The Seelie King by Heather Killough-Walden (Book 5 in The Kings Series)

4 Stars

Selene is the heroine in this book and we met her in the previous book.  She is the best friend of The Goblin Queen and we knew she was special from that book.  The Seelie King, Avery is keeping his eye on her as it is suspected she is part fae and that is too much of a coincidence for him to ignore with the queens being exposed.  He doesn’t go straight to her though because he is worried she is part of a trap. 

This book takes place mostly in England.  Selene (like all the queens) is very sensitive.  She is sensitive to environmental toxins and bad attitudes and the injustices of humanity.  Like all the queens and kings at this juncture, she is in danger and Avery must make his move to protect her and in doing so he almost doesn’t survive. 

The storyline with Ramses and his brother continues.  I’m not as interested in that as I am in the individual stories.  Every time the author takes me out of the story between the two main characters in each book it takes me out of the world completely.

I am really looking forward to the Unseelie Kings story.  His lady fair is Selene’s twin sister and it sounds like her story is going on almost simultaneously with this one. Can’t wait!

The Goblin King by Heather Killough-Walden (Book 4 in the Kings Series)

 4.5 Stars

I really didn’t anticipate liking the installment.  I have read stories about the Goblin King before and they were just ok.  The Goblin Kings name is Damon Chroi.  He is a very old fae.  Older than the Seelie and Unseelie kings (by at least a thousand years!)  He was banished to be the king of the Goblins (a race of fae) over a thousand years ago (so he is at least two thousand years old!)  He likes to watch My Little Pony and Highlander and like most of the kings, he is lonely.  He just wants to find his lovey! 

Diana is his queen to be and is a veterinarian.  She can heal (like Dannai Cage) but not being from the supernatural realm she hides this and only heals animals.  One night she runs into a goblin and it turns out this big lug just wants Diana to heal him.  I picture him looking like Big Foot or a Yeti but with super long finger nails.  Damon is at the scene and thus starts the saga of Damon winning over his queen. 

A side story (which I normally don’t like but really enjoyed this one) was that Evie (Vampire Queen) is kidnapped by Roman’s brother.  I loved the dialogue here between Evie and Rafael. 

The Seelie King is already out so I am looking forward to delving in, but I believe I have to wait after this :(

So far we have the Vampire King, The Phantom King, The Warlock King, The Goblin King, and The Seelie King.  We also know of the following kings: The Unseeling King, The Dragon King, The Time King, The Shadow King and The Winter King.  That is only 10 kings.  The hope the last three aren’t silly!    

Beyond Neverland by Heather Killough-Walden (Sequel to Forever Neverland)

I have been looking forward to this book for a long time.  I loved “Forever Neverland”.  I admittedly can’t remember much of that story line anymore, but when Beyond Neverland came out I bought it instantly. 

This book was written in a way that it sounded like poetry.  It makes sense for this type of book more than the author’s other works.  It was beautifully written.

This book takes up two years after the end of the first book.  Neverland was destroyed by Wendy’s story to save their lives.  Hook and Peter Pan had worked together to defeat the Never Bird.  Hook is transported back to his world where he is the pirate king.  Wendy, Michael and John all go back to their world where they are each separately going to either boarding school or university.  Wendy is about to turn twenty.  Peter Pan and Tinkerbell are somewhere together (perhaps London) trying to survive. 

One night a strange fog arrives and all the players know that it is not normal.  Someone is after revenge and everyone is drawn together again.  New villains are introduced to the reader and we learn more about Tinkerbell’s past. 

Favorite quote:

“Sometimes, if you’re lucky, fear leaves as monotony sets in.” –Michael Darling

The Third Kiss: Dorian’s Dream by Heather Killough-Walden

4 Stars

I actually loaned this book out before I read it myself.  I was looking forward to reading it, but I was in the middle of another book so you will just have to deal with the lateness of this review from the release date.  Also a word to the wise…another reviewer (either intentionally or unintentionally) had spoilers in their review and the Heather Killough-Walden fans on facebook had a crusade to “say that the review wasn’t helpful” on Amazon.  Seems a bit harsh…so don’t make these ladies mad!  They will come for you and your reviews!  Anyway…

Dorian is the main character in this book.  He is the half vampire/half human brother of the French Vampire King.  These brothers do not get along well…beyond normal sibling rivalry.  There was a prophecy that for the many vampire kings of the world that they would have a human queen who would be able to give them half vampire/half human children.  This is desirable for many reasons of which we won’t get into here.  So these kings have waited.  Julien (French Vampire King) had a dream about a woman and many things are revealed to him, but he does know that Emma is his queen.  So he sends Dorian after her.  There is a whole lot more going on here that just two brothers fighting over a woman.  There is dissention (other than Dorian’s) within the ranks.  Other kings are aware of Emma and making their own plans.  Friends are foes and foes are friends. 

I really liked the storyline.  Emma at times wasn’t very likeable and Dorian was just “blah” at times.  Julien was an awesome bad guy.  You will love hating this guy.  And I actually can’t wait to read the next book…I don’t think I can say who the next vampire king will be to get his book without revealing something about the storyline so you will just have to read it!  I was hoping the epilogue was going to be about him though. This author’s book are always such a good deal for the money you send.  The editing is well done and the storyline is always interesting.  I’m pretty sure I own all her books.

P.S. Heather: I am still waiting patiently for the next book in the Neverland series.  I need some more Hook!   

Vampire, Vampire by Heather Killough-Walden

4.5 Stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It is actually two novellas in one.  The first one, the author describes as paranormal fantasy romance and is titled, “Thorn and Grace”.  It is about a race of beings which are most similar to vampires in that they drink blood and are extremely long lived.  Christopher Thorn is the prince of one kingdom and is betrothed to Darianna Grace who is the beloved princess of another, but on the night of their wedding, Darianna is missing.  Her carriage arrives, but sans Darianna.  Christopher believes that his Anna has run from him and he spends the next many (many, many) years searching for her.  And suddenly he finds her!  The rest of the story is what follows when Christopher finds the woman who broke his heart.  Loved it!  Paranomal fantasy romance?  Please, sir, can I have some more? 

The next novella was titled “Relentless: The Patrick Sinclair Story”.  I loved this one less that the first one.  It is about a girl who finds herself in a heap of trouble after meeting the billionaire, Patrick Sinclair.  I don’t think I can say much more about this one because everything else would contain a spoiler.  You learn a lot throughout the entire story (as opposed to keeping all the secrets looked up tight until the end).  The author does put a disclaimer in the synopsis saying, “Don't read it if you're expecting the development of an extremely deep and meaningful relationship in less than 80 pages.” I liked aspects of it, but I think I would have liked it better if Patrick got to know his lady-fair a little bit better. 

The Vampire King by Heather Killough-Walden (The Kings Series #1)

I have almost read everything that Heather Killough-Walden has written and if I haven't read it then it is in my TBR pile. This book is a spin off series on the Big Bad Wolf series. You don't have to read the Big Bad Wolf series first, but I would recommend it because you will have a better understanding of some of the side characters and their motivations.

Summary:
The vampire king is Roman D'Angelo and he has been the king for over 3,000 years. There are 12 other kings (we haven't met them all so I don't exactly know what they are kings of). The foe is revealed early on as Charles Ward who is a vampire but was good friends with the warlock king (whom Roman helped to eliminate in the last book of the Big Bad Wolf series). Roman meets Evie and wants her for his queen. I believe that the other books in the series about the kings will be about them finding their queens. They must have all been queen-less this whole time.

Thoughts:
I didn't like that the book started out with an excerpt from the ending and then went back 3 weeks. Once I had already read that part it was almost frustrating to go to the beginning at that point, but I was drawn in quickly and was interested to read how Evie and Roman get along.

The other part that I found a little frustrating was that it seemed like Evie went straight from trying to run away from Roman to being his queen. There wasn't any time in there spent their blossoming relationship. I can see that with the timeline that there wasn't any time in which to do that, but should have been an "ah ha" moment for Evie when she should have realized that she loved him.

Overall, it was very entertaining. We got to meet the Phantom King who is the star of the next book. We met the new warlock king. We briefly met Ramses and it is hard to tell if he is a full blown bad guy or is functioning under a misunderstanding. There is so much going on in this story line it would be impossible to discuss all the side characters (so I guess you must read the Big Bad wolf series first!). I am looking forward to The Phantom King.