front line troops against evil, who rebelled against the Archangel Michael and were stripped of their wings and sent to Earth as punishment.  He left them one out.  For each fallen there is one Soul Mate.  In the three thousand years they’ve been banished they have found only one true Soul Mate.  This is because there is someone who is destroying them as soon as they are located.

Zen has managed to get a list of names which were stolen from their greatest enemy and now it was a race to find these women, who were destined to be the Soul Mates of his people.

Now we get to the crux of the story.  When Zen finds Nessa and basically kidnaps her, the true battle begins between them.  Zen to have her mate with one of his Fallen, and Nessa to regain her freedom and independence.  This is a romance that will rock the fabric of Zen’s existence and have Nessa tied up in emotional knots.

This second book in a new series it has all the elements of love, lust, anger, hate, and a kickass number of fights taking place.  I love it.  I think you will too.

FTC Full Disclosure: This book was offered to me by the publisher who only requested a fair and impartial review.

Shadow Heir is One Great Roller Coaster Ride

Shadow Heir

By: Richelle Mead

Copyright January 2012

Publisher Zebra Urban Fantasy

Shaman-for-hire Eugenie Markham strives to keep the mortal realm safe from trespassing entities. But as the Thorn Land’s prophecy-haunted queen, there’s no refuge for her and her soon-to-be-born-children when a mysterious blight begins to devastate the Otherworld…

The spell-driven source of the blight isn’t the only challenge to Eugenie’s instincts. Fairy king Dorian is sacrificing everything to help, but Eugenie can’t trust the synergy drawing them back together. The uneasy truce between her and her shape shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can’t–or won’t–reveal. And as a formidable force rises to also threaten the human world, Eugenie must use her own cursed fate as a weapon–and risk the ultimate sacrifice…

In this last book of the Dark Swan series, the author pulled out all the stops.  Eugenie is forced to go into hiding to protect not only herself but her unborn children.  The adventure starts in what for anyone else would be a mundane checkup at her doctor’s office. She is accompanied by her sister and Pagiel, the son of Ysabel. Thankfully her son didn’t inherit her bitch gene.

The visit with the doctor done, Eugenie, Jasmine and Pagiel noticed the changing weather and the storm that was brewing overhead.  As they leave the doctor’s office to return to the gate, and return to Otherworld they all feel the magic that is the reason for this storm.  Knowing they will probably be attached they prepare as best they can.  The attack happens just before they reach the gate and the battle is engaged.

This action filled beginning it only the tip of a very large (think Titanic) iceberg.  Eugenie will be on the run all across Otherworld, and the United States. When she finally comes to rest in a safe house chosen by her step father, Eugenie can finally stop and regain some sense of peace (albeit short) and rest up for her final battles.

Having followed our heroine’s life from the first book all the way to its conclusion, I have only one vision of it in my mind, the Cyclone in Coney Island.  It was the scariest ride ever for me, and that is my vision of Eugenie and family.

FTC Full Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the publishers who only asked for a fair and impartial review.

This new Urban Fantasy Series Will Make Your Day

Blood of Eden

By: Tami Dane

Copyright: December 2011

Publisher: Kensington Urban Fantasy

 

Sloan has a sky-high IQ, a chaotic personal life, and a dream: to work for the FBI. Her goal is within reach until an error lands her with the FBI’s ugly stepchild: the new Paranormal Behavioral Analysis Unit. She’ll get to profile criminals, but the pool of suspects is a little more… diverse. Yet even as Sloan tackles her first case, a string of victims, all with puncture wounds to the neck, she can’t slience her inner para-skeptic.

To catch the killer she’ll have to think like one. That means casting aside her doubts, and dealing with bizarre nightmares that started with the job. But the strangeness is only beginning, as Sloan pieces together the shocking truth about a case that’s more personal than she ever would have guessed.

 

Sloan applied for a summer internship with the FBI, and was accepted. Imagine her surprise when she arrives and is told “whoops, we made a mistake”, we’ve hired someone else for the position we promised you.  Then to find out that the new intern was her high school nemesis was almost too much for her.  She virtually got down on her knees and begged for any kind of work at the bureau and surprisingly (yeah right) they found a job for her in the new PBAU. Sloan is of course more than a little leery of this gift but is willing to give it a try.

Normally when someone interns with any company, be it gov’t or commercial, they usually end up being the office gofers.  Go for this, go for that.  When the unit is called in to handle a series of strange murders Sloan is a bit surprised to find that she is going to be working as part of the team doing the behavioral work up.

A little about Sloan. Her dad left when she was young, her mom is a nutcase, and her roommate has turned their kitchen into a mad scientist’s laboratory.  So I’m guessing that this new job is going to really stretch her credibility meter to its limit.

I totally enjoyed the storyline, the characters and Sloan’s family history.  I think this series could give some of the NYT top authors a run for their money. I’m looking forward to the next book and all the others to follow.

FTC Full Disclosure: I was sent this book by the publishers who asked only a fair and impartial review.

So I Married a Demon Slayer is a Killer Read!

So I Married a Demon Slayer

By: Kathy Love, Angie Fox, Lexi George

Copyright: September 2011

Publisher: Brava (Paranormal Romance)

 

Hot! By Kathy Love

At Hot! Magazine, the devil really does wear Prada. When the CEO is an actual demon and the mail room guys are undercover demon slayers, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for an up-and-coming photographer and a model possessed by much more than a sweet tooth to fall in love.

What Slays In Vegas by Angie Fox

When a sexy succubus comes up against a fearless demon slayer intent on killing her boss, a truly wild Vegas night turns into a quickie wedding. But in a city where anything goes, a demon slayer wedding a succubus is strictly forbidden. Which doesn’t mean either is rushing to jump out of the marriage bed.

The Bride Wore Demon Dust by Lexi George

He’s perfection in a tuxedo—more so out of it—and on a mission to protect his Alabama gal from the mysterious mayhem intent on her destruction. But the bride is a spunky steel magnolia with special powers of her own, determined to drop-kick evil forces across the state line and give her slayer a run for his money.

 

So I Married a Demon Slayer is a trio of novellas  based on a common theme.

Hot! By Kathy Love

Finola White the CEO of Hot! Magazine is a real demon.  She is also a Micro Manager of everyone who works for her. She also insists that everyone who works for her is physically handsome or beautiful.  Finola fires or disappears people who displease her and is now faced with having to replace a worker in the mail room. What that poor person did is never quite explained.  Now enter Charlie, a young man who feels his future is in fashion photography (he is actually quite good). He applies for the mail room position to get a foot in the door, and hopes that he will have the opportunity to show his portfolio to someone who can help him with his dream.  Charlie finds the people in the mailroom rather strange, but figures it won’t matter if he just does his job and moves up the ladder to his dream.

Along the way he will meet the beautiful Ava Wells, a Super Model who he dreams of doing a photo shoot with one day.  Ava and Charlie will meet under strange circumstances one evening and their lives will take new directions.  This story is hot and steamy, and full of surprises.

 

What Slays in Vegas

What do you get when you cross a half human succubus with a demon slayer?  You get a formula guaranteeing a great story.  Shiloh is on the bottom of the pile (succubus wise), she is only given enough work to keep her barely fed.  She begs a job with more teeth and ends up in the bed of Damien. One drunken evening later, the two wake up and find themselves married. Oh the shame of it. HE, married to a succubus. SHE, married to a demon slayer.  Damien and Shiloh both want the same thing. She wants free from her boss, and he just wants to get rid of the demons.  It’s gonna be a bumpy, sexy ride.  You just have to read this.

 

The Bride Wore Demon Dust

The bride (Bunny Nicole Reines) is gorgeous in her white gown. The Groom (Rafe Dahlvani) is the reason tuxedos were invented.  Bunny is (or was) human, Rafe if a time and dimension hopping demon hunter.  He saved Bunny’s life, and shared his own life force with her to keep her alive.  Dahlvani don’t have feelings. Dahlvani don’t fall in love.  Somehow Bunny’s charms and his very new feelings are going to lead them into a very long and interesting marriage.  That’s all I’m going to tell you for now.  Read the story, have a laugh, and be titillated by their love.

FTC Full Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher, who did so hoping for a fair and impartial review.

Bloodlust by Michelle Rowen is a sure winner

Bloodlust

By Michelle Rowen

Copyright July 2011

Published Berkeley Sensation/Paranormal Romance

 

For those who feast on blood, Jillian Conrad is a fatal attraction. After being injected with a poison that made her blood both irresistible and deadly to vampires, she was used as a pawn to assassinate the vampire king. Now the vampires want her eliminated. So is the infant daughter of the dead king. If Jillian doesn’t stand in the way of her death, then everyone, living or dead, is in great peril.

But an even greater danger is rising. The Amarantos, a secret society of vampires, is seeking the infant daughter of the slain king to complete the vampire’s quest for true immortality. And if they succeed, no one, living or undead, will escape the darkness.

 

Jillian is hanging out in a Vamp bar named “Ravenous” waiting for her friend Noah to show up with some information she needs.  She’s been in the bar for an hour and a half and is getting nervous about Noah’s failure to appear. She sees a young woman being stupid and doing a come on to a vamp in the bar and decides to intervene to save the young woman’s life.

Jillian is not one to usually get involved in other’s problems or actions, she just knows if she doesn’t the girl will die.  She past the Vamp and lets him catch her scent. She walks out of the bar knowing that he is going to follow her outside.  When the vamp approaches her he tried to talk her into joining him and get to know each other.  Knowing she only wanted to get him away from the girl in the bar, she says no and starts to walk away.  Pissed off he grabs her by the throat and tosses her to a confederate that appeared behind her.

Yeap, Jillian’s in trouble again, and there’s no one around to help at this point. Her friend Noah is still a no show and she’s going to have to deal with two vamps on her own.

Bloodlust is the second book in this new series by Michelle Rowen about a young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.   She is thrust into a world that she never believed existed and made a major player against her will.  I read through Nightshade (book 1) in one evening and kept my eyes open for the arrival of this book to continue the story.  I recommend it highly to anyone who loves Vamp stories with a heroine who grows into her role quickly and energetically.

Michelle Rowen is the author of four series of books and can be found at
https://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/michellerowen
and also
http://www.michellerowen.com/

FTC Full Disclosure: I received this book as a gift from the author who asked nothing in return other then my enjoyment of the story.

Hard Spell Justin Gustainis Book Trailer

In this urban fantasy, an occult detective in Scranton, Pennsylvania investigates crimes involving vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, and ghouls. He might even get to save the world

 

Downpour, and Kat Richardson both Winners.

Downpour

By Kat Richardson

Copyright August 2011

Publisher ROC

Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died, for two minutes.  Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm.  And she’s discovering that her new abilities are landing her in all sorts of “strange” cases.

After being shot in the back and dying-again- Greywalker Harper Blaine’s only respite from the chaos is her work. But while conducting a pre-trial investigation in the Olympic Peninsula, she sees a ghostly car accident whose victim insists that he was murdered and that the nearby community of Sunset Lakes is to blame.

Harper soon learns that the icy waters of the lake hide a terrible power, and a host of hellish beings under the thrall of a sinister cabal that will use the darkest of arts to achieve their fiendish ends…

 

Harper was doing some pretrial investigating for Nannette Grover, an attorney who was a steady client. Driving home from what she thought was a wasted interview, Harper had an unexpected vision while driving home of what appeared to be an accident. An SUV on fire pushed up against a tree. She backs up and goes to see if she can help.  She gets to the SUV as the ghost floats out of his burned out SUV.  He tells her that it wasn’t an accident, and then she asks him his name, he says Steven. He wants her “Family… Blood Lake, we should never…. “ and fades away, leaving Harper more curious than ever.

The Olympic Peninsula is not Harper’s usual territory and she finds it extremely uncomfortable there. She  heads back home, going into Nannette’s office to file her report on the supposed witness which brought her to the Peninsula.

This is the sixth book in the Greywalker series and the first that takes her out of her comfort zone, making her really stretch to find a killer or killers, and solve the mystery of Blood Lake.  I found the book not only an enjoyable read, but also an interesting and multi threaded plot line.  I highly recommend the entire Greywalker series to lovers of Urban Fantasy and Mysteries.

Kat Richardson can be found hanging out at
https://www.facebook.com/#!/Kat.Richardson.Author
and also at
http://katrichardson.com/

FTC Full Disclosure: This book was sent to me by the publisher, requesting a fair review.