Reviews by Christy Duke

3.25 Stars ~ I really liked the premise of this story and I’m certainly entranced with post apocalyptic worlds. Talon is everything I expected the Apex Alpha of the wolves to be but I was pleasantly surprised by Adam. He’s certainly made of stronger stuff than anyone in his village (sadly, including his brother, Sam) ever believed him to be. As I find often with this author the editing left a lot to be desired which always detracts from the story for me. Regardless, I know I’ll be jumping into Sam’s story next.

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A delightful beginning to a new series. The idea of a shifter division of MI6 is definitely sexy and I liked the way the author introduced her world. Lane and Andrew are perfect for each other and I’m certainly looking forward to more stories in this series.

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Raul intrigued me from the very first book in this series, I was confident that his story was going to seriously hook me right from the very first, and I wasn’t wrong. Raul is the alpha of the Shadow Creek pack and he is basically everything that is superhot about an alpha werewolf. His mate is Victor, son of Mallouch the vampire king, but because of a pact Raul made with Mallouch twenty years ago, Raul has never claimed Victor and, in fact, stays as far away from him as possible. Victor is a bit of an enigma and the author seemed to enjoy dragging out the mystery of his abilities for as long as possible, only giving me teasers that simply had me on the edge of my seat during the entire read. Needless to say, I was seriously invested in their story and romance, to the point where I stayed up way too late and ended up incredibly sleep-deprived the following day. Victor has spent the past twenty years believing his mate wants nothing to do with him and it’s only recently that he has discovered his father has lied to him about some very important details regarding this pact. The pact was made after Victor was kidnapped and Raul was able to rescue him (not knowing at the time they were mates) and Raul was given a firsthand look at some of Victor’s powerful abilities – abilities which Mallouch doesn’t want anyone to know about. Mallouch also suffers from something many millennium age vampires do – speciesism – believing his son is far too valuable to mate with a werewolf, a creature far beneath the vampires. Raul has spent twenty years in overwhelming misery due to Mallouch’s deviousness which caused Raul to sign the pact in blood and magic when Raul was at his most vulnerable mindset having just met his mate. At that time, a shifter’s mind is very confused and focused only on their mate and getting back to them, which Mallouch knew very well and used it against Raul. Raul has managed to stay away with the help of a magical amulet and distance, but with his poisoning and having to ingest Victor’s blood to help him heal, Raul is slowly going mad not being able to claim his mate. The story and intrigue were very well done and I was kept guessing more than once – something I love to have happen! I really liked that Raul and Victor didn’t get an insta-fix to their mating issues and, instead, the author made them work for it with both of them being equal in this mating. I hesitate to believe that Mallouch has truly been defeated and, if so, I know the creatures he created (nope, not telling) have been let loose to kill. Knowing this, I anticipate the fourth book in the series to be filled with more suspense and excitement, and I look forward to it.

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Definitely liked this one more than Owen and Charlie. Titan and Robin are pretty amaze-balls and Silver’s whoo-hoo mystical mojo is pretty incredible. Introducing this new family line into the series was a heck of an inspiration. The marked Jones men have a whole different (and horrific) experience with their tattoos than the Johnston cousins have. It’ll be interesting to see where this all leads.

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Such a good addition to the series although something was off for me. Not sure why, exactly. Still enjoyable, though!

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3.5 Stars ~ Mated by Chance ~ After all of the heavy stories that I have read recently, I needed a trope I loved, with hot shifters, a snarky omega, and an mpreg. Truly, nothing makes me happier than to just sink into sexy, hot fun with a little drama and a happy ever after. The fact that I snatched this book before my dear friend could only makes me happier. Jane Perky is a new-to-me author, and I'm excited about this new series. In the 'Blue Moon Wolves' series, the author has built a world where shifters and humans have come to terms with each other after the war that ended fifty years ago. Of course, there's always the bad seeds on both parts. Y'all know I'm a softy for the underdog, or in this case, the undercat, right? Conner is running from an abusive ex who just wants to use him to breed. He's chosen Blue Moon because it has a strong wolf pack, and he's hoping it will keep Randy from following him. The very first night Conner meets Hayden, the alpha, the sparks fly. Hayden can't understand what kind of idiot would let his pregnant, unclaimed mate wander around. It doesn't matter, because Hayden is determined to get his kitty. "Worse, it wasn’t Conner’s body he fantasized about, but something more. All that sass couldn’t come from nothing. He hungered to know Conner’s story, his past, his likes, and dislikes. God help Hayden, but he wanted too much when he shouldn’t." Not everyone in Hayden's pack is thrilled that his mate is a pregnant tabby shifter, but Hayden couldn’t care less. When his beta challenges him, Hayden refuses to back down, and is forced to take action. Too many other shifter groups want to overtake Blue Moon, and Hayden isn't about to let that happen. Of course, before all of that happens, Hayden has to deal with Randy kidnapping his mate, and the wolf who betrayed the pack, and told Randy where to find Conner. An absolutely adorable start to a new series. I really hope more books will follow, and quickly. I'm curious to see what more can happen in Blue Moon. Owned by the Beta ~ I read book one in this series when it first released and then, like a nincompoop, I completely spaced on getting any more as they came out. *rolls eyes at myself* Regardless, I’m happy I remembered this series as I wanted to see what happened with secondary characters I met in Hayden and Conner’s tale, with Horatio being high on my list of people I was curious about. Horatio and Corey met as young boys from opposite sides of town but sharing the experience of having abusive fathers. Horatio got bitten by a werewolf along with his two closest friends not very long after and Corey got shipped off overseas to private school. It’s now fifteen years later and much has changed. Horatio is the beta of the blue moon wolf pack, a business owner, and a respected man. Corey has returned to Blue Moon and a disapproving family - even though he’s the only heir - and is trying to pay off his debts the only way he knows how, by selling his body. “You know I spout bullshit whenever I’m scared and too cowardly to ask for help. Please, give me a chance. I lied. I need your help.” I want you. Save me. Corey didn’t add those last words for fear he’d scare his wolf away.” It was great seeing Horatio and Corey finally both admit that there had never been another for them. Their love story was a twelve-year journey but they needed to grow up in order to find their way back together. Granted, Corey will always challenge Horatio with his ability to get into trouble, but Horatio needs someone to keep him from falling into too staid of an existence. A marvelous addition that I enjoyed. Playing for Keeps ~ I jumped directly into this third installment of the series as I really liked Jaime and what I’d seen of him so far. I felt bad for him that he’d been in love with Horatio ever since the other man saved Jaime’s life by giving him the bite and then taking Jaime under his wing. Jaime is suffering now that Horatio mated Corey and they’re planning to get married so Hayden, being the amazing alpha he is, decides to give Jaime the job of keeping track of a nosy reporter who’s coming to town to dig up dirt. Milo is in Blue Moon trying to find out what makes the wolf pack special enough that small shifter groups, refugees so to speak, are moving there and humans reside in the town harmoniously with the wolves – but all other large paranormals or groups avoid it like the plague. Milo doesn’t expect to meet Jaime on his first night after his car broke down and he has made his way to the bears roadhouse. Note to self… don’t go there, the bears are super scary. “Jaime had taken his assignment grudgingly, as a way to forget all about Horatio, but he never expected to be so taken with Milo. The human had bite to him and plenty of snark, and Jaime liked that combination immensely.” I think anyone who can fall for and mate a reporter has an awful lot going for them. *grins* That isn’t an easy job and often the journalist is truly out to ruin people’s lives just so he or she can get their story. Luckily for Jaime, Milo is a good person even if he lost his way a little. I enjoyed watching them fall in love and the ending was very good.

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This was an enjoyable addition to the series. I definitely found the whole angelic pregnancy/birth hysterically funny but you’ll have to read it to understand why. I’m not giving away any spoilers.

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I adored Mateo! He’s so sweet and just wants to be loved. He might have gotten sidetracked in how he went about it but none of that matters once Aldrich enters the picture. These two men are wonderful together and I enjoyed watching them fall in love. Granted, Mateo has now made me super hungry with all the talk of baking but I think I can satisfy that urge!

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Happy remains my favorite character in this series. I absolutely love him. Marc is equally fantastic and this story is lovely. Joy is a sweet little girl and seeing these three become family was wonderful.

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3.5 Stars ~ I adored Will and Hector wasn’t too bad, either. *grins* I would’ve loved this to be longer and less inconsistencies but overall it’s another wonderful love story in Cade Creek.

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I enjoyed this collection having never read these 3 stories previously. Much was typical and what I expect from this author and her storytelling abilities. Rowan was definitely my favorite character as I always enjoy a brat (????) but there were plot lines mentioned that I would have loved seeing expanded i.e. why Rowan’s family has such unique genetics. Overall each of these stories brought something to the table. There were some serious inconsistencies but I ignored them in favor of the characters and the overall plots.

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** spoiler alert ** I really wish this story had been longer as I think there was some additional fleshing out of the characters, particularly Keenan, that could have been done. I would have liked to know more about his background and about his psychic abilities with animals. I loved the kitten, Henrietta! Dom is incredibly sexy but, again, I would’ve loved to see more of their relationship.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you to my dear friend for her inspirational review which led me to buying this first in an exciting new series. I was captivated throughout the entire story! Nexus is super hot as the Regulus, or head of all paranormal clans within the US and Roy is freaking adorable (and delightfully sassy when angered) as his human mate. The pregnancy was awesome with some wonderful details not always seen and the birth was truly credible. There are fantastic secondary characters who I can’t wait to read their stories. The betrayal and suspense portion was extremely well done and I was surprised at the end by who the betrayer is. I expect to see more of him as his dastardly plan (which I don’t know all of the details of yet) still needs to be fulfilled. Oh, I am happily anticipating the next book in this series. Kudos to the author for a well written tale and, even better, practically zero editing errors and no inconsistencies that I could find. What a joy to read!

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Rave’s story ran along the lines of the others although that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it just as much. The ‘Zeus’s Pack’ series is always fun and guaranteed to put me in a good mood!

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I was very curious to read this sixth book in Stormy Glenn's 'Scent of a Mate' series. I knew very little about Sawney, other than he was another of Aldo's bastard sons. Sawney has been present in previous works, but no focus on him, so I was very interested to get a feel for him. So to speak. *grins* I liked Sawney right off the bat. He's a typical strong lion shifter who is possessive and an enforcer for his brother, his alpha, but his gentleness, his patience, his kindness, and his love for Ricky was quite lovely to see. Of course I adored Ricky. Y'all know I've got a huge soft spot for an abused omega. I just wanted to wrap him up. Much like Hugh, Boone, Simon, Otto, Sawney, Tres, Trevor, and Reece's father, Aldo the epic piece of crap, Alpha Felix de Luca is from the same mold. Ricky is his only son and instead of being proud to have an omega, he's alienated and abused him his whole life, allowing other members of the pack to do so as well. I wanted to hurt him. I got a little bloodthirsty about it, too. You can imagine Felix's response when Sawney comes and takes Ricky away. He sends his enforcers and they bring Ricky back, leaving Sawney, Boston and Harper in a flipped over SUV in a ravine. Yikes! But, all is not as it seems in the de Luca pride, something that Ricky discovers. It appears Felix's second-in-command has truly been in charge of the pack for a long time, using Felix's children against him to get his compliance. When Sawney and his cavalry come to take Ricky back, one of the few loyal members left to Felix lets them know the situation. I just wanted Ricky back with Sawney and everyone safe and happy. A wonderful ending, with a little twist that I might have seen coming, but it was still a great way to leave Sawney and Ricky.

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I’m so glad the author wrote Samuel and Sully’s story. It was also nice to see Samuel turn into a bad-ass warrior. After everything he’d been through he needed to take that control back over his life.

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3.5 Stars ~ I would have enjoyed this story being longer, to be honest. So much happened in the first 80% and then the final part seemed very rushed. I loved Eddie as he is truly adorable and Virgil is wonderful. Both men deserved each other so much and their mating was great.

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Loved it! Everything about this worked for me plus there are some wonderful secondary characters that I’m hoping the author will write their stories. Samuel is fabulous as a submissive vampire who just wants to be loved. Kane is wonderful as the human meant for Samuel. Kane is also pretty bad-ass on his own and that totally worked!

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Not what I expected and I was disappointed in the ending. I thought the author might go into more detail during the story or, at the very least, expand their romance to show the final weeks that Giovanni endured before he completed his contract with the Devil. I really would have liked to have seen more time with Benito and Giovanni after his deal with the Devil was concluded, and see others reactions as well.

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2.5 Stars ~ I didn’t love this. In fact, in the whole series I think I’d have to say this was only so-so, which kind of bummed me out. There were some inconsistencies and I just didn’t “feel” the romance between Dan and Terry. It was incredibly insta-love which I am not a huge fan of. Oh well, ya can’t win them all! I still adore Stormy and her books.

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This was way too short and IMO I thought Lance forgave Joey far too easily. I truly wish there had been more drama between them and some serious soul-searching, and angst, before they properly mated. With that said, though, I liked Lance and Joey, and their romance was very sweet. *on an interesting note..... I’ve read quite a few books by this author and I feel confident knowing her writing style..... something I noticed in the previous book and then in this one..... the author has started using the term “dominant male/female” a lot more often..... and, in this novella she made a reference to “skin privileges”. Huh. I read A LOT and there’s only one author I know of who uses that term and refers to her “dominant changeling” and that’s Nalini Singh in her Psy/Changeling series. Again, this is just a little something interesting that I noticed*

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Mikhail & Jace Wow. What a beginning! Adored Jace, Liam, Bay, and Rue right from the start for being unapologetically gay as f*ck and not caring. These four friends definitely define twink and they could care less what anyone thinks..... although all of them, except Jace, are smart enough to be nervous when they find themselves in a redneck roadhouse bar. *grins* Mikhail and his three brothers - Zus, Stefan, and Yuri - can’t believe their eyes when the four gorgeous men enter the bar. They are pretty quick to “dibs” the one for them, not knowing they’ve inadvertently chosen their forever mates. Mikhail has his hands full as Jace is a bit of a spitfire and I really enjoyed watching them clash. Mikhail is alpha of his pride along with his brothers, but there’s one member who has been wanting kill them for years. Now that the brothers have all found their mates, it seems like no time like the present for a little infighting to begin. Bay just stood there, staring. “Am I the only one here that understands that we are being attacked by a bunch of people that can shift into tigers?” “No, I got it,” Jace replied. “I just don’t care.” “They can kill us,” Bay insisted. Jace waved his hand back toward the shattered front window. “They are no different than the bigots back home that call us names and try to beat us up when we walk down the street because we have more fashion sense then they do. I, for one, refuse to allow them to make me leave, especially now that I’ve found someone that loves me just as much as I love him.” (yep, the fashion sense comment had me laughing uproariously) “Stupid bigoted asshole!” Jace snapped as he walked over and kicked the guy in the side. He kicked him again and then leaned down and picked up the skillet. “Gay does not mean sissy, you jackass!” *I couldn’t resist with these two quotes* I adored this first story and appreciated all the background the author gave. Now I’m jumping straight into the next tale....... Zus & Rue Oh, now this is a treat! The author seems to be writing of each of these couples stories following the same timeline but from a different couples perspective. This is going to be so much fun! It would seem Fate has definitely paired Zus and Rue correctly as Zus is a Dom looking for his sub and Rue is a sub looking for his Dom. I have to admit that these brothers are pretty horrible communicators. So far, both Mikhail and Zus have completely screwed up the claiming of their mates causing all kinds of miscommunication and confusion. Typical men! “You are my mate!” Rue opened his mouth to argue when the strangeness of Zus’s words struck him. He snapped his mouth closed and thought about them. Mate, what exactly did Zus mean by that? Somehow, Rue knew Zus didn’t mean it in the usual sense. But then, nothing about the entire situation was usual. “What does that mean?” he finally asked. Zus was seriously intimidating but Rue offset that by being freaking lovable. I loved seeing the same days (essentially) that the first story covered, gone over again viewed through Zus and Rue’s eyes and experiences. Definitely a great way to read these stories. Stefan & Bay I was really looking forward to this couple because out of all four Stefan and Bay had the most difficult progression to happiness. A huge misunderstanding caused by a lack of information from the get-go led to these two men having to fight pretty hard for each other. Throw in Stefan being shot, the brother’s home being attacked twice in two days by some crazy members of their pride, and everything was a little tense for a while. Unless someone was blind and deaf, they’d see that all four of them were clearly gay. They talked gay, they walked gay, and they looked gay. They were the stereotypical twinks society so often associated with gay men. Loud, bright colors, makeup and piercings, even the effeminate body movements, they had it all, in spades. Christ, two of the four of them had little sequined purses under their arms. *snort* I got pretty angry with Bay for a while. He definitely allowed his anger to get the best of him and he refused to listen to anything Stefan had to say. He also yelled at Stefan and rejected him. Poor Stefan. People skills are not his strong point and he kept screwing up every time he tried to explain to Bay what he is and that Bay is his forever mate. His heart was breaking at every turn and I felt horrible for him. And that was before he got shot! I understood Bay a little better once he and Stefan talked and I was happy to see Bay accept his responsibility for the mess that had been made. A very satisfying story, to be sure! Yuri & Liam I think it’s perfect that the author wrote Yuri and Liam last. Yuri is the strongest of the brothers and, as such, he learned at an early age to always be gentle with others - unless they were trying to kill him, of course - and Liam is the shyest and sweetest of the four best friends. I think it Liam knew he wasn’t as good of a catch as the others. He wasn’t as outgoing or self-confident or even as brave as his friends. Introverted…that was what they called it. He was introverted down to his soul. He didn’t like crowds or loud noises or really big people, which made his overwhelming attraction to Yuri all that much more confusing. The man was built like a semi truck. And yet his gentleness showed through from deep inside of him. Awww, I loved this ending story. Each of these couples were unique, hot, and fun, and I loved the way the author told the tales.

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The good trend continues! I so enjoyed Santino and Zack’s story although I would have loved it being a little longer. Some additional fleshing out of Santino & Sabine’s beginnings along with more details about Santino would have been nice. IMO.

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This was pretty much just MEH for me to be honest. Nothing new, nothing terribly surprising, and it really could have been longer with the characters and storyline fleshed out. Just my opinion, though.

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4.5 Stars ~ LOVED IT! Pretty sure the author isn’t going to be able to resist making this a series..... there are far too many wonderful secondary characters, i.e. Tao, Zian, etc. that need to find their own mates. Not to mention there’s got to be more omegas suffering somewhere just like Xias was when Zhuang found him. A great beginning to what I hope will be a series. I would have loved it if this story was longer with more interaction between Zhuang and the cubs - I think that might have been the cutest thing ever.

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