Space, Shifters, Romance and Sales

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about any single book or series. Well, let’s be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve posted a lot of anything. But since life with a new baby in the house is starting to settle down, and since I’m again finding a daily groove, I think it’s well past time to once again begin posting about books. So…

Last year I saw an ad for a sci-fi/fantasy book about space travelling dragon shapeshifters. At the time, I thought “what the heck, let’s give it a try?” and I bought Abducting Abby by S.E. Smith. The story of Abby Tanner and dragonshifter Zoran Reykill, leader of the Valdier, kicks off the Dragon Lords of Valdier series. From there it branches off with the related series: Curizan Warriors, Sarafin Warriors and Marastin Dow, and the Dragonlings of Valdier – a second generation series from the other series I just listed. When I started reading I had no idea what I was getting myself into. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise.

As I followed Abby, Cara, Trisha, Ariel, Carmen and the other women from Earth as they met and fell in love with the various warriors who claim them, I was happily entranced with the stories. For someone like myself who firmly believes that there is life “out there” the imaginative possibilities presented by S.E. Smith was like giving an unlimited supply of candy to a kid. And what’s even better, is that these books are interesting enough that I can re-read them over and over.

But you know what’s really great?

Right now – September 1-3, 2017 – all of Smith’s e-books are on sale for just 99 cents. So right now is a really great time to stock up… and read! Explore the titles of all S.E. Smith's series here.

S.E. Smith Facebook

S.E. Smith Twitter

S.E. Smith G+

And you can find even more ways to fan-stalk Smith, in all the good ways I mean, on her website!

S.E. Smith Website

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I've Been Reading

So my world of reading has been sort of here and there lately. Between baby stuff, kid stuff, business stuff, and life stuff, we’ve been pretty busy lately. Or I’ve just been too exhausted to do much of anything besides sleep. I have however managed to read a couple new (to me) books this month, and re-read a few old favorites.

The Sisters of the Craft Trilogy by Lori Handeland

The three books in this series are ones I picked up on a whim, all together, during a visit to my local bookstore during the holiday season. (I should have been shopping for Christmas gifts for other people, but as usual I was lured into buying myself something while I was at it!) And then they sat on my bookshelf waiting. I finally picked up the first one a couple weekends ago and ended up devouring all three within a few days.

I loved the story. The magic of it, the mystery, the romance. I loved the way Lori allowed the plot to develop naturally, without much of the forced leaps or tough jumps in timeline or logic that many trilogies (and far too many series) end up laying out for the reader. I think having the magic or paranormal aspect to the story was at least one of the big reasons why the story didn’t feel forced and why the relationships that formed felt right.

I also enjoyed the fact that though you can fully understand and follow the stories in the trilogy, they are linked (however direct/indirectly) to her other series. That doesn’t mean that you need to read the other stories – but it is a great indicator that if you like this trilogy you’ll also like her other works!

Check out the details of these three books here and if you like, spend some time exploring the rest of the author’s website to learn more about her other works.

The Maggie’s Grove Series by Dana Marie Bell

A community of paranormal beings is nestled in the woods of Maryland. Vampires, dryads, werewolves and anything else you can imagine lives there. When I first stumbled upon this series a few years ago it was new and over time, I’ve truly enjoyed watching as the series has progressed, and how the characters have grown and changed. From the first glimpse of Maggie’s Grove and its menagerie of characters in Blood of the Maple it’s been a series that I’ve loved and have come back to time and again… Just as I did earlier this month when I was in a slump and searching for something lovely to read.

For information about all the books of the series so far, please check out the author’s website here.

The Interstellar Brides Series by Grace Goodwin

Several months ago, as many as six even, one of the books in this series was offered at a discounted rate through Book Bub. I’d just finished another space, sci-fi series and figured I’d get the book just to see. I bought it and then got distracted and never read it. A couple weeks ago I started to see sponsored ads on Facebook for a different book from the series, the most recent release Her Mate’s Secret Baby, and thought well before I buy any more I’m going to go back and read the one of I’ve got. Let’s just say that I liked that one enough that I’ve since ended up buying the other 8 books currently available in the series.

These books lean more to the erotic side of the romance spectrum – something I’m not opposed to, but something that I don’t regularly read either. Many of the books in this series include ménages. They all include aspects of BDSM. If that’s something you’re not in to, or don’t enjoy reading about for sheer curiosity or for the sake of entertainment, then these books are very likely not for you. However, if you enjoy a hot read, and hotter men, then pick up these books. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

There are currently 9 books available in the series, with 4 more set to release this year. There is a certain amount of chronology to the story lines but, I think, they could all be read as stand-alone stories with little confusion.

For info about the currently released titles, look here for the author’s booklist. If you’re interested in the “correct” order of the books here it is:

Prequel: Mastered By Her Mates

#1- Assigned A Mate

#2- Mated To The Warriors

#3- Claimed By Her Mates

#4- Taken By Her Mates

#5- Mated To The Beast

#6- Tamed By The Beast

#7- Mated To The Vikens

#8- Her Mate’s Secret Baby

Other recent reading has included a re-read of Dark Seduction (book 1, Masters of Time) by Brenda Joyce, My Christmas Fiance by Serenity Woods, The Brands Who Came For Christmas by Maggie Shayne, and His Jingle Bell Princess by Barbara Dunlop.

So… What have you been reading?

Paranormal, Fantasy and Sci-Fi Reading This October

This October, seeing as how it’s the month of ghouls, goblins, witches, vampires and all things scary and out of the ordinary, I decided that I’d focus my reading on stories of fantasy, sci-fi and, of course, the paranormal.  And so the first half of October saw me reading some old favorites – catching up with old friends – and finding some truly wonderful new material.  So take a look at my list and tell me what you think!

Jacquelyn Frank

          Seduce Me in Dreams

          Seduce Me in Flames

Gena Showalter

          Lord of the Vampires

Jill Monroe

          Lord of Rage

Sherrilyn Kenyon

          Born of Night

          Born of Fire

          Born of Shadows

          Born of Ice

          Fire and Ice

The Three Worlds novels by Jacquelyn Frank (both titles listed above) are amazing stories.  Like her Nightwalkers, Shadowdwellers, and Gatherers series, these stories feature strong alpha-type hero’s and women with the power, beauty and confidence to perfectly match them.  Her stories are always worth the cost, time and effort to read and for those of you who decide to pick up one of her books, no matter what the title or series that it comes from, you will not be disappointed.

It’s a very rare day that I pick up a Sherrilyn Kenyon novel and not like the story.  The League series, of which all the aforementioned SK titles belong to, is one that I particularly enjoy because it’s completely different from the other stories that she’s written, (at least so far as I’ve read thus far!) and yet they still manages to capture a reader’s attention and interest almost immediately.  Unlike her Dark-Hunters, Dream-Hunters, Chronicles of Nick, Brotherhood of the Sword, and Lords of Avalon series, The League is completely fantasy based with no ‘Earth’ link, which is something that I don’t often find in the genre’s that I read but that I always seem to like just for the awesome alternatives that it offers.  The next book in this series is Born of Silence, featuring ‘Darling Cruel’ the beloved and quirky character that we’ve seen in almost every other League story, and is slated to come out in April 2012.

The other two books listed – by Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe – are the first two books in the Royal House of Shadows series being published by Harlequin this fall.  Books three and four, by Jessica Andersen and Nalini Singh respectively, will be available in November (#3) and December (#4) and like the first two are highly anticipated by readers, fans and critics alike.  Based on the first two books I would say that the series, when complete, is going to be a very cool accomplishment and set of works by some of paranormal romances best authors.  (A full review of these books and the series will come in December, once all the books have been released… and read by Moi!)

Check out this video trailer for the entire series – originally from the Paranormal Romance Blog’s source page for this series… I promise, it is awesome as it looks!