Tag Archives: good v evil

A gorgeous conclusion to this fairy tale series

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COVERYours Everlasting by Beth Bolden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love a good fairy tale and in this, we finally get Evander’s story in all it’s mixed up, sometimes painful, details.

We’ve already met two versions of him, Evrard, his King of the Unicorns character and his kindly scholarly father figure, Rhys, in Grey and Rory’s story Yours, Forever After but here we get to see the real Evander, the Guardian of Secrets who took his job protecting humankind so seriously it cost him everything.

Here we get a narrative that follows all the traditional beats of a fairy tale – there’s betrayal, mystery, a hidden danger, good v evil and magical battles.

But what makes it such a joyous read is Evander’s slow realisation of his love for Marcos, the Guardian of War, and his discovery that his fellow Conclave member has been protecting him from the shadows for all of the thousand years of his exile from the Castle at the Top of the World.

It’s a beautiful moment, one that makes you get that warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach as our Evander’s not exactly your typical storybook hero. He’s prickly, arrogant, sometimes self-serving and imperious.

He’s also been hurting, cut off from the majority of his magic and his powers for centuries while he fought against the evil of a cult of magic users who shouldn’t have been given the ability.

With loads of daring do’, rescues, close calls and a final confrontation with the big bad, Yours Everlasting does everything it needs to do to round out this duet of stories.

At times I got teary, and that rarely happens, but Marcos’ steadfastness is such a humbling thing to discover and, along with a specific element of the plot I won’t spoil but which has an equally emotional reaction, gave me all the feels.

There’s still potential for more books in this world and I do hope Beth goes back to Grey, Rory and their family and friends at some point in the future.

*As with all Beth’s books, I beta read this one.

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review

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Oh my lordy that was epic!

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59281329._SY475_Wake the Dead by Jocelynn Drake

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had a vague idea where one of the plot threads might have been heading and I was proved sort of half right/half wrong but OMG the revelation itself was utterly worth it anyway.

This is the third book in Jocelynn’s fantasy saga and each one has brought its own complicated narrative which, all added together, form the series long running story arc which is building up and up in both tension and high stakes.

Here Caelan and his best friends are heading into deadly territory – literally – as they head for the capital of Zastrad through a country which worships a Dead God and has no punishment for murder – providing the dead are honoured after they’ve been killed!

Throughout this book – which I stayed up until 3.30am to read 😁 – the pacing gets tighter, the tension grows higher and the God and Goddess inside Cael’s head become ever more manipulative.

There were still surprises throughout the book as well, even though the names of each instalment in the series give away a bit of what might be happening next, but in spite of that, I still had a ginormous grin on my face at the end of Wake of Dead.

Now it really needs to be February already for the visit to the dragon isle!

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OMG I need book three stat!

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58523538._SY475_Crooked Shadows by M.A. Grant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, that ending wasn’t what I was expecting!

***

For the last 20% of this book my heart was racing so fast I thought it would beat out of my chest, the tension build up throughout this second installment in the Whitethorn Agency series is perfectly pitched.

As Atlas and Cristian venture to Romania to seek help from his father’s allies and find out more about the origins of the strigoi, we get to see inside the vampire’s head for the first time.

I love that MA is switching POVs for this series and it was fascinating to see how Cristian’s emotional connection to his bodyguard is not only strong, but supportive and loving – even if Atlas isn’t ready to accept it.

Throughout this book there is an edge of danger, the two men are walking a tightrope from the off with the politics of the vampire world dogging their every movement.

We also get to meet a wonderful new character, Daria, in this book and I loved her. She’s strong, a survivor of the strigoi herself and, while wary of Cristian, has the grace to not immediately try to skewer him!

It’s more focused on the investigation and the paranormal elements than the romance but there is still a major move forward for both men which comes after they’ve faced the thought of the other’s death being an all too likely outcome rather than an abstract scenario and I loved this bit especially.

But, bloody hell, that ending! OMG talk about dropping a WTF moment and then signing off. I am absolutely dying now to find out just what that means for Cristian’s family going forward.

As a PS, I think this cover is more indicative of a paranormal romance than the one for the first book was.

ARC kindly received from the publishers Carina Press via NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review

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