Selkie's Revenge by Rosanna Leo

On the beaches of Orkney, Scotland, an evil entity stalks mortal women. Machar “Mack” Kirk is a selkie man with a haunted past, one that has prompted him to become a hunter. He prowls the beaches at night, his arrows aiming for the finman who took his first love.

Beth Pedersen also watches the sea. The haunted widow has suffered losses of her own, ones that have crippled her into a state of stony grief. Beth can no longer feel, can no longer see color and life. Until the day Mack Kirk saves her from a mysterious foe, flooding her world with brightness and foreign temptation.

As Mack and Beth fight their inundating passion, the finman escalates his attacks. Before long, Mack realizes he’s not just playing Good Samaritan. He wants Beth, too, and will do anything to ensure his lover isn’t taken by the finman. But can he protect his mate from a monster with no soul?

Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Liquid Silver Books

Warning: This review contains possible mild spoilers, though I have endeavored to keep my comments with the realm of outcomes that can be reasonably expected given the genre.

This second installment in the Orkney Selkies series has many of Rosanna Leo's signature elements. There's a strong heroine who isn't terribly inclined to sit back and wait to be rescued or to let someone else fight her battles, but who also has issues. Also included is a gorgeous, alpha hero who's loving and protective, but isn't an ass about it--at least for the most part. Their story is told with a good deal of sexual tension that leads to some steamy sexy times, but also with a large dose humor that will often have you laughing out loud. There's a bad guy to fight, and he gives rise to some worrying moments, but ultimately is handled with moderate ease and the happy couple swim off into the sunset at the end. All in all a rather satisfying book.

Samson's Lovely Mortal by Tina Folsom

Vampire bachelor Samson can't get it up anymore. Not even his shrink can help him. That changes when the lovely mortal auditor Delilah tumbles into his arms after a seemingly random attack. Suddenly there's nothing wrong with his hydraulics - that is, as long as Delilah is the woman in his arms.

His scruples about taking Delilah to bed vanish when his shrink suggests it's the only way to cure his problem. Thinking all he needs is one night with her, Samson indulges in a night of pleasure and passion.

However, another attack on Delilah and a dead body later, and Samson has his hands full: not only with trying to hide the fact he's a vampire, but also with finding out what secrets Delilah harbors for somebody to want her harm.




Where to Buy

Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Audible

I've had this book both in Kindle and Audible formats for some time now, but never got around to reading it until now. I started it mainly as something easy to listen to while at work that wouldn't require me to pay complete attention to it for fear of missing something. I was expecting it to be mainly sex wrapped up in some sort of thin plot, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more than that. It may not seem so at first, for it has a very memorable first line, but if you stay with it a bit you soon see that this book has some meat to it besides the manly kind. Staying with it isn't a problem, for the humor in the writing that's apparent from page one keeps it quite entertaining from the start.

Paranormally Yours by Anne Gimpel, et al.

Seven of today’s hottest paranormal authors come together to bring you a boxed set guaranteed to keep you warm on a cold winter’s night. Do shifters make you howl? Or do you prefer the bite of a vampire? Perhaps the controlling hand of a demi-god is more your style. Paranormally Yours has a story—or seven—to set your pulse racing.

(See the Goodreads link at the bottom of the post for full blurbs of all included stories.)


Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks

It's difficult to write an general review for a collection like this that is comprised of so many different stories, for it is nearly impossible to find descriptions that apply to all of them equally. Overall I enjoyed the collection, though my enjoyment of the individual stories varied of course. Some I loved, some I thought were just OK, others I didn't really care for much. None were "bad" in my estimation though, and the ones I didn't care for so much were mostly a matter of personal preferences, not any real faults with the stories themselves necessarily. It should be noted that the collection is very shifter-heavy even though a couple of the stories do include vampires or other paranormals, so if you don't care for shifters you probably won't care for this anthology. Likewise, if you're looking for stories about vampires or magic users you might do well to look elsewhere (though the one story here that's primarily about vampires is one of the better ones IMO). I'm giving this a 4 star rating overall since that is more or less the average of my ratings on the individual stories. Read on past the jump to see those individual ratings and reviews.

Note: I received a free copy of this collection from one of the authors in exchange for an honest review.

Frosty Relations by Tara Quan

Attorney Jack Frost never understood why holidays did weird things to people. His secretary went on vacation, his best friend ditched their annual Aspen trip, and the law firm’s stubborn human resources assistant refuses his clerical support request. What’s a warlock to do on Christmas Eve but go on a 1-Night Stand? But when an oddly familiar empath shows up as his date, this ice mage has a hard time denying the magic of the winter solstice.

Faced with an anemic employment market and financial woes, college graduate and former witch Mina Mao lands an HR assistant job at Frost and Sons. Having spent her day saving Christmas from Frost Junior’s Grinch-like behavior, she accepts the gift of Madame Eve’s service and heads over to the Castillo Capital. When her date turns out to be her childhood crush and workplace nemesis, she braces herself for the sexiest icy ride of her life.

 
Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Decadent Publishing

Whew! It's hot in here! Or, er, is that freezing? Hmm...freezing hot? That certainly describes this sizzlingly cold little story by Tara Quan. The descriptions will have you shivering and reaching for a sweater against the cold and shivering and fanning yourself at the same time for entirely different reasons. So grab a cup of cocoa and whoever or whatever you prefer to help warm you in other ways and prepare to be delighted. Trust me, you'll want the latter when you've finished reading. ;)

Love's Paradox by Laura Kreitzer

Stalked by her abusive ex-fiancé, Rae Zachery retaliates by singing karaoke and spilling all their dirty secrets to the entire bar. When her ex attempts to silence her brazen performance, sexy, leather-clad Parker comes to her rescue and soundly punches her ex in the face. As valiant and comedic as that may be, Rae finds Parker’s violent assistance unsettling, yet she can’t help but be drawn to him and his tragic past.

Fighting her attraction for Parker is a battle Rae can’t win, and soon their night of sharing secrets morphs into an undeniable bond. But fate won’t so easily relinquish her grip on their romantic, happily-ever-after. Instead of blissfully skipping into obscurity, Rae and Parker are subjected to her ex-fiancé’s vicious proclivities. Who knew love could hurt so good?

Get lost in this contemporary romance with just enough comedy, drama, and suspense to keep you on your toes. 


Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

This book was something of a departure from what I normally read, but I'm glad I took the chance on it when it came recommended by a friend whose tastes often coincide with my own. While the overall situation that Rae and Parker find themselves in with Ian is dangerous and often dark, there is enough levity and happy times intermingled with the other to keep this from being a dark read overall. While I have some quibbles with things here and there that kept it from being a 5 star read for me, I'd certainly still rank it as one of the best books I've read this year.

The Music Box by Alice Brown

It’s Christmas Eve and Beth Montgomery’s life is a mess. She stops by the nursing home to visit her last remaining relative, her grandmother, Adeline Montgomery. Then she can go home and have a glass or ten of wine and cry over her latest string of bad luck. She was released from her job earlier.

She arrives to find Alex St. Claire visiting with her grandmother. What she doesn’t know is that he is a very lonely vampire, who made a mistake years ago when he thought he was in love with Adeline. He has spent many years trying to help out the family where he can. But Adeline’s Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and Beth knows her grandmother doesn’t have very much longer to live.

Both alone, Beth and Alex make a spontaneous decision to spend Christmas Eve together and are recipients to more than one miracle. But what will happen the next morning? Is Beth strong enough to handle the truth about Alex?


Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

I wanted to like this book. The blurb hooked me in, for it sounded like exactly the sort of story I typically enjoy (really, a book usually has me at "vampire"), as well as sounding somewhat similar to some Christmas romance stories I've greatly enjoyed in the past. The opening scene in the nursing home was quite promising, for it drew me in and got me interested in the characters. Unfortunately it started going downhill for me after Alex and Beth left the nursing home and didn't really redeem itself until the last quarter or so of the book. It recaptured my interest then, at least to a certain degree, and pulled my final rating up considerably.

Predator's Fire - An Interview With Rosanna Leo

When Nina Suzuki discovers the body of her best friend Janine, her world turns upside down. Things go from bad to worse when Janine’s corpse seems to transform into that of a large, brown wolf. For the first time, Nina is faced to confront all the clues indicating her BFF was not what she seemed. A letter from the dead woman opens Nina’s eyes to a strange, new world. The same letter warns of a sinister group called the Alpha Brethren, and urges her to find Killian Moon of the Ursa Fishing Lodge and Resort on Gemini Island.
 
Killian Moon is a jaguar shifter and teen mentor at the Ursa Lodge in Northern Ontario. He may be a comfort and inspiration to confused teen shifters, but he also has a fiery past. His past comes back to haunt him when human Nina arrives at the resort, demanding to speak with him. Demanding answers. Can he trust her with knowledge that will not only change her life, but possibly endanger those around him?
 
As Killian begrudgingly tutors Nina on all things shifter, their mutual curiosity flares into passionate need. Once they touch, once they succumb to desire, there is no going back. Killian realizes Nina is his mate and they both begin to comprehend the terror threatening those on their shifter-friendly island. He is forced to confront the tragedy in his family and determines to protect Nina at all costs.
But can they protect everyone they love from a cult of dangerous shifters, intent on horror and destruction?

Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Liquid Silver Books

I have read, loved, and reviewed all of the books in Rosanna Leo's Gemini Island series thusfar, and I couldn't let the latest entry in the series go by without acknowledgement here. As I was involved in the editing of this book, however, I do not feel it would be right for me to post a review of it. So despite it being a departure from what I usually do here, I asked Rosanna Leo if she would be good enough to do an interview with me about the book. She graciously accepted and sent me an excerpt to post as well. Follow me past the jump to read on :)

Conflicts of Interest by Nulli Para Ora

A woman afraid of another broken heart, a vampire afraid of losing the man he loves, and a lion shifter who wants them both. Can a woman scorned trust not one, but two men with her heart? Will fate tear one relationship asunder in order to build a new one? How can love succeed with so many conflicts of interest?

Where to Buy:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Taliesin Publishing

This is as much a relationship study as it is a novel. Perhaps more so in many ways since the bulk of the story involves a very honest and realistic look at the various relationship dynamics that need to be addressed and worked out when adding a third person into an established two person relationship. Curiously though, despite the story being solely about the three main characters and how they come together and make things work, we don't necessarily learn that much about who they are as individuals.

Predator's Claim by Rosanna Leo

For years, wolf shifter Bart Cairo has harbored secret feelings for his co-worker, Charlotte Moffatt. Even though he thinks he’s been discreet with his affections, everyone at Gemini Island’s Ursa Fishing Lodge knows he and Charlotte, a fellow wolf shifter, are meant to be mates. Everyone but Charlotte.

Charlotte couldn’t be less interested in mating. A free spirit, she wants nothing more than to succeed at her new career in the big city and leave small-town Gemini Island behind. However, she can’t deny Bart stirs up unwanted emotions inside her. Emotions she swore she’d never feel again.

The occasion of Bart’s family reunion compels him to assume new responsibilities, and to consider a role he never envisioned for himself. Family tensions rise to the surface as a new Alpha is proclaimed in his pack. And when old grudges escalate, Bart must stake his claim.

Charlotte resists as he stakes a claim on her as well. But when he begins to employ sexual tactics of temptation, she wonders if the only solution is submission to the enticing wolf man. Can she trust her heart again? And can they find their happy ending before an enemy cuts their story short?

Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Liquid Silver Books

Warning: This review contains a few mild spoilers.

Fans of the Gemini Island series know that Bart and Charlotte's story was inevitable. They've been fighting/flirting with each other since book one, and it's clear that such had been the case for them for some time even then. What I found most interesting in this one was the revelation that they aren't really the people we thought they were from previous books, for we really only ever saw that one facet of their personalities -- the way they interacted with one another.

Predator's Refuge by Rosanna Leo

Lynx shifter Marci Lennox has worked at the shifter-friendly Ursa Fishing Lodge and Resort all her adult life. It’s more a home to her than a job. When her boss goes on vacation, putting her in charge, Marci is thrilled. Finally a chance to prove she has the mettle to run a resort.

Her confidence is shaken when new employee Anton Gaspar appears. One look at the mysterious tiger shifter spells trouble for Marci and for her sex-crazed lynx. Anton is judgmental, condescending, and a little misogynistic. Unfortunately, Marci’s lynx thinks his tiger is more delicious than an oversized bag of Maltesers.

It becomes difficult for Marci to remain neutral near Anton, especially when she learns of his troubling past and unusual family circumstances. However, when dangerous incidents occur on the resort, the lynx woman and tiger man join forces to combat the threat to the lodge and its guests. Harder still is the quest to combat their explosive feelings for one another. As they explore their mutual passion, they realize the danger at the resort is more insidious than they ever envisioned. Their dreams, their love, and their very lives are at stake.

Where to Buy

Amazon
Predator's Refuge
All Romance eBooks
Liquid Silver Books

Rosanna Leo's books rarely disappoint, and such is very true of this third addition to her Gemini Island Shifters series. This time we get Marci's story, a woman that we've met in the previous books, though she had yet to come into her own then. In this one she's all grown up and finally starting to realize her potential. The choices she ends up making, however, are a bit surprising, not only to the reader but to Marci herself.

Catching Red by Tara Quan

Scarlet “Red” Ryding is on a mission. To prevent mass suicide, she must fulfill her grandmother’s evil wishes and return posthaste. With knives in hand, she dives headfirst into an abandoned hospital full of zombies. But after getting trapped within, she is forced to accept help from the world’s most dangerous predator—a man.

Covert Agent Marcus Woodsman received strict instructions against interfering in the affairs of nomads. As a spy for the Federal Military Agency, his mandate is to observe and report. But when he finds a little redhead caught in the center of a brain-eater swarm, conscience compels him to put his ax to good use. By the time he realizes this smart-ass scout comes equipped with a world of trouble, it’s too late—he would do anything to keep her safe.

As Red and her Woodsman work together to survive undead, brave a snowstorm, and bring down an evil cult, they learn to laugh, love, and fight for happiness. The second book in Tara Quan’s Undead Fairy Tales series, Catching Red is a post-apocalyptic thriller with a happily ever after.

Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Liquid Silver Books

An intriguing follow-up to book one of this series, Tower in the Woods. While this book can stand alone and is fully understandable without having read the first book, reading them in order can help you to understand a few things that happen or are mentioned a bit better. This book expands upon the universe created in book one, filling in some more blanks about it and giving us a larger picture of what the world is like in this post-apocalyptic future.

Indulging in Irelyn by D.L. Raver

NFL quarterback, Zolt Hamil was America’s heartthrob until a career ending injury changed his life. Years later, he’s picked up the pieces and carved out a new path for himself. But the mental and physical scars of that day have left him moody and reclusive, and his only relief is indulging in pleasure and pain with his many one night stands. Though many women have tried, Zolt refuses to care about any of them. Only one woman has his heart; a hallucination of a young, sable-eyed, blonde beauty whom he conjured that painful day on the football field.

On the first day at his new job at a law firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, Zolt comes face to face with his hallucination, Irelyn Wilkes. Their fateful connection, and explosive passion for each other pulls them together, and this time, Zolt refuses to let her slip from his life.

But Irelyn has her own demons to fight and her controlling boyfriend is one of them. He doesn't take kindly to other people playing with his toys, and he’ll stop at nothing to keep her by his side.

Can Irelyn and Zolt defy the odds and find a way to be together? Or, will the events set in motion years ago keep them apart forever?

Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Audible

This book will take you on a wild and sexy ride and leave you wondering which way is up by the end of it. It's been awhile since a book has left me so speechless and uncertain what to think or feel when I finished it. On the one hand I'm quite impressed at how much the author manages to make you feel for and about the characters, on the other the jaw-dropping cliffhanger of an ending has left me with all sorts of conflicted emotions ranging from sadness at how broken these people are, fear about what's going to happen to them, and rage at how it all played out. It's going to take awhile for this one to process I think.

Delicious Delay by Tara Quan

Stranded in a Middle Eastern airport, Michelle Day finds herself the object of interest for an abrasive, but all-too-sexy stranger—a stranger who tempts her with the forbidden in a land where indecency could get her killed. But how does one say no to such a deliciously, relentless pursuit?

Khalid Al Dehri takes one look at the red-headed spitfire in the business class lounge and knew he’d either been transported to heaven—or hell. Her tart response to his surliness intrigues him beyond all propriety and the longer he spends in her company, the more he can’t deny his forbidden attraction. But will she explore the sensuality between them or will society’s rules keep them apart?





Where to Buy

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Decadent Publishing

While the premise for this novella was intriguing enough, when I found out from the author that a conversation we'd had on Twitter months ago provided much of her inspiration for this piece I simply had to read it. I expected good things from it since I have enjoyed Ms. Quan's other works, and I wasn't disappointed. This one is sizzling hot from start to finish as what starts out as a semi-casual tryst between two people that meet by chance slowly develops into something that hints at an HEA for them in the future.