Book Review: The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston

Title: The Unleashing
Series: Call of Crows, Book 1
Author: Shelly Laurenston
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: March 31, 2015 by Kensington

WINGING IT

Kera Watson never expected to face death behind a Los Angeles coffee shop. Not after surviving two tours lugging an M16 around the Middle East. If it wasn’t for her hot Viking customer showing up too late to help, nobody would even see her die.

In uncountable years of service to the Allfather Odin, Ludvig “Vig” Rundstrom has never seen anyone kick ass with quite as much style as Kera. He knows one way to save her life—but she might not like it. Signing up with the Crows will get Kera a new set of battle buddies: cackling, gossiping, squabbling, party-hearty women. With wings. So not the Marines.

But Vig can’t give up on someone as special as Kera. With a storm of oh-crap magic speeding straight for L.A., survival will depend on combining their strengths: Kera’s discipline, Vig’s loyalty… and the Crows’ sheer love of battle. Boy, are they in trouble.

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Reviewed by: Babs

Book Review: Charmed and Dangerous Anthology

Title: Charmed and Dangerous: Ten Tales of Gay Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy
Authors: Rhys Ford, Ginn Hale, KJ Charles, Nicole Kimberling, Jordan Castillo Price, Jordan L. Hawk, Charlie Cochet, Lou Harper, Andrea Speed and Astrid Amara
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: August 25, 2015 b y JCP Books LLC

Magic takes many forms. From malignant hexes to love charms gone amok, you’ll find a vast array of spells and curses, creatures and conjurings in this massive collection—not to mention a steamy dose of man-on-man action. Charmed and Dangerous features all-new stories of gay paranormal romance, supernatural fiction and urban fantasy by ten top m/m paranormal authors.

Rhys Ford - Dim Sum Asylum
Ginn Hale - Swift and the Black Dog
KJ Charles - A Queer Trade
Nicole Kimberling - Magically Delicious
Jordan Castillo Price - Everyone's Afraid of Clowns
Jordan L. Hawk - The Thirteenth Hex
Charlie Cochet - The Soldati Prince
Lou Harper - One Hex Too Many
Andrea Speed - Josh of the Damned vs. the Bathroom of Doom
Astrid Amara - The Trouble With Hexes

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Phantom Embrace by Dianne Duvall

Title: Phantom Embrace (Part of the On the Hunt Anthology)
Series: Immortal Guardians, Book 5.5
Author: Dianne Duvall
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: August 25, 2015 by Zebra

ON THE HUNT by Alexandra Ivy
Mika Tanner has loved Bailey Morrell, a beautiful Healer, since childhood. But his duty as a Sentinel, a supernatural guardian of an ancient race, clashed with her rebellious spirit. Now a dangerous new anarchist group not only threatens life as they know it—but any chance of their being together again...

SCORPIUS RISING by Rebecca Zanetti
While searching for a meteorite, Nora Mendina is arrested by her sheriff ex-husband—who's only gotten hotter than the Nevada desert since she last saw him. When the meteorite breaks open, the few survivors gain extraordinary powers, unleashing a crazed super genius killer. Can Nora and her ex stop the murders…while igniting a new love affair?

PHANTOM EMBRACE by Dianne Duvall
Immortal Yuri Sokolov was born with the ability to see spirits, yet he's never seen one as lovely as Cat Seddon, the woman who haunts his home and his dreams. But amid their star-crossed love, a new danger may have Yuri facing a different kind of eternity.

STAKE OUT by Hannah Jayne
Vampire fashion designer Nina LaShay has a lot on her plate—just two days until fashion week and the model who was flirting with her photographer boyfriend is now a corpse in her studio. But when dead turns into undead and dangerous, Nina must find out who’s responsible…before the beautiful baby vamp takes too many bites out of the Big Apple.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Shadows Strike by Dianne Duvall

Title: Shadows Strike
Series: Immortal Guardians, Book 6
Author: Dianne Duvall
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: August 25, 2015 by Zebra

U.S. law enforcement agent Heather Lane can read minds. But not the future. The dream of battle and blood that recurs every night must be a fluke, some obscure terror from her own mind. What its significance might be, she can’t guess: an attack from seven psychotic vampires at once, only separated from nightmare by an eighth very different immortal. A handsome, brave man fighting at her side, a man she misses when she wakes.

Then the dream comes true. Heather is flung into a war between predators and protectors of humanity, the man from her dreams beside her again. Except now that she’s awake, she isn’t sure she can trust Ethan, or the shadow organization he represents. The U.S. military doesn’t trust either of them. But against an onslaught of evil like the one that’s coming, it will take everything they have just to survive.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: In His Wildest Dreams by Marie Treanor

Title: In His Wildest Dreams
Author: Marie Treanor
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: August 26, 2014 by Samhain Publishing

Every dream can come true…in unexpected ways.

The only time Glenn Brody acted on the waking dreams his mother called second sight, he landed in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he keeps himself grounded in the real world, turning a neglected Scottish mansion into a co-op that gives ex-cons a second chance.

He’s almost managed to ignore the persistent, erotically charged dreams featuring a beautiful, passionate woman—until that woman accosts him in the street to ask for a job.

In hiding from her violent ex, Izzy Ross has made a peaceful life for herself and her young son in the isolated Highland village of Ardknocken. Handsome men with a criminal record aren’t high on her list, but when work dries up, she’s forced to ask Glenn for a menial cleaning job at the big, dusty house.

Their mutual attraction turns all their preconceived notions upside down, and stirs the mansion’s legendary ghost. Attracting the kind of media attention that could force Glenn to make a perilous choice to save the woman he’s grown to love.

Warning: Contains a mansion full of unlikely heroes, liberal and colorful use of Scottish slang, a medieval ghost, and enough hot sex to spice up the chilliest Highland night.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Flight from Death by Yasmine Galenorn

Title: Flight from Death
Series: Fly by Night, Book 1
Author: Yasmine Galenorn
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: July 7, 2015 by Berkley

I’m Shimmer, a blue dragon shifter. Thanks to a mistake, I was exiled from the Dragon Reaches and sentenced to work for Alex Radcliffe, a vampire who owns the Fly by Night Magical Investigations Agency. Now, not only do I have to adapt to Earthside culture, but every time I turn around, somebody’s trying to kill us. And worse, Alex is as gorgeous as he is exasperating. But you know what they say: All’s fair in love and bounty hunting…

When an old friend of Alex contacts him about a haunting at the High Tide Bed & Breakfast in Port Townsend, Washington, we think we’re on a simple ghost hunt. But our investigation quickly transforms into a deadly fight as we uncover an eighty-year-old murder, a cursed house, and a dark force trapping the spirits within. To stop impending disaster we must break the curse and lay the angry spirits to rest.

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Reviewed by: Babs

Book Review: Energized by Mary Behre

Title: Energized
Series: Tidewater, Book 3
Author: Mary Behre
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: August 4, 2015 by Berkley

She’s searching for a sign...
Hannah Halloran has always believed in her gift. The things she sees through her psychic touch have never led her wrong before. Not when they led her to an unforgettable night with a sexy marine at a bar. Not when she felt a need to leave her home and find the sisters she barely knows. And not now, when she is an unwilling witness to a brutal murder...

He’s ready to show her...
All Niall Graham wants is some peace. He’s recovering from the horrors of war, struggling to save his family’s restaurant, and desperate to forget Hannah, the beautiful woman who left him with memories of a mind-blowing night together and a bogus phone number. But a quiet life is hard to manage—especially when Hannah strides back into his restaurant with the news that a serial killer is on the loose and lurking closer than anyone could have guessed...

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Chase the Darkness by J.D. Tyler

Title: Chase the Darkness
Series: Alpha Pack, Book 7
Author: J.D. Tyler
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: August 4, 2015 by Signet

Believed dead by his Pack mates, Micah Chase, a wolf shifter and Dreamwalker, was held captive for months, subject to tortures that left him physically scarred and emotionally unsettled.

Now under the care of the Alpha Pack’s doctors, he’s been prescribed an experimental healing drug, but he still can’t shake the nightmares. Even more damning is that Micah’s problems pose a danger to his team, and if he doesn’t get himself under control, they’ll all suffer a terrible fate.

There is a key to his salvation. Jacee is a beautiful coyote shifter, and though her kind is hated, she’s falling in love with a man whose very future is in her hands. Together they’ll face his personal demons as well as a deadly enemy—and for both of them desire has never come with such risk.

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Shards of Hope by Nalini Singh

Title: Shards of Hope
Series: Psy-Changeling, Book 14
Author: Nalini Singh
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: June 2, 2015 by Berkley

Awakening wounded in a darkened cell, their psychic abilities blocked, Aden and Zaira know they must escape. But when the lethal soldiers break free from their mysterious prison, they find themselves in a harsh, inhospitable landscape far from civilization. Their only hope for survival is to make it to the hidden home of a predatory changeling pack that doesn’t welcome outsiders.

And they must survive. A shadowy enemy has put a target on the back of the Arrow squad, an enemy that cannot be permitted to succeed in its deadly campaign. Aden will cross any line to keep his people safe for this new future, where even an assassin might have hope of a life beyond blood and death and pain. Zaira has no such hope. She knows she’s too damaged to return from the abyss. Her driving goal is to protect Aden, protect the only person who has ever come back for her no matter what.

This time, even Aden’s passionate determination may not be enough—because the emotionless chill of Silence existed for a reason. For the violent, and the insane, and the irreparably broken…like Zaira.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Power of the Fae by Ariel Marie

Title: Power of the Fae
Series: The Mirrored Prophecy, Book 1
Author: Ariel Marie
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: June 10, 2015 (self-published)

The Ancients spoke of a Mirrored Prophecy that would determine the future. One version of the prophecy spoke of a small female of mixed heritage giving birth to a child that will save mankind. The other side of the prophecy spoke of the female’s child being the demise of the world.

The Princess of the Light Fae, Arlina Waldmar, may be small but she is deadly. She is a member of the elite Guardians of the Fae. She has been given the assignment of going to the human realm to investigate the vanishing supernaturals.

Colin MacKenzie, Alpha wolf, has determined that finding a mate is not in his future. His people are vanishing. He will need to lead his Legion, defenders of werewolves to find them. His wolf has recognized a certain dark haired Faery Princess to be his mate, but he refuses to claim her.

There is an evil set on destroying the Human and Faery realms. Colin and Arlina must work together to defeat this evil. His thoughts are constantly on Arlina. Arlina knows there is no fighting the attraction between them. Can she convince him to give them a chance before it’s too late?

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Eighth Grave After Dark by Darynda Jones

Title: Eighth Grave After Dark
Series: Charley Davidson, Book 8
Author: Darynda Jones
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: May 19, 2015 by St. Martin’s Press

With twelve hellhounds after her, pregnant Charley Davidson takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can’t get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. But after months of being cooped up there, Charley is ready to pop. Both metaphorically and literally since she is now roughly the size of a beached whale. Fortunately, a new case has captured her attention, one that involves a murder on the very grounds the team has taken shelter upon. A decades-old murder of the newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows is almost enough to pull her out of her doldrums.

Charley’s been forbidden to step foot off the sacred grounds. While the angry hellhounds can’t traverse the consecrated soil, they can lurk just beyond its borders. They have the entire team on edge, especially Reyes. And if Charley didn’t know better, she would swear Reyes is getting sick. He grows hotter with every moment that passes, his heat scorching across her skin every time he’s near, but naturally he swears he’s fine.

While the team searches for clues on the Twelve, Charley just wants answers and is powerless to get them. But the mass of friends they’ve accrued helps. They convince her even more that everyone in her recent life has somehow been drawn to her, as though they were a part of a bigger picture all along. But the good feelings don’t last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life….

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Reviewed by: Sara

Book Review: Grave Phantoms by Jenn Bennett

Title: Grave Phantoms
Series: Roaring Twenties, Book 3
Author: Jenn Bennett
Genre: Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: May 5, 2015 by Berkley Sensation

Feisty flapper Astrid Magnusson is home from college and yearning for the one thing that’s always been off limits: Bo Yeung, her notorious bootlegging brother’s second-in-command. Unfortunately her dream of an easy reunion proves difficult after a violent storm sends a mysterious yacht crashing into the Magnussons’ docks. What’s worse, the boat disappeared a year ago, and the survivors are acting strangely…

Bo has worked with the Magnusson family for years, doing whatever is needed, including keeping his boss’s younger sister out of trouble—and his hands to himself. Of course, that isn’t so easy after Astrid has a haunting vision about the yacht’s disappearance, plunging them into an underground world of old money and dark magic. Danger will drive them closer together, but surviving their own forbidden feelings could be the bigger risk.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Ever Night by Gena Showalter

Title: Ever Night
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: May 19, 2015 by InterMix

Rose Pascal is swept into a dark, haunting realm every year on her birthday, only to return home the next day. She dreads each visit…even as she craves appearing before the realm’s warrior king, a deliciously maddening man who has spent his life hunting and killing her kind—with good reason. They are supposed to be enemies, but neither can deny the passion sizzling between them. With time running out, can they find a way to be together forever?

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Reviewed by: Sara

Book Review: Johnnie by Cardeno C.

Title: Johnnie
Series: Siphon, Book 1
Author: Cardeno C.
Genre: Paranormal Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: March 11, 2015 by The Romance Authors

A Premier lion shifter, Hugh Landry dedicates his life to leading the Berk pride with strength and confidence. Hundreds of people depend on Hugh for safety, success, and happiness. And at over a century old, with more power than can be contained in one body, Hugh relies on a Siphon lion shifter to carry his excess force.

When the Siphon endangers himself and therefore the pride, Hugh must pay attention to the man who has been his silent shadow for a decade. What he learns surprises him, but what he feels astounds him even more.
Two lions, each born to serve, rely on one another to survive. After years by each other’s side, they’ll finally realize the depth of their potential, the joy in their passion, and a connection their kind has never known.

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Accepting the Alpha by J.J. Black

Title: Accepting the Alpha
Series: Great Lakes Wolves, Book 1
Author: J.J. Black
Genre: Paranormal Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: Review copy provided by publisher
Published: February 14, 2014 by Totally Bound

Can an Alpha wolf convince his straight mate to give love a chance, before an unexpected enemy tries to rob them of all they hold dear…even their own lives?

Eli Steele is a wolf without a pack. An invitation from his best friend, brings him to Grand Rapids, and a meeting with the local Alpha changes Eli’s life in ways he ever expected.
Kellan Reeves, Alpha of the Grand Rapids Pack, had lost hope of ever finding his mate until Eli came to him, looking for a pack. Realising Eli is his mate, he feels things couldn’t be more perfect…discounting the angry pack Eli left behind. There’s also the insignificant fact that Eli’s not gay. It’s nothing an Alpha wolf can’t handle.

While Eli struggles to understand his feelings for Kellan, an unexpected call for help has everyone on edge. As enemies move in and a horrifying plot is revealed, Kellan and Eli fight back, not only for themselves, but for the fate of all shifters.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Midnight’s Kiss by Thea Harrison

Title: Midnight’s Kiss
Series: Elder Races, Book 8
Author: Thea Harrison
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: May 5, 2015 by Berkley Sensation

Ever since their scorching affair ended years ago, Julian, the Nightkind King, and Melisande, daughter of the Light Fae Queen, have tried to put the past behind them—and distance between them. But when a war breaks out between Julian and Justine, a powerful Vampyre of the Nightkind council, they find themselves thrown together under treacherous circumstances…

Kidnapped as leverage against Julian, Melly is convinced that her former lover won’t be rushing to her rescue. But when Julian gives himself up to save her, they both end up Justine’s captives. Armed only with their wits and their anger, Melly and Julian must work together to escape. But will they be able to ignore their complicated history, or will the fiery passion that once burned them blaze again?

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Releasing the Shifter by Summer Devon

Title: Releasing the Shifter
Series: Solitary Shifters, Book 3
Author: Summer Devon
Genre: Paranormal Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: May 5, 2015 by Samhain Publishing

To save his love he must face his monster and—worse—be nice to people.

Montag is a monster. He doesn’t know what sort of creature he would turn into if he ever let himself shift, but he knows it’s something predatory and lethal. He fights back the urge to shift every day of his life, and has never dared get close to anyone—not that they want him to. He can literally smell their fear.

Kevin’s not scared of monsters. He works for the SSU, the agency in charge of tracking shifters—particularly the dangerous ones. When he and his young niece are kidnapped by her scum-bucket dad, he’s grateful to be rescued by Montag, whose curmudgeonly defenses can’t hide the kind man beneath.

As they work together to protect Kevin’s niece, attraction sizzles between them. But their relationship may not survive if Montag learns who writes Kevin’s paycheck—or if Montag dares to confront the inner monster he hates and fears.

Warning: Contains a grouchy virgin shifter (and we mean virginal in all possible ways), a hero with a back pocket full of secrets, and a couple of jerks.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: The Shadows by J.R. Ward

Title: The Shadows
Series: Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 13
Author: J.R. Ward
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: Review copy provided by publisher
Published: March 31, 2015 by NAL

Trez “Latimer” doesn’t really exist. And not just because the identity was created so that a Shadow could function in the underbelly of the human world. Sold by his parents to the Queen of the S’Hsibe as a child, Trez escaped the Territory and has been a pimp and an enforcer in Caldwell, NY for years- all the while on the run from a destiny of sexual servitude. He’s never had anyone he could totally rely on... except for his brother, iAm.

iAm’s sole goal has always been to keep his brother from self-destructing- and he knows he’s failed. It’s not until the Chosen Serena enters Trez’s life that the male begins to turn things around... but by then it’s too late. The pledge to mate the Queen’s daughter comes due and there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no negotiating.

Trapped between his heart and a fate he never volunteered for, Trez must decide whether to endanger himself and others- or forever leave behind the female he’s in love with. But then an unimaginable tragedy strikes and changes everything. Staring out over an emotional abyss, Trez must find a reason to go on or risk losing himself and his soul forever. And iAm, in the name of brotherly love, is faced with making the ultimate sacrifice.

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Darkness Eternal by Alexandra Ivy

Title: Darkness Eternal
Series: Guardians of Eternity, Book 7.5
Author: Alexandra Ivy
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: March 31, 2015

After being held captive by one vampire for four centuries, Kata had no intention of taking another one to the underworld with her. Yet even in the pits of Hell, there’s no ignoring the intoxicating desire awakened by Uriel’s touch...

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Reviewed by: J9

Book Review: Tame a Wild Human by Kari Gregg

Title: Tame a Wild Human
Author: Kari Gregg
Genre: Paranormal Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: January 19, 2015 by Riptide Publishing

Drugged, bound, and left as bait on the cusp of the lunar cycle, Wyatt Redding is faced with a terrifying set of no-win scenarios. Best case: he survives the coming days as a werewolf pack’s plaything and returns to the city as a second-class citizen with the mark—and protection—of the pack. Worst case: the wolves sate their lusts with Wyatt’s body, then send him home without their protection, condemning him to live out the rest of his short life as a slave to the worst of humanity’s scorn and abuse.

Wyatt’s only chance is to swallow every ounce of pride, bury his fear, and meekly comply with every wicked desire and carnal demand the wolf pack makes of him. He expects three days of sex and humiliation. What he doesn’t expect is to start enjoying it. Or to grow attached to his captor and pack Alpha, Cole.

As the lunar cycle ends, Wyatt begins to realize that the only thing to fear more than being sent home without the pack’s protection is being sent home at all.

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Reviewed by: Crissy