Reviews
Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection by C.D. Gorri
katkinney's review
5.0
What a terrific collection of PNR stories by such talented authors! In GARRIDAN’S MATE by Rebecca Hefner, Garridan, who is a commander in the army, has been tasked with training the first class of female warriors. Among them is Siora, a fierce fighter who is loyal to her father and wants to lead her own battalion in the upcoming conflict against the demon Bakari. I’ve followed this series since the beginning and one thing I really love is the way the world of vampires and slayers has evolved over time, with couples from older books getting mated and having children we’ve gotten to watch grow up and pair off, and also watching social progress come to the kingdom, like the kick-butt vampire/slayer women demanding their males allow them to fight alongside them in battle. It’s also fun getting to see characters from previous books pop up, and I really liked seeing Latimus in this one! Siora and Garridan have a fierce chemistry sparking during training, and especially during their special private training sessions where things get heated.
bunnerz's review
3.0
I had originally picked up the anthology because I'm a sucker for paranormal romance (especially shifters) and urban fantasy. None of the authors were familiar to me (unless I had incidentally read a story in another anthology).
Overall verdict was that this anthology was an okay read with only three stories worth checking out. I definitely skipped a lot of stories, and many were just mediocre for me.
---
Cursed Hearts by Siren Allen
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, vampires, trolls, magic
This story followed the meeting and romance of the Asian-American wolf shifter Yung and his fated mate African-American wolf shifter-vampire hybrid Iris after they first met each other in a club. The writing involved a lot of info-dumping and telling, which didn't make a very immersive and emotional read. I ended up quitting the story in the middle of Chapter 3 (of 7) because I found the emphasis on "smelling her arousal" and their burning uncontrollable "need" for each to be quite tacky. I didn't even get to any physical contact tbh; it was that awkward to read.
---
Call of the Ocelot by Sapphire Winters
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, detectives
This story introduced the FMC ocelet shifter (I just realized I don't think we actually ever learned her name, even through dialogue?), born in a leopard pack and kicked out because she wasn't a full leopard. She found a dead body on her yard and met human detective Everett, who seemed to be prepared as her romantic interest. Some investigating on her own revealed that the dead girl was and that was the one that killed and dumped the body on her lawn for reasons.
The story ended very abruptly on the big reveal - I didn't realize this was a sneak peek? However, there was no ending author's note indicating there was a full story planned either. It was a very unexpected and unsatisfying - while sure, the mystery was ultimately solved, there was absolutely no actual romance and character development. There were 10 chapters, but each chapter was only 2-3 pages...
The writing also needed a decent amount of editing. The brother was introduced as "baby brother," but there were multiple instances where he was referred to as older instead, which was incredibly confusing.
---
Wild Springs by Melissa Bell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, hunters
This story involved human art curator FMC Jennifer and the wolf pack leader bounty hunter Declan Chase. DNF at Chapter 4 (of 11). It was another story full of info-dumping and contrived mating rules with a ton of telling. I had to laugh at descriptions like "a beautiful brunette with the hips of a well-bred female." When male wolf shifters owed favors to females, apparently that meant required servicing during heats unless they had a mate. Yeah... no thanks. That's not my idea of shifter romance.
---
His Treasure by Amanda Kimberley
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic
DNFed a few pages into Chapter 1 (of 10). This story seemed to set up for an age gap romance, but turned out not to be that bad. The young cougar shifter FMC Treasure was described to be no more than 15yo at first meet, and the MC wolf alpha Takoda was described to be a renowned powerful leader, so I had assumed he had quite a few years on her. It was later clarified that shifters lived anywhere from decades to centuries longer than humans, and Takoda was only about 5 years older than Treasure. I was weirded out by the concept of sending Treasure to another pack to grow up to then return to Takoda when she was of age (which seemed to be around 25yo to his 30yo). The grooming was not my cup of tea.
Additionally, the writing and descriptions just didn't work for me. Decades to centuries is a huge age range! Are shifters immortal or not? IMO, Treasure was also a very tacky name - not a "beautiful name for a beautiful girl." >_>
I tried reading a bit further than the prelude chapter, but the first chapter immediately went into a huge info dump about Takoda's current political issues with his ex-friend Nayati, and I got extremely bored.
Another big issue I had was that the term Omegas was introduced but never clarified; it seemed to imply the term meant all the unmated females in the pack rather than a typical omega caste/rank in a shifter pack which I would have been more interested in. Boo.
---
Bite Me Another Day by Zoe Forward
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, animal-sidekicks, magic, hunters
This story followed the vampire fixer Ty with long time crush/best friend vampire Ivy, who was forcibly arranged to be married by her parents to another vampire Hugo. The relationship setup between the two was interesting, and I enjoyed their silly banter, but the overall plot of escaping the bounty hunter that was hired to return Ivy to Hugo was mediocre. I really liked Ty's dog Alfie, but alas, he didn't do much but act as a guard when necessary. The ending didn't make much sense, but the two did get their HFN. An okay story, but nothing too exciting.
---
Hidden Shifter by N Gray
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, vampires
DNFed at Chapter 10 (of 31). This story followed the wildlife photographer FMC Ava as she stumbled upon the saber beast shifter Tyler, the chieftan's son, in the forest while out on a hike to take pictures. There was an excessive amount of telling and stilted dialogue that made for tedious reading. I also didn't understand the family relationships - Claw was described to be Tyler's brother, but Tyler didn't believe it. ??? Tyler's relationship with his father was super dysfunctional as well, and I didn't care enough for the characters to slog through another 20+ chapters to figure out what the real conflict was.
---
Sun-Burnt by Lori King
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This was a story of the insta-love fated mates relationship between the sun bear shifter Paige and the polar bear shifter Sebastian. Paige worked for a corrupt businessman and was looped into being a secret informant for the FBI with barely any training or support.
She was the worst spy ever, and there were so many plot holes over her activities. At one point, she was worried about getting caught with a flash drive in her underwear - why not just pass it off to Sebastian??
The smut was also pretty ridiculous. Sebastian was described to literally lick her everywhere in passion, and using the word "diddle" is not hot at all.
It was a predictable mediocre shifter romance that had an interesting setup but unfortunately the execution wasn't great.
---
Born Wilde by Lia Davis
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: demons, magic, shifters, assassins, clairvoyants, telepathy, telekinetics
This story followed the half soul demon, half witch FMC Nyla and her unwanted fated mate wolf shifter alpha Kasen. Both characteres were absurdly overpowered for no good reason. Nyla's soul demon ability apparently allowed her to gain magical powers from souls she ate. Kasen apparently inherited all the powers from all alphas before him, of which he was the 50th. After the story dumped like 20 characters with complicated familial relationships, I lost interest and quit at Chapter 3 (of 11).
This was the first book in a new series spun off from the Shifters of Ashwood Falls. I have no interest in exploring the rest of the world.
---
Promised to the Pack by Laney Powell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic, bikers, reverse-harem
This story mainly followed the FMC Lena after she found her fiance cheating on her with her best friend and escaped to the rival pack in revenge. By the time I quit in Chapter 9 (of 12), she had found two of her fated mates in the rival pack.
I couldn't stand the terrible writing and intimate scenes. There was a lot of narrating and telling and a multitude of characters introduced at once. Paragraphs were just one or two sentences at a time. Even though Lena was about to get married the next day, apparently she was still a virgin, yet she fell into bed with her first fated mate with no hesitation at all because she "loved him." Blech.
This was the first book in the author's newest Lone Wolves MC series. I am not interested in continuing with any further books.
---
Dragan's Fate by Skye Jones
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, fae, vampires, slaves, clairvoyants, magic
This story followed the latent wolf shifter Lisbeth after she ran away from her original pack after almost getting sexually assaulted. She was captured by vampires during her escape and auctioned off as a servant. Powerful vampire warrior Dragan found out that she was his unexpected fated mate, purchased her, and the story barreled down the hill in insta-love and society-changing prophecies from there.
The introduction was well written, but after Lisbeth met Dragan, everything was rushed with info dumps galore. Very superficial character development. An okay read and at least I finished it, but sadly, I still haven't seen a 4-plus-star rating story yet in this anthology...
---
Rocky Mountain Rapture by P. Mattern
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters
This story followed the FMC Cadie after she was scammed when trying to buy a winter resort owned by a pack of wolf shifters. I quit a handful of pages in due to the terrible grammar (multiple paragraph dialogue without opening quotation marks on each paragraph) and the excessive use of exclamations in the dialogue.
---
Black Heart by L.A. McGinnis
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, slaves, mercenaries, magic, telepaths, reverse-harem
This story followed the vampire FMC Contessa as she sought to escape a mating ceremony with her cruel vampire king. There was not enough character development in the story overall, and the villain was one-dimensionally evil. While the twists were admittedly surprising, one of the men was described to have telepathy powers.... where did any mention of that go?
The author's note indicated that this was a prequel to Darkfell Vampire Clan series, which is probably why this short story seemed to be rather sparse on character details. I'm unsure if I still want to check out more from this author.
---
Captured by Wolves by Fiona Starr
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: magic, fae, mafia, shifters, slaves, reverse-harem, clairvoyants
This story followed the unique technology magic witch Dana as she attempted to escape her abusive slave status with the local mafia. It wasn't a full length novel, but the story had a decent world and action, although not much character development - one man was unconscious for most of the story.
The author's note indicated that this was the first installment in the Shifter Moon series - I think I'm interested enough in checking out the next book when it releases.
---
Moon Claimed by Cecilia Lane
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, clairvoyants
This story followed the wolf shifter alpha Abel as he went on a quest to find his fated mate, the human Dakota, in order to reclaim his inherited pack from his evil uncle. It was a pretty predictable formulaic plot, and it was never explained how Abel's father knew about Dakota to guide Abel down that search with his dying breaths. The villainous uncle was defeated quite summarily, and the story had insta-love to the max for a rather unsatisfying plot.
---
Feral Protector by Amy Pennza
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: post-apocalyptic, shifters
This story followed the doctor FMC Eden in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by the Lykos-D virus. Without a regular suppression drug, it turned humans into shifters that were reviled by humans. Turned shifters were referred to as ferals and lived outside the fortified cities.
I enjoyed Eden's assertive personality as well as the alpha romance interest that wasn't her shitty ex who set her up for sexual assault. I'd be interested to read more stories set in this post-apocalyptic world!
---
Blood Fortune by Julie Morgantown
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: clairvoyants, vampires, hunters
DNF at Chapter 8 of 25 when the clairvoyant FMC Sophia finally met the vampire Dorian she saw in her visions.
There was little too much passive musing and historical 1770s society with tons of misogyny for my taste. I also wasn't clear where the storyline was going with two main FMC POVs - one from Sophia and another from the vampiress Mila.
---
Sacred Shift by Theresa Hissong
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This story followed the virginal cougar shifter alpha FMC Sora as she travelled to a different pack for her elderly grandma after their old pack all died to shifter disease. Non-alphas needed to be blooded with an alpha to survive, or they would waste away.
It was an okay story with lots of stilted formal dialogue. The relationship was an insta-lust fated mates to the max and triggered by just a touch. The couple didn't have any real disagreements, and everything just progressed step-by-step after marginal waffling.
While there was an attempt to bring in some action with an evil wolf shifter conflict, it was honestly super random and didn't fit in well at all with the overall story flow. This looked like it was part of a larger series due to the characters introduced, but I am not interested based on this writing sample.
---
Garridan's Mate by Rebecca Hefner
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: vampires, magic
This story followed the two vampire military leaders Garridan and Siora. This was introduced as book #6.5 of the Etherya's Earth series. I enjoyed having two assertive main characters and the lack of insta-love in this story - the world and backstories of other characters sounded interesting that I will likely pick up other books to check out.
---
Her Dragon Mate by Elle Boon
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: dragons, shifters, magic, clairvoyants, fae, unicorns, demons, telepaths, vampires
This story followed the pink dragon shifter FMC Belle as she was forbidden a romance with the dragon shifter heir Nikai due to her color.
There were multiple issues I had with the story. While it was later explained due to, I was incredibly confused why Belle didn't display more skepticism when Nikai's evil twin Nadim, a very one-dimensional villain, confronted her for the final conversation before she ran off. Then, it was very unsatisfying to suddenly jump thousands of years with a bunch of new characters and relationships introduced with no warning. The dialogue got really weird and casual with talk of "besties" and BFFs in addition to attempts at random humor that fell flat at the end. There was also a ton of info-dumping, and the final smut between Belle and Nikai was a bit awkward and not really hot.
While the overall world sounded interesting, I don't think I'm interested in picking up other books based on the pacing of this writing sample.
---
Assassin by Julia Mills
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic, dragons, assassins, paladins, gods, fae
DNF at Chapter 2 out of 10. It appeared that this was a story set in a pre-existing series, which I don't have a problem with, but having over 10+ characters introduced in less than 2 chapters was overwhelming, especially with so many different supernatural species involved. I couldn't keep them straight and quit out of lack of interest to attempt understanding.
---
Shifting Fate by Carrie Pulkinen
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Tags: magic, hunters, demons, shifters, telekinetics, gargoyles, clairvoyants, reincarnation
This story followed the second-born wolf shifters Nick and Amber as they developed their romance. The plot points seemed a bit contrived, from second born shifters being unable to shift to all alpha family members must find a mate for the alpha to keep his position. Why would what other family members do with their relationships affect a dominant position of power?
Amber's gut feelings from her clairvoyance worked on magical hand-wavy assumptions to move story along, which felt like a very cheap story strategy. Her TSTL behavior with out-of-control newly-shifting and his TSTL behavior with shifting even after being warned it would be more of a hindrance than a help were super frustrating all around.
You could definitely tell that this was a spin-off of some larger series, as new characters with glossed over back stories were introduced abruptly as deux ex machina plot devices. The dialogue was very simple, with very YA childish romance and plotting. I had to skim the intimate scenes; they were very poorly written and not hot at all.
Lastly, the author had seemed build up some possible enemy to lovers romance with the evil villain gargoyle POV and reminiscing, but he met a sudden end that made all those inner thoughts a waste of time to read. A very unsatisfying read overall, and I am not interested in checking out the main series.
---
Hunter Moon by Erzabet Bishop & Gina Kincade
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: ghosts
I enjoyed the two main characters, the medium FMC Zoe with the ghost Lowell, but the conflict was very superficial and trivially resolved, and the HEA came a little too easily. A lot of backstory wasn't properly explained or resolved, from how Lowell was able to manifest when it wasn't Halloween to what exactly happened with the murder mystery event and Zoe's friend. I'm undecided if I want to read any more books in the series based on this sample. I expect that they would probably be quick easy reads as well.
---
Shifter Mountain C.D. Gorri
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This story followed the mountain lion shifter MC Keeton after he encountered an injured Marilena (Lena) hiking on his remote property and their subsequent romance as fated mates. The plot was predictable and formulaic. Everyone was a rather shallow character. I was a bit tired of reading about the obsession over the Lena's plus-sized curves (for better or for worse) on pretty much every page, and there was a lot of telling rather than showing throughout the story. The flip-flopping of Lena's mom's personality made no sense and no impact on me and I lost track of the secondary cast introduced in a rush in the end as deux ex machina plot devices. Passing on the rest of this series.
Overall verdict was that this anthology was an okay read with only three stories worth checking out. I definitely skipped a lot of stories, and many were just mediocre for me.
---
Cursed Hearts by Siren Allen
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, vampires, trolls, magic
This story followed the meeting and romance of the Asian-American wolf shifter Yung and his fated mate African-American wolf shifter-vampire hybrid Iris after they first met each other in a club. The writing involved a lot of info-dumping and telling, which didn't make a very immersive and emotional read. I ended up quitting the story in the middle of Chapter 3 (of 7) because I found the emphasis on "smelling her arousal" and their burning uncontrollable "need" for each to be quite tacky. I didn't even get to any physical contact tbh; it was that awkward to read.
---
Call of the Ocelot by Sapphire Winters
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, detectives
This story introduced the FMC ocelet shifter (I just realized I don't think we actually ever learned her name, even through dialogue?), born in a leopard pack and kicked out because she wasn't a full leopard. She found a dead body on her yard and met human detective Everett, who seemed to be prepared as her romantic interest. Some investigating on her own revealed that the dead girl was
Spoiler
her brother's exSpoiler
her motherThe story ended very abruptly on the big reveal - I didn't realize this was a sneak peek? However, there was no ending author's note indicating there was a full story planned either. It was a very unexpected and unsatisfying - while sure, the mystery was ultimately solved, there was absolutely no actual romance and character development. There were 10 chapters, but each chapter was only 2-3 pages...
The writing also needed a decent amount of editing. The brother was introduced as "baby brother," but there were multiple instances where he was referred to as older instead, which was incredibly confusing.
---
Wild Springs by Melissa Bell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, hunters
This story involved human art curator FMC Jennifer and the wolf pack leader bounty hunter Declan Chase. DNF at Chapter 4 (of 11). It was another story full of info-dumping and contrived mating rules with a ton of telling. I had to laugh at descriptions like "a beautiful brunette with the hips of a well-bred female." When male wolf shifters owed favors to females, apparently that meant required servicing during heats unless they had a mate. Yeah... no thanks. That's not my idea of shifter romance.
---
His Treasure by Amanda Kimberley
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic
DNFed a few pages into Chapter 1 (of 10). This story seemed to set up for an age gap romance, but turned out not to be that bad. The young cougar shifter FMC Treasure was described to be no more than 15yo at first meet, and the MC wolf alpha Takoda was described to be a renowned powerful leader, so I had assumed he had quite a few years on her. It was later clarified that shifters lived anywhere from decades to centuries longer than humans, and Takoda was only about 5 years older than Treasure. I was weirded out by the concept of sending Treasure to another pack to grow up to then return to Takoda when she was of age (which seemed to be around 25yo to his 30yo). The grooming was not my cup of tea.
Additionally, the writing and descriptions just didn't work for me. Decades to centuries is a huge age range! Are shifters immortal or not? IMO, Treasure was also a very tacky name - not a "beautiful name for a beautiful girl." >_>
I tried reading a bit further than the prelude chapter, but the first chapter immediately went into a huge info dump about Takoda's current political issues with his ex-friend Nayati, and I got extremely bored.
Another big issue I had was that the term Omegas was introduced but never clarified; it seemed to imply the term meant all the unmated females in the pack rather than a typical omega caste/rank in a shifter pack which I would have been more interested in. Boo.
---
Bite Me Another Day by Zoe Forward
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, animal-sidekicks, magic, hunters
This story followed the vampire fixer Ty with long time crush/best friend vampire Ivy, who was forcibly arranged to be married by her parents to another vampire Hugo. The relationship setup between the two was interesting, and I enjoyed their silly banter, but the overall plot of escaping the bounty hunter that was hired to return Ivy to Hugo was mediocre. I really liked Ty's dog Alfie, but alas, he didn't do much but act as a guard when necessary. The ending didn't make much sense, but the two did get their HFN. An okay story, but nothing too exciting.
---
Hidden Shifter by N Gray
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, vampires
DNFed at Chapter 10 (of 31). This story followed the wildlife photographer FMC Ava as she stumbled upon the saber beast shifter Tyler, the chieftan's son, in the forest while out on a hike to take pictures. There was an excessive amount of telling and stilted dialogue that made for tedious reading. I also didn't understand the family relationships - Claw was described to be Tyler's brother, but Tyler didn't believe it. ??? Tyler's relationship with his father was super dysfunctional as well, and I didn't care enough for the characters to slog through another 20+ chapters to figure out what the real conflict was.
---
Sun-Burnt by Lori King
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This was a story of the insta-love fated mates relationship between the sun bear shifter Paige and the polar bear shifter Sebastian. Paige worked for a corrupt businessman and was looped into being a secret informant for the FBI with barely any training or support.
She was the worst spy ever, and there were so many plot holes over her activities. At one point, she was worried about getting caught with a flash drive in her underwear - why not just pass it off to Sebastian??
The smut was also pretty ridiculous. Sebastian was described to literally lick her everywhere in passion, and using the word "diddle" is not hot at all.
It was a predictable mediocre shifter romance that had an interesting setup but unfortunately the execution wasn't great.
---
Born Wilde by Lia Davis
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: demons, magic, shifters, assassins, clairvoyants, telepathy, telekinetics
This story followed the half soul demon, half witch FMC Nyla and her unwanted fated mate wolf shifter alpha Kasen. Both characteres were absurdly overpowered for no good reason. Nyla's soul demon ability apparently allowed her to gain magical powers from souls she ate. Kasen apparently inherited all the powers from all alphas before him, of which he was the 50th. After the story dumped like 20 characters with complicated familial relationships, I lost interest and quit at Chapter 3 (of 11).
This was the first book in a new series spun off from the Shifters of Ashwood Falls. I have no interest in exploring the rest of the world.
---
Promised to the Pack by Laney Powell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic, bikers, reverse-harem
This story mainly followed the FMC Lena after she found her fiance cheating on her with her best friend and escaped to the rival pack in revenge. By the time I quit in Chapter 9 (of 12), she had found two of her fated mates in the rival pack.
I couldn't stand the terrible writing and intimate scenes. There was a lot of narrating and telling and a multitude of characters introduced at once. Paragraphs were just one or two sentences at a time. Even though Lena was about to get married the next day, apparently she was still a virgin, yet she fell into bed with her first fated mate with no hesitation at all because she "loved him." Blech.
This was the first book in the author's newest Lone Wolves MC series. I am not interested in continuing with any further books.
---
Dragan's Fate by Skye Jones
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, fae, vampires, slaves, clairvoyants, magic
This story followed the latent wolf shifter Lisbeth after she ran away from her original pack after almost getting sexually assaulted. She was captured by vampires during her escape and auctioned off as a servant. Powerful vampire warrior Dragan found out that she was his unexpected fated mate, purchased her, and the story barreled down the hill in insta-love and society-changing prophecies from there.
The introduction was well written, but after Lisbeth met Dragan, everything was rushed with info dumps galore. Very superficial character development. An okay read and at least I finished it, but sadly, I still haven't seen a 4-plus-star rating story yet in this anthology...
---
Rocky Mountain Rapture by P. Mattern
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters
This story followed the FMC Cadie after she was scammed when trying to buy a winter resort owned by a pack of wolf shifters. I quit a handful of pages in due to the terrible grammar (multiple paragraph dialogue without opening quotation marks on each paragraph) and the excessive use of exclamations in the dialogue.
---
Black Heart by L.A. McGinnis
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, slaves, mercenaries, magic, telepaths, reverse-harem
This story followed the vampire FMC Contessa as she sought to escape a mating ceremony with her cruel vampire king. There was not enough character development in the story overall, and the villain was one-dimensionally evil. While the twists were admittedly surprising, one of the men was described to have telepathy powers.... where did any mention of that go?
The author's note indicated that this was a prequel to Darkfell Vampire Clan series, which is probably why this short story seemed to be rather sparse on character details. I'm unsure if I still want to check out more from this author.
---
Captured by Wolves by Fiona Starr
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: magic, fae, mafia, shifters, slaves, reverse-harem, clairvoyants
This story followed the unique technology magic witch Dana as she attempted to escape her abusive slave status with the local mafia. It wasn't a full length novel, but the story had a decent world and action, although not much character development - one man was unconscious for most of the story.
The author's note indicated that this was the first installment in the Shifter Moon series - I think I'm interested enough in checking out the next book when it releases.
---
Moon Claimed by Cecilia Lane
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters, clairvoyants
This story followed the wolf shifter alpha Abel as he went on a quest to find his fated mate, the human Dakota, in order to reclaim his inherited pack from his evil uncle. It was a pretty predictable formulaic plot, and it was never explained how Abel's father knew about Dakota to guide Abel down that search with his dying breaths. The villainous uncle was defeated quite summarily, and the story had insta-love to the max for a rather unsatisfying plot.
---
Feral Protector by Amy Pennza
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: post-apocalyptic, shifters
This story followed the doctor FMC Eden in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by the Lykos-D virus. Without a regular suppression drug, it turned humans into shifters that were reviled by humans. Turned shifters were referred to as ferals and lived outside the fortified cities.
I enjoyed Eden's assertive personality as well as the alpha romance interest that wasn't her shitty ex who set her up for sexual assault. I'd be interested to read more stories set in this post-apocalyptic world!
---
Blood Fortune by Julie Morgantown
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: clairvoyants, vampires, hunters
DNF at Chapter 8 of 25 when the clairvoyant FMC Sophia finally met the vampire Dorian she saw in her visions.
There was little too much passive musing and historical 1770s society with tons of misogyny for my taste. I also wasn't clear where the storyline was going with two main FMC POVs - one from Sophia and another from the vampiress Mila.
---
Sacred Shift by Theresa Hissong
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This story followed the virginal cougar shifter alpha FMC Sora as she travelled to a different pack for her elderly grandma after their old pack all died to shifter disease. Non-alphas needed to be blooded with an alpha to survive, or they would waste away.
It was an okay story with lots of stilted formal dialogue. The relationship was an insta-lust fated mates to the max and triggered by just a touch. The couple didn't have any real disagreements, and everything just progressed step-by-step after marginal waffling.
While there was an attempt to bring in some action with an evil wolf shifter conflict, it was honestly super random and didn't fit in well at all with the overall story flow. This looked like it was part of a larger series due to the characters introduced, but I am not interested based on this writing sample.
---
Garridan's Mate by Rebecca Hefner
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: vampires, magic
This story followed the two vampire military leaders Garridan and Siora. This was introduced as book #6.5 of the Etherya's Earth series. I enjoyed having two assertive main characters and the lack of insta-love in this story - the world and backstories of other characters sounded interesting that I will likely pick up other books to check out.
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Her Dragon Mate by Elle Boon
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: dragons, shifters, magic, clairvoyants, fae, unicorns, demons, telepaths, vampires
This story followed the pink dragon shifter FMC Belle as she was forbidden a romance with the dragon shifter heir Nikai due to her color.
There were multiple issues I had with the story. While it was later explained due to
Spoiler
vampire magic being involvedWhile the overall world sounded interesting, I don't think I'm interested in picking up other books based on the pacing of this writing sample.
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Assassin by Julia Mills
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: shifters, magic, dragons, assassins, paladins, gods, fae
DNF at Chapter 2 out of 10. It appeared that this was a story set in a pre-existing series, which I don't have a problem with, but having over 10+ characters introduced in less than 2 chapters was overwhelming, especially with so many different supernatural species involved. I couldn't keep them straight and quit out of lack of interest to attempt understanding.
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Shifting Fate by Carrie Pulkinen
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Tags: magic, hunters, demons, shifters, telekinetics, gargoyles, clairvoyants, reincarnation
This story followed the second-born wolf shifters Nick and Amber as they developed their romance. The plot points seemed a bit contrived, from second born shifters being unable to shift to all alpha family members must find a mate for the alpha to keep his position. Why would what other family members do with their relationships affect a dominant position of power?
Amber's gut feelings from her clairvoyance worked on magical hand-wavy assumptions to move story along, which felt like a very cheap story strategy. Her TSTL behavior with out-of-control newly-shifting
Spoiler
NoahYou could definitely tell that this was a spin-off of some larger series, as new characters with glossed over back stories were introduced abruptly as deux ex machina plot devices. The dialogue was very simple, with very YA childish romance and plotting. I had to skim the intimate scenes; they were very poorly written and not hot at all.
Lastly, the author had seemed build up some possible enemy to lovers romance with the evil villain gargoyle POV and reminiscing, but he met a sudden end that made all those inner thoughts a waste of time to read. A very unsatisfying read overall, and I am not interested in checking out the main series.
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Hunter Moon by Erzabet Bishop & Gina Kincade
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: ghosts
I enjoyed the two main characters, the medium FMC Zoe with the ghost Lowell, but the conflict was very superficial and trivially resolved, and the HEA came a little too easily. A lot of backstory wasn't properly explained or resolved, from how Lowell was able to manifest when it wasn't Halloween to what exactly happened with the murder mystery event and Zoe's friend. I'm undecided if I want to read any more books in the series based on this sample. I expect that they would probably be quick easy reads as well.
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Shifter Mountain C.D. Gorri
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: shifters
This story followed the mountain lion shifter MC Keeton after he encountered an injured Marilena (Lena) hiking on his remote property and their subsequent romance as fated mates. The plot was predictable and formulaic. Everyone was a rather shallow character. I was a bit tired of reading about the obsession over the Lena's plus-sized curves (for better or for worse) on pretty much every page, and there was a lot of telling rather than showing throughout the story. The flip-flopping of Lena's mom's personality made no sense and no impact on me and I lost track of the secondary cast introduced in a rush in the end as deux ex machina plot devices. Passing on the rest of this series.
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