The Bloodline War by Tracy Tappan

3 stars

This is the first book I have read by this author.  I believe this is a series but it is the only book out right now.  It is set up in a way that you know there is more to come. 

The heroine is Dr. Toni Parthen.  She is hospitalized with a concussion one night after she is called in as the medical examiner for a bizarre crime scene.  The bizarre just keeps on coming for Toni.  She wakes up to a nurse trying to sedate her and as we all know; one must remain awake after a concussion.  The next time she wakes up she has been kidnapped.  The people who kidnap her tell her it is for her own good and explain she has special blood that allows the Varcolac (a race of humans that the myths of vampires are based off of) to breed.  The Varcolac apparently can’t make little Varcolacs unless the other person has this special blood and thus the Varcolacs are a dying breed.  Basically they give her three choices for mates and she is told to choose.  Obviously we know the good doctor will put up a fight.  To make matters worse, there are even worse people out to get her blood.  Part of the plot is confusing as it appears that Toni’s father wanted to get his hands on her to breed her with her half-brother?  This wasn’t said outright but I must assume that if this guys father and Toni’s father are the same, that makes them half siblings and he was definitely trying to make babies with her.  This is disturbing in that it was never brought up about them being half siblings.  Gross!  There is apparently something even more special about Toni’s blood than originally thought, but I am not sure we fully understand this yet. 

The problem with writing this type of story line is that the main character can sometimes come across as annoying to the reader who knows that the person that the heroine thinks is a bad guy is not bad at all.  So the reader is rooting for the Varcolac and Toni is fighting against them.  The author attempts to overcome this problem by making the previous women kidnapped and now happily married to Varcolac men, angry about how they are treated.  Only these women sometimes come across as annoying too.  It is hard because you know they were kidnapped and held against their will in the beginning and that is wrong and in real life no one would find this acceptable let alone romantic. 

The Warlock King by Heather Killough-Walden (The Kings #3)

3.5 stars

This is the third book. By the time I read this there are still two more books out.  That is the way I like to read series, otherwise I forget things and it is agony waiting for the next installment.  This series is a spinoff of “The Big Bad Wolf” series and follows the 13 Kings of the supernatural realms and their quest to find their queens while also dealing with supernatural disasters.

The Warlock King is Jason Alberich (spelling?).  He was present in one of “The Big Bad Wolf” books but as a bad guy.  He kidnaps his childhood friend gone love obsession, Dannai Cage.  Since then he has seen the error of his ways, but there is still a lot of tension between Jason and the wolves.

Jason’s queen is Chloe who is apparently one of the original Akyri.  Even after finishing the book I am not quite sure how that makes her different from the next generations of Akyri, except she is mucho old. Chloe knows Jason is after her and she wants nothing to do with him.  She is running, but he continues to keep an eye on her from afar.  The 13 kings are heading into deep waters with the mysterious evil that they are only just beginning to understand. 

Not a lot happens in this installment except Jason and Chloe have a meeting of the minds.  It was kind of anti-climactic.  I am anticipating good things from some of the other kings.  I hope the Seelie and Unseelie kings are good as well as the Shadow King (very mysterious!) and I am not even sure we have meet the rest of them, but I hope there is more to their stories. 

The Phantom King by Heather Killough-Walden (The Kings #2)

4 Stars

I have had this book for ages and ages.  I read “The Vampire King” soon after it came out and enjoyed it so why did I wait so long you ask?  I have no idea ok!  Sometimes I just make silly decisions for no discernable reason. 

The premise of the series is a spinoff of “The Big Bad Wolf” series.  The first book obviously follows the Vampire King as he meets his queen and deals who all the foibles that come along.  The second book is about the Phantom King.  He is the king of purgatory which is where all the souls of people who died wrongful deaths go to forget their wrongful death and then move on. 

Thanatos (or Thane) is the Phantom King.  He rules over purgatory and greets these souls as they enter.  I can’t really tell much more of his importance except that they souls seem to be able to spy for him (and defy him as well so they must not have to obey him) but they can’t leave purgatory.  Thane himself seems quite powerful, but I am not seeing his importance as one of the 13 kings. 

Despite this, I did enjoy reading about Thane discovering his queen who is a warlock.  Siobhan (I have NO idea how to pronounce that name!) has denied the darker pull of her warlock magic her whole life.  Because of this (and obviously her potential to be Thane’s Queen) there is a big nasty after her.  This would be the Akyri king who is the culprit behind the death of her boyfriend, Steven Lazarus (who plays a role in the whole book). 

In this series and “The Big Bad Wolf” series the author interweaves the romance between the characters.  By this I mean that often there are two men vying for one lovely lady’s attention and one of them is made out to be a bad guy, but in the next book we find out that he is misunderstood (or in some instances has a change of heart) and he becomes the hero of this next book with his own lovely lady that he must protect from the next bad guy. 

In “The Phantom King” we start to get more of the big picture for the series.  There is a bad guy who is after Siobhan, but there is also a badder bad guy pulling his strings.  This series reiterates many times that the queens on a chess board are the most powerful just like the queens of these 13 kings. 

Thorn by Intisar Khanani

5 Stars

This isn’t the first time I have read a retelling of “The Goose Girl” but I will tell you it is my favorite.  This is the first book I have read by this author and in fact I am not sure the author has anything else out there yet, but I will be following her (or him, I can’t tell by the name). 

The premise of “The Goose Girl” is about a princess who is sent far away to another kingdom in order to marry a prince, but on the way she is betrayed and through one mechanism or another she is no longer believed to be the princess.  Another takes her place and the princess is made to serve as a goose girl.  The prince, however, is still in danger although the princess becomes quite comfortable in her new role, she must find the courage to confront the evils that are present. 

I liked this particular retelling as it was slightly different than previous versions I have read (which you will just have to read to find out).  It also read slightly older and mature.  There was nothing inappropriate in either language or sexuality in the book.  I enjoyed both the princess and the prince in this retelling more than I had in any other version.  Valka is a character that you love to hate.  She just makes it so easy. 

I did feel like the ending wasn’t quite resolved between the princess and the prince, but I am hoping that this story might go beyond “The Goose Girl”.  I would like to hear more from Red Hawk as well as Rowan, Oak and Ash. 

Beautiful cover!  I am guilty of the crime of judging a book by its cover. 

True to the Highlander by Barbara Longley (The Novels of Loch Moigh)

3.5 Stars

This was a time travel romance that takes place in Scotland. Some of my favorite aspects right there: I love books that take place in Scotland (I wonder if Scottish people realize the obsession the rest of the world has with them) and it is about time travel. I compare all time travel books against the Outlander series so my expectations are high. This did not meet those standards, HOWEVER, when compared to pretty much every other attempt at time travel romance, this was extremely well written.


I think the hardest part of time-travel books is writing in the correct response by both the person who does the time traveling and those they eventually try to convince. There must be a certain level of disbelief on both sides because…it is time travel, but on the other hand if there is too much denial it is just plain annoying. This author struck the right cord on this topic which is a HUGE part of the storyline.

Altheia was likeable as was Malcolm. I actually didn’t see where the book was going, although I knew that Black Hugh would come back to play some part of the story line. I liked the little bit of extra that Altheia brought with her visions and I liked that Giselle was responsible and it wasn’t some mystic portal that no one has found until now.

The jury is still out on whether I want to read the next one although I read the first chapter with Robley and found that engrossing so that is a good start.

Veiled Threat: Book 7 (A Rylee Adamson Novel) by Shannon Mayer

I was in the middle of reading another book (actually I was 85% finished) when I saw this book had come out; I snatched it up (on my Kindle) and dove in that minute. I absolutely LOVE this series. I haven’t read anything else by this author because I am nervous it won’t be as good. That is silly! I am potentially missing out on some fantastic reading!

This book takes up about a month after the last one finished. Rylee gets a break from fighting and takes a mini-holiday with Liam. The whole Liam-is-going-to-die thing was ever present and I am torn. I love Liam and so a part of me is hoping that all these cryptic comments from others about how Liam is more than a Guardian will explain the whole business. But I also am starting to like Doran now, but no wait…he can’t replace my Liam! It is so confusing and I feel like a teenager!

Orion is still the villain in the series, but we get a small glimpse of him in this book. We don’t have a lot of time with Pam or Milly but that is ok. We get lots of Alex (who is also changing) and that is awesome. I love Alex! There are a lot of new characters, both good and evil and Rylee gets to meet someone who is related to her.

These books always seem too short, but when it is nonstop action maybe that is for the best. I look forward to reading the next book and finding out what else Rylee can do. It’s all coming together!

The Will by Kristen Ashley (The Magdalene Series)

I keep debating between 3.5 and 4 stars, but I always round up anyway so let’s move on from that.

This book reminded me more of old school Kristen Ashley. I have read all of her books, but her recent releases have lost something for me. My all-time favorite is the Rock Chick series, which along with the budding romance has drama and action. While this one didn’t have the action that I love, I did enjoy most of the book.

Josephine Malone is the granddaughter of Lydia Malone who is a beloved matriarch of Magdalene, Maine. When she dies she has left some odd requests in her will. Because of this Josie is thrown together with Jake Spear and his family. These two are polar opposites and don’t get along very well, but Lydia wanted them to be friends so when trouble finds Josie, Jake is there to take her back.

I enjoyed Josie a lot. I’ve read some reviews of others who didn’t like her. She spoke in a very proper way which was part of the barriers Josie had built in her life. She is in love with her boss of twenty years.

Jake was a boxer and an owner of the town’s strip club. Not my favorite thing. There was a strip club in the Rock Chick series, but none of the heroes owned it and went there primarily to keep an eye on their trouble magnet ladies. It wasn’t a huge part of the book but I could have done without it. He could have done a variety of other vaguely illicit things that would have been more palatable.

Overall, I am looking forward to reading Coert’s story and will keep reading this series.