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

amazon | goodreads

Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Bayou Blues by Sierra Dean

Title: Bayou Blues
Series: Genie McQueen, Book 1
Author: Sierra Dean
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: bought
Published: March 20, 2015 (self-published)

When your sister has saved the world, you have a lot to live up to.

Genie McQueen thought she’d seen it all after helping her big sister Secret stop the Apocalypse. The dead walked, New York City burned, and things nearly went to hell in a hand basket. After it was all over, the world knew about vampires and werewolves, and Genie’s life would never be the same.

But now, three years later, someone doesn’t want werewolves or any supernatural creatures to live alongside humans. A new anti-werewolf church with a charismatic leader and a cult-like following has declared open season on Genie’s whole species. When a member of her pack is kidnapped, she decides it’s time to stop going with the flow and to step up and fight for her people.

Tagging along for the ride is a handsome troublemaker, Wilder Shaw, a pack outsider who just wants to save his brother, but will leave Genie’s head spinning in the process.

Equally troubling are the ghosts of her past she can’t quite shake, the nightmarish figures who haunt her even when she’s wide awake, and a dark magic inside her she hasn’t yet learned to tame.

Things are about to get messy in the bayou.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: The Veil by Chloe Neill

Title: The Veil
Series: Devil’s Isle, Book 1
Author: Chloe Neill
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: August 4, 2015 by NAL

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil's Isle.

Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.

Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.

But when the Veil threatens to shatter completely, Claire and Liam must work together to stop it, or else New Orleans will burn…

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Reviewed by: Sara

Book Review: Visions by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Visions
Series: Cainsville, Book 2
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: August 19, 2014 by Dutton

Omens, the first installment in Kelley Armstrong’s exciting new series, introduced Olivia Taylor-Jones, daughter of notorious serial killers, and Gabriel Walsh, the self-serving, morally ambiguous lawyer who became her unlikely ally. Together, they chased down a devious killer and partially cleared her parents of their horrifying crimes.

Their success, however, is short-lived. While Olivia takes refuge in the old, secluded town of Cainsville, Gabriel’s past mistakes have come to light, creating a rift between the pair just when she needs his help the most.

Olivia finds a dead woman in her car, dressed to look like her, but the body vanishes before anyone else sees it. Olivia’s convinced it’s another omen, a sign of impending danger. But then she learns that a troubled young woman went missing just days ago—the same woman Olivia found dead in her car. Someone has gone to great lengths to kill and leave this young woman as a warning. But why? And what role has her new home played in this disturbing murder?

Olivia’s effort to uncover the truth places her in the crosshairs of old and powerful forces, forces that have their own agenda, and closely guarded secrets they don’t want revealed.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

Title: Cursed Moon
Series: Prospero’s War, Book 2
Author: Jaye Wells
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: bought
Published: August 12, 2014 by Orbit

When a rare Blue Moon upsets the magical balance in the city, Detective Kate Prospero and her Magical Enforcement colleagues pitch in to help Babylon PD keep the peace. Between potions going haywire and everyone's emotions running high, every cop in the city is on edge. But the moon's impact is especially strong for Kate who's wrestling with guilt over falling off the magic wagon.

After a rogue wizard steals dangerous potions from the local covens, Kate worries their suspect is building a dirty magic bomb. Her team must find the anarchist rogue before the covens catch him, and make sure they defuse the bomb before the Blue Moon deadline. Failure is never an option, but success will require Kate to come clean about her secrets.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Flax’s Pursuit by Angel Martinez and Bellora Quinn

Title: Flax’s Pursuit
Series: AURA Series, Book 2
Author: Angel Martinez and Bellora Quinn
Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: June 16, 2015 by Pride Publishing

Quinn and Valerian have come through the trials of facing an undead lich queen and the perils of falling in love. Now they work to restore AURA to its previous strength and efficiency while navigating their new life with each other. Fortunately, they’re not in this alone.

Kai Hiltas has taken over as the head of the research department at AURA and has become everyone’s favourite workaholic, everyone except his lover Tenzin, who has had enough of his late nights and broken promises. As Kai tries to salvage his relationship, he finds a teacher for Quinn, who also happens to be one of Valerian’s new officers, Flax Wolfheart, a sexy elf with trouble written all over him.

Flax has motives beyond simply teaching Quinn to control his magic. He’s trying to recover from his own losses and failures, but he has a plan. The two newest elvish crossovers, Ash and Sage, are sizzling hot and might even like him. With them as backup as he tracks a deadly stone mage and figures out how to teach Quinn, Flax sees his chance to impress Val and snag a place by his captain’s side. On the hunt for both danger and redemption, Flax’s pursuit leads him ultimately down trails he never expected.

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Ink and Shadows by Rhys Ford

Title: Ink and Shadows
Series: Ink and Shadows, Book 1
Author: Rhys Ford
Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Mild
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: July 7, 2015 by Dreamspinner Press

Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.

For the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.

And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.

The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.

Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.

When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.

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Reviewed by: Lesley

Book Review: Quinn’s Gambit by Angel Martinez and Bellora Quinn

Title: Quinn’s Gambit
Series: AURA Series, Book 1
Author: Bellora Quinn and Angel Martinez
Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by publisher
Published: March 6, 2015 by Pride Publishing

An unregistered, human con wizard and a duty-bound, straightlaced elf cop. As New York explodes with dangerous creatures, their passion goes nuclear.

After a terrible magical accident at Berkeley created unpredictable holes between realities—all manner of non-human creatures started popping into our world. These displacements, called RARE—Random Anomalous Reality Events—have taken magic out of fiction and relocated it firmly in reality, resulting in a great deal of chaos and confusion. Displaced elf Valerian works with AURA—the Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation—to intercept these beings as they appear in the human world, helping the peaceful ones and subduing the violent, malevolent ones. It’s good, satisfying work, and Val would be happy if he wasn’t so lonely.

Quinten is a young mage just trying to get by, but New York isn't the easiest city to make a living. If his methods are sometimes morally dubious, his heart is still in the right place. Of course for Quinn, the right place means firmly locked away, protected at all costs. Living by his wits and sometimes magically-induced luck, he works as a ‘free-lance magic user’, or unregistered mage and small time con—according to the authorities. The last thing Quinn wants is to draw the cops’ attention, but when an Event happens right on top of him, he’s forced to turn to AURA for help. Valerian isn’t at all what he’d expected in an AURA cop, and he certainly wasn't expecting to join forces with the sexy elf, a snarky drow and a bitter incubus when certain individuals in power try to stop the RARE by any means necessary.

Things are not all what they seem at AURA headquarters, and a greater evil lurks at the top than anyone could have imagined.

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Misery’s Way by J.C. Daniels

Title: Misery’s Way
Series: Colbana Files, Book 4.5
Author: J.C. Daniels
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: June 22, 2015 (self-published)

Her name is Frankie. At least, that’s what she calls herself.

She looks human, but she’s no more human than she is a faith-healer. That doesn’t stop her from using her…more unique abilities to take care of certain needs. It’s those abilities that lead to a chance encounter with an unusual woman in Florida.

It’s a chance encounter with fate that will set these two down a collision course with destiny.

amazon | goodreads

Reviewed by: Sara

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: Fallout by Lisa Henry and M. Caspian

Title: Fallout
Author: Lisa Henry and M. Caspian
Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided by author
Published: April 17, 2015 by Smashwords

High-school boyfriends Jack Haldane and Bastian Wade thought everything would be perfect once they reunited at college, putting disapproving parents and small-town attitudes firmly in the past. Now Jack’s on track for a PhD scholarship and a career as a researcher, and Bastian . . . well, living inside a broken body and trailing along in Jack’s shadow didn’t feature in his lofty teenage ambitions.

A weekend camping trip back home offers a chance for them to reconnect, but an ugly confrontation with the local motorcycle gang is only the start of their problems. When disaster occurs and the world unravels, will Bastian and Jack manage to hold on to each other, or fall further apart as they try to survive?

amazon | goodreads

Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Icebound by Corinna Rogers

Title: Icebound
Series: Mortals & Myths
Author: Corinna Rogers
Genre: Urban Fantasy, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: September 25, 2014 by HarperImpulse

It’s been ten years since Shane Conell sold his soul to the Ice King in order to save the life of the man he loves. Correction, loved.

After ten years, it’s growing difficult to remember love, and hate, and laughter – until a chance appears to get back the only thing his frozen heart still wants…

Drake Young is doing fine. Really. He’s got a good job, nice benefits, and the soulless husk of his old lover only comes by to torment him every so often. However, it only takes the appearance of a creature from the Etherworld wreaking havoc on the decidedly nonmagical city streets to drag him out of retirement, forcing him to team up with the one person he can’t bear even to look at!

Now, Drake and Shane must race against the clock to keep their city from being destroyed, even if it means working together. And no matter how difficult it is to catch the creature, it’s a hell of a lot more difficult to resist the urges that ten years haven’t managed to kill.

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Reviewed by: Crissy

Book Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Title: Rivers of London
Series: Peter Grant, Book 1
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Mild
Source: bought
Published: January 10, 2011 by Gollancz

My name is Peter Grant. Until January I was just another probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth. My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - We do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was dead, but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Chief Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. And that, as they say, is where the story begins.

Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated. I'm dealing with nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden - and that's just routine. There's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.

The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying. Which, I don't mind telling you, would involve a hell of a lot of paperwork.

amazon | goodreads

Reviewed by: Monica

Book Review: Black Widow by Jennifer Estep {plus Giveaway!}

Title: Black Widow
Series: Elemental Assassin, Book 12
Author: Jennifer Estep
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: November 25, 2014 by Pocket Books

There’s nothing worse than a cruel, cunning enemy with time to kill—and my murder to plan.

With wicked Fire elemental Mab Monroe long gone, you’d think I could finally catch a break. But someone’s always trying to take me down, either as Gin Blanco or my assassin alter-ago. Now along comes the Spider’s new arch-nemesis, the mysteriously named M. M. Monroe, who is gleefully working overtime to trap me in a sticky web of deceit.

The thing is, I’m not the only target. I can see through the tangled threads enough to know that every bit of bad luck my friends have been having lately is no accident—and that each unfortunate “coincidence” is just one more arrow drawing ever closer to hitting the real bulls-eye. Though new to Ashland, this M. M. Monroe is no stranger to irony, trying to get me, an assassin, framed for murder. Yet, as my enemy’s master plan is slowly revealed, I have a sinking feeling that it will take more than my powerful Ice and Stone magic to stop my whole life from going up in flames.

amazon | goodreads

Book Review: Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews

Title: Steel’s Edge
Series: The Edge, Book 4
Author: Ilona Andrews
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: November 27, 2012 by Ace

The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny…

Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers’ operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive...

Reviewed By: Babs

Book Review: Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter

Title: Raven Cursed
Series: Jane Yellowrock, Book 4
Author: Faith Hunter
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: January 3, 2012 by Roc

The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to the Master Vampire of New Orleans they must work out the terms with him. To come up with an equitable solution, he sends an envoy with the best bodyguard blood money can buy: Jane Yellowrock.

But when a group of local campers are attacked by something fanged, Jane goes from escort to investigator. Unless she wants to face a very angry mast vampire, she will have to work overtime to find the killer. It's a good thing she's worth every penny.

Reviewed By: Babs

Book Review: Mercy Blade by Faith Hunter

Title: Mercy Blade
Series: Jane Yellowrock, Book 3
Author: Faith Hunter
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: bought
Published: January 4, 2011 by Roc

Jane, a shapeshifting vampire-hunter-for-hire, crosses paths with a stranger who has arrived in New Orleans, enlisted to hunt vampires who have gone insane-or so he says...

Reviewed By: Babs

Book Review: Poison Promise by Jennifer Estep

Title: Poison Promise
Series: Elemental Assassin, Book 11
Author: Jennifer Estep
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy provided via NetGalley
Published: July 22, 2014 by Pocket Books

Gin Blanco is hard-nosed, sexy, and lethal. Nicknamed “The Spider,” she’s a stone elemental assassin who brings her unique mix of magic and tact to every assignment, no matter the target.

There’s a new drug on the streets of Ashland, and its name “Burn” sums up the potent effect it has on its users. When one of her restaurant employees is threatened by dealers of the drug, Gin steps in to set things straight…

Book Review: Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop

Title: Murder of Crows
Series: The Others, Book 2
Author: Anne Bishop
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: bought
Published: March 4, 2014 by Roc

After winning the trust of the terra indigene residing in the Lakeside Courtyard, Meg Corbyn has had trouble figuring out what it means to live among them. As a human, Meg should be barely tolerated prey, but her abilities as a cassandra sangue make her something more.

The appearance of two addictive drugs has sparked violence between the humans and the Others, resulting in the murders of both species in nearby cities. So when Meg has a dream about blood and black feathers in the snow, Simon Wolfgard—Lakeside's shape-shifting leader—wonders whether their blood prophet dreamed of a past attack or of a future threat.

As the urge to speak prophecies strikes Meg more frequently, trouble finds its way inside the Courtyard. Now the Others and the handful of humans residing there must work together to stop the man bent on reclaiming their blood prophet—and stop the danger that threatens to destroy them all.

Reviewed By: Babs

Book Review: The Spider by Jennifer Estep

Title: The Spider
Series: Elemental Assassin, Book 10
Author: Jennifer Estep
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sensuality Rating: Sensual
Source: review copy provided via Edelweiss
Published: December 24, 2013 by Pocket Books

The tenth book in the bestselling Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series finally reveals for the first time the origins of Gin Blanco’s career as the deadliest of assassins.

For the first time, the origins of Gin Blanco’s career as the deadly assassin “the Spider” are revealed in full. In a story that pre-dates the other nine books in the series, Gin Blanco goes through her paces to become the most feared assassin in the Ashland.