Tag: romantic fantasy

This Chick Read: Storm of Secrets and Sorrow (Legacy Series #2) by Melissa K. Roehrich

Control has slipped through Theon St. Orcas’s fingers. He’s been given a task by the rulers of the realm and he’s racing against the clock to get his plans back on track. Everyone wants something from Tessa and she trusts no one, including the one she is still tied to, Theon. She has plenty of secrets and is busy navigating this realm full of villains.

Tessa and Theon have two marks now and are tied closer than before. He’s responsible for keeping her safe but a mysterious group thinks they’d save the world if they ended her life. Lucky for Tessa her powers keep getting stronger and she learns she doesn’t need Theon to determine her fate. She is going to determine her own.

I didn’t think this series could get any darker, but whoah! It certainly can! In the first novel we learn a bit about Tessa’s background and why she always vacillates between giving up and fighting back. Thank goodness about half way through this novel she gets her fight on and some of the old Tessa reappears. We have also learned Theon’s plans to save the world which turns him from questionably a bad guy to possibly a good guy? Despite this change in status he still makes bad decisions which again causes a certain someone from mistrusting him. Will they or won’t they ever choose the same side? On to book #3 which comes out in October!

Again, if you have triggers regarding death, small places, destruction, violence and end of the world prophecies, this may not be the series for you. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Storm of Secrets and Sorrow

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On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Rain of Shadows and Beginnings (Legacy Series #1) by Melissa K. Roehrich

Every five years eligible Fae are gathered for the Selection and are required to serve one of the six Kingdoms. To be chosen to serve as the Source for a chosen Heir of one of those kingdoms is seen as a huge honor and at this year’s Selection there are six heirs looking for a source. Tessalyn Asura is at the Selection and has not interest in being one of the chosen but finds herself serving as the source for the heir of the mysterious Arius Kingdom. Theon is the heir of death and Tessa is going to do everything possible to escape his control.

I came across this series by chance and am so glad to have discovered a new and really talented author. Rain of Shadows and Beginnings reminds me quite a bit of ACOTAR but unfortunately I don’t think Tessa is going to be able to escape her fate as easily as Feyre did in her series. Tessa is tied to Theon magically and each time she is marked they grow closer needing that physical closeness of touch in order to calm their magic. What is the purpose of being someone’s source you ask? Well, good question! In this magical world of Devram, the Legacy (Theon and his pals) are descendents of gods and the Fae who serve them have elemental powers that are revealed. As a Source, the Legacy would have access to Tessa’s powers, making his own so much stronger. So the heir’s search for the strongest Fae available and Tessa seems to be one of the strongest.

As with a lot of romantic fantasy novels, Rain of Shadows and Beginnings is pretty darn dark. Theon is not the kindest Legacy Tessa could’ve found herself tied to. He has been taught from a very young age a lack of trust and because he doesn’t trust easily he handles Tessa, who is described as uncontrollable, in a manner that is abusive. I would be bothered by this a lot more if Tessa wasn’t such a strong character and fought back as hard as she does. Theon never knows what is coming next. This Fae that he’s chosen is not malleable as he’s seen other Sources be, she argues every point and doesn’t want anything to do with this life that she now lives. Who could blame her! As I found out more about each of their backgrounds I could understand better why they were both reactionary and dark. It didn’t excuse the abuse but it did explain it. It also gave me a reason to root for Tessa, who was a hard character to like.

There were some great side characters in this book as well. I loved Tristyn, Luka, and Axel. Without their involvement this book would’ve just been one dark, hot mess. These guys lightened up the mood and created reasons to see both of our main characters in a different way other than snarky and off putting. Gosh, reading all of the above you might think I disliked this book but I actually liked it a lot! I’m looking forward to book #2!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Rain of Shadows and Endings

Copyright 2024 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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This Chick Read: A Usual Suspect (Fractured Conclave #1) by Vanessa Nelson

When a friend calls Hallie in a panic, she races to her side to investigate. As a skip tracer, she is used to finding the lost who don’t want to be found. What she finds in Rosalie’s house is a murdered member of the elite and some assassins who try to finish the job by killing them too. Hallie needs to use all of her skills to remove she and her friend from the suspect list and find the killers before they find her.

I can always count on Vanessa Nelson to deliver some great world-building, a strong female lead, and a mystery that hooks the reader into the story and doesn’t let them go until the story is finished. A Usual Suspect delivers on all of these things but is also delivers the promise of more great books to come.

Hallie was a big mystery herself. Being of mixed race, she is not considered human after a near fatal attack in her childhood. She was saved by a mysterious person and has gained inhuman strength, quickness, and healing abilities that are more common among the elite. She also has a truth sense which helps her succeed as a skip tracer with a 100% close rate. As the reader quickly finds out, this is one woman you don’t want on your trail! Not only is Hallie interesting, but this world she lives in as well as the characters we’ve been introduced to are ones I’d like to explore more, but will have to wait a few months for the second novel to be released. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase this book!* A Usual Suspect

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This Chick Read: Rift in the Soul (Soulwood #6) by Faith Hunter

Nell Ingram draws her powers from deep in the earth, and uses them to help Psy-LED, the Psychometric Law Enforcement Division, which solves paranormal crimes. When a local vampire calls to report a dead body on her compound, Nell knows she and her team have to be ready for anything.

But the dead body is just the beginning of a mystery that involves supernaturals of all kinds, including some of the most powerful vampires in the country. As Nell gets closer to the truth, she begins to understand that the perpetrator is tracking her too—and that there is something personal about this crime. Something with roots that go almost as deep as those in Soulwood.

By book six I am totally invested in Nell and the Psy-LED crew. The mystery is always so interesting and the romance between she and Occam, so, so sweet! Does it matter that Nell comes from a line that has an affinity with plants and the Earth? A kind of brownie or sprite, which sounds kind of cute and sweet, but her powers are tied to her land which can be hungry. I find the personification of her “Vampire tree” as a Green Knight who will protect she and her family very interesting. Especially since that Knight seems to be evolving, now able to communicate in a very humanistic way. I’m curious to see where Faith Hunter is taking that character and if it/he can evolve into reality. In fact, when you look at Nell and the Green Knight’s evolution, it seems like it’s Nell that is becoming more plant-like and the Knight more human. Like I said, interesting!

When the Angel in the latest Jane Yellowrock book gave the Vampire’s their soul’s back, a kind gesture I’m sure, but causing all sorts of havoc in the vamp community. They now have “feelings” which are damned inconvenient for a bunch of bloodsuckers. When an ancient vampire from the Spanish Inquisition comes to town his intentions seem to be connected to Soulwood and Nell’s family, so as expected, Nell goes all twigs and twines in defending her territory. Sweet and salty Nell is now coming into her own as a threat and I love that evolution!

Amidst all the doom, gloom, and interspecies fighting, Nell and Occam are planning their wedding. These brief moments are such a contrast to all the darkness in the story and really create that impact of blinding love conquering all that makes their union so wonderful. I really enjoy this plant woman and her cat man. They are a fun couple to root for! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Rift in the Soul

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This Chick Read: The Last Dragon King (Kings of Avalier #1) by Leia Stone

The Dragon King is looking for a wife. He must produce a child in order for his people to retain their magic and his sniffers are sweeping the kingdom for women of childbearing age who have enough magic to bear his children. Arwen lives in one of the smallest villages in the kingdom and when the Kings guards arrive in town the eligible ladies are excited. Arwen’s mother packs a bag and urges Arwen to leave, telling her a secret about her heritage. No surprise that she’s caught at the gate and found to bear magic and is hustled off to the Dragon King.

The Last Dragon King was a refreshing, easy to read, romantic fantasy novel with an interesting plot and some great world building. Drae and Arwen had great chemistry, fun dialog, and there were plenty of action sequences to hold my interest. It felt like reading a fairy tale story with a curse of sorts put on the kingdom that only the right girl/woman could cure. Arwen doesn’t want anything to do with saving the world. She only wants to get back to her small village and her mom and sister.

Drae’s “curse” is actually the really interesting part of this tale. Imagine having to procreate to keep your kingdom healthy and magical. It’s an interesting twist on the poisoned apple in snow white. Drae, of course, is the handsome, physically fit hero and is pretty tempting to our heroine, but it’s the sword fighting and saving the kingdom bits that really draw Arwen. A fun story to while away a weekend afternoon! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Last Dragon King

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This Chick’s Audio Review: Nightfall’s Prophet (Aileen Travers #6) by T.A. White

Aileen Travers has come to grips with the fact she’s a vampire. In fact, she is gaining her independence by starting her own house with her “brother”, and is kind of ok with the fact she has to drink blood to survive. She has also sort of made up with her human family and is trying to retain some sort of relationship without letting them know she’s one of the undead, of course. When she starts hearing voices and having nose bleeds her vampire family is concerned but not as much as they are when they realize the patriarch of their family seems to have taken an interest in her and is stalking her. Add in a visit by the vampire council and an attempt at a coup and Aileen wonders if things will ever be normal or is this just her life.

T.A. White has written some of my favorite fantasy novels and series. I’ll admit it took me a little while to warm up to this one but I’ve now bought into this vampire series and have enjoyed seeing Aileen’s character grow. What I keep forgetting is how much I dislike the narrator for the audio books for this series, which is funny because she didn’t bother me at all in the pathfinder series. Maybe it’s just her attempt at narrating male vampire’s that I find offensive. I’m not sure, but I’m not going to let a bad narration spoil a good romantic fantasy/paranormal novel. This series is finally getting good!

There are many plots and subplots in this book and some of them are intertwined so I don’t want to give any details away. Just know that there is plenty of action, Liam is still her hot vampire love interest, and her family dynamics (both vampire and human) get revved up. It was hard to press the stop button and actually go work for a living!

If you’re a fan of vampire novels, or even if you aren’t and just like a good romantic fantasy, I think you’ll like this series. You’ll need to slog through the first novel, it was the hardest to read, but after that these characters really start to grow on you. I’m now eager to see where they will be in the next iteration and want to read them through to their conclusion. You will too! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book! Nightfall’s Prophet

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This Chick Read: Hunt on Dark Waters (Crimson Sails #1) by Katee Robert

Evelyn is a witch with questionable decision-making skills. When she decides to steal from her vampire ex she escapes through a portal into another dimension and lands right in the middle of the ocean. Rescued by pirates, she’s told she must join the crew who work for the Cwn Annwn, or die. She of course chooses life, figuring she’d find a way out of this mess and this dimension. What she doesn’t count on is being attracted to Bowen, the captain of the ship and her mischief making causes him to question the rules he’s always followed.

I usually love fantasy novels but I’ll admit, I had a really hard time liking this one. I’ve never read a novel by this author and from what I’ve heard, this is very different from the novels she usually writes. Kudos to her for trying something new, but for me it just fell flat. I couldn’t connect with Evelyn, and kind of disliked her too. That’s a problem because it affected my response to the rest of the book. The romance then felt unrealistic, Bowen wasn’t heroic enough, and the world-building felt a bit undefined. I did finish the book, but it was a struggle. I hoped it would get better but the writing never elevated the characters and setting to something that would keep my interest.

I do believe that our own life experiences, likes, and dislikes, mean that each one of us is different and will like different books. Please read this one and decide for yourself if it’s the right book for you. It just wasn’t for me. ❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Hunt on Dark Waters

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick’s Audio Review: House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City Book #2) by Sarah J. Maas

After saving Crescent City Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar want to enjoy a normal life. When they get drawn into the mystery of finding a little boy who’s in danger they discover a rebel faction who is fighting against the very tight leash the Asteri hold over Midgard. Normalcy was never their thing, right? They get drawn into the war of good against evil only the bad guys don’t seem so bad anymore and the good guys? They may not be so good.

Narrated again by Elizabeth Adams, who does a danged good job, this 28 hours went a little slower than the first novel in the series. I think I spent a month getting through all the plots, conflicts, heartbreak, and romance that I really only wanted to fast forward to find out how the book ended since I spent so much of my life dedicated to listening to this story. It wasn’t all bad though, seriously. There were a couple of exciting moments, interesting character developments, and romantic entanglements but I think this book could’ve once again been cut by one-third. There were a lot of laying the groundwork chapters that just made the book seem too long, but the last few chapters almost made up for the boredom I felt earlier in the novel. The conclusion was great!

One of the best plot lines was bad boy Fae Prince Ruhn’s turn as a secret agent and his telepathic relationship with the mysterious Day. I know a lot of people guessed who she was but I was totally surprised and this is one plot that I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I’m kind of interested in Ethan’s werewolf princess but that was dragged out and didn’t reach a conclusion in this novel so I’m left feeling ho-hum, but Bryce’s character arc at the end is one of those cliff-hanger’s that will make you read that third book even if you stumbled half brain dead to your bed after trying to get through this beast of a novel. It was surprisingly good!

I like Hunt and Bryce ok as a couple. I like that they are two different races but I feel like they’ve gone full circle and I’m not sure what else is out there for the two of them. Yes, they are mates, but are they doomed for failure like everyone believes? I almost hope so. I am looking for something different out of that third book so we’ll have to wait and see if we get it.

Did I like this book? Yes. Did I love it? No. It was a typical second book in the series that moved the plot forward but took too long to do it. I am invested enough after 54 hours of listening to read the third book when it does come out. When is that again? Next month? I have time to fit in a few books before my calendar fills up with the next beast of a novel.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to order this book!* House of Sky and Breath

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chicks Audio Review: House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Bryce Quinlan was a party girl and then her best friend was murdered leaving Bryce to spiral into the darkest of places. Hunt Athalar a fallen Angel, was once a fierce warrior and is now slave to the Archangel. He is tasked with partnering with Bryce to find the killer. As the two of them search out the killer they dig through Crescent City’s underbelly developing a trust for each other that draws them out of the darkness.

This novel was a commitment at over 800 pages. When you translate that to an audiobook, it is 27+ hours of your time. I’ll admit that was a bit daunting but Elizabeth Evans, the narrator, did an excellent job of bringing these characters to life and embuing them with different voices so that I didn’t have any trouble following each character and piecing together the story. The world this author creates was fascinating and strange. Filled with angels, demons, fae, were, mer, sprite’s, etc. There was every fantasy and paranormal race in this novel that it could have been a bit much, but somehow the hierarchy all made sense and we were given a path to follow with two great characters in Bryce and Hunt.

Bryce was my favorite kind of heroine. She was sassy, layered, emotional, loyal, and most of all easy to love. As half-fae, she dealt with discrimination but was strong because of that difference, and in fact that strength is what carried her through her investigation. She had balls and didn’t back down from a challenge and she was given several in this novel. As her partner, Hunt was kind of the antithesis of Bryce. He was once a deadly warrior, able to bring lightening down on his enemies. As a slave to the Archangel, he has to do his bidding. Luckily he is partnered with Bryce, who brings a little light into his life despite also driving him crazy. Their chemistry was amazing and I loved how they grew into each other throughout this novel.

In an 800 page novel you aren’t going to be able to keep the plot going full speed ahead the entire time. Yes, there were chapters that could’ve been cut to shorten the book, but if you stick it out to the final third the culmination of their investigation reaches a catalyst that had me on the edge of my seat. It was so worth the 600 pages I had to read to get to that point. Such a great conclusion and it had me immediately reach for the second novel. I wasn’t scared to jump back into another 800 page story (or 27 hour audiobook!). ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* House of Earth and Blood

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This Chick Read: My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

Cassie Greenburg defines the words “struggling artist”. About to be evicted from her apartment, she answers an ad for a roommate despite the amount of rent being questionably inexpensive. When she meets Frederick, he is odd, but beggars can’t be choosers and she really doesn’t have any other option if she doesn’t want to sleep on her friends couch for the rest of her adult life. He works completely different hours than she, so really she shouldn’t see him that much anyway. When she comes home one day and finds bags of blood in the fridge, Frederick has to come clean.

This plot sounds fun, right? Could be campy but I do like to give debut authors a chance. I thought Jenna Levine did a good job of giving the reader a great feel for our heroine, Cassie. She was a little naive, had low self esteem due to her upbringing, but had a positive outlook on life. I actually liked her as our heroine. Frederick though, was a caricature of a European vampire. Very good looking, formal way of speaking, and dressed to the nines all the time. All of these things could have made for a fun character, but old Freddie just seemed kind of stiff and uninteresting, and admittedly he should have been the more interesting of the two due to his vampire status. Despite these minor problems, I kept reading hoping that the author would either deliver the camp or make our characters feel real and get me to root for their romance. Neither thing happened.

I did finish the book, and after reading through to the end and sitting on my feelings before writing the review I can say with confidence that this wasn’t my favorite book…. but I have definitely read worse. The author had some trouble with her characters, but the idea for the novel was sound. I just didn’t fall in love with this book. ❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* My Roommate is a Vampire

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads