Review: Evanescent by Gabriella Lepore

Tags

crushing hearts and black butterfly, evanescent, fantasy, gabriella lepore, indie, indie published, paranormal romance, ya

“Then it is settled,” Felix declared. “Come hell or high water, when this is all over, at least one of us here will not make it out alive.”

When Bronwen Snow is pulled from her cottage in the middle of the night, she finds herself seeking the help of three mysterious boys who reside in an abandoned castle deep in the hillside. With only a hasty handwritten note and a vague sense of dread to guide her, Bronwen is forced to put her trust in the eccentric and willful Felix Cavara and his eternal curse – immortality.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

If anyone wants to see a perfect example of snark and sass with sweet romance, I’m shoving this in your face. This book was wonderful, even if the ending did leave me pouting a bit. A loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it’s one of those I’ve wanted to read for awhile, so when the freebie promotion came around, I couldn’t resist.

The plot:

This book is a pretty quick read, about two and a half hours-ish. I kind of wanted more expansion on the nature of the magical, who had made the magical weapons, who had sent the Severan (can’t remember if this was explained or not), etc. On the other hand, this story really didn’t need to be bogged down with details, it flew just fine on its own.

The characters:

Like I said, great sass. Bronwen and the boys were utterly adorable and the immortality jokes were especially funny. I kind of wish this was a series, just because I enjoyed it so much.

This story is one of immortality about the downsides. The boys have lived for around two hundred years and have wanted to die for about a hundred and eighty. (On a side note, I think it’s interesting that people keep writing these stories about the drawbacks of immortality when it has been the dearest wish of people generations and ages over. Anyway.)

A fun read and I am now very curious about the author’s other works. If I ever get my demented Amazon account sorted, I’ll have to visit her author page.

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Review: Witch Song (Witch Song, #1) by Amber Argyle @amberargyle

Tags

amber argyle, epic fantasy, indie author, indie published, mg, middle grade, witch song, ya, young adult

The Witch Hunters have come for Brusenna, for she is the last. All the others have been captured by the Dark Witch. And without their magical songs to control nature, the world is dying.

Though young and untrained, Brusenna must succeed where every other Witch has failed. Find the Dark Witch. Fight her. Defeat her. If Brusenna fails, there will be nothing left to save—for the Witches, for mankind, or for the young Guardian who has committed his life to protecting hers.

Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a fantasy novel like this—a young hero raised in ignorance of their true power leaving on a quest to defeat a great evil. In some ways it felt like going home, back to where my passion for swords and sorcery began. Lots of danger, suspense, a dash of mystery, and some sweet romance—this is the kind of book that made me fall in love with the genre.

The plot:

At a little over 320 pages printed length, it took me little over a day to finish. Despite the length, I can’t think of any portion or area where the story dragged or there was a plot hole. There’s a one year gap in the timeline somewhere around the 30% mark and while that might normally get a star reduction, it was more or less necessary to the storyline and so I’ll take it.

I think I would have liked to see less of the multiple perspectives. There were certain parts from the POV of the bad guy and a few other characters that I thought should have been cut, maybe not all, but most of them.

The characters:

Amber Argyle pulled of a HUGE amount of character development. Senna goes from being a naïve, brash, slightly bratty fifteen year old to a mature, brave, and astute leader. It really was amazing how well that was pulled off. If only we could all master character development so well. *sigh*

Joshen was the other main character who undergoes a total 360 transformation. They mature so much over the course of the story it was like watching them grow up. They were so sweet together and I did get angry at Senna’s mother, almost as much as she did. Particularly when the woman went and was getting upset over Senna not getting the permission of the Keepers before making this one big decision. Never mind that Senna didn’t know because her mother neglected to teach her or that the Keepers were kind of dead at the time. *tosses arms in the air with frustration*

At the 70% mark, I was panicking a bit. Things were going way too smoothly and I knew something big and bad was about to happen and I was right. Thankfully, while this book does have an open ending, it does not have a cliffhanger.

An excellent MG/lower YA fantasy I would recommend to fans of Intisar Khanani and Shannon Hale.

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Review: Forbidden Forest (Legends of Regia #1) by Tenaya Jayne @TenayaJayne

Tags

forbidden forest, indie, indie published, paranormal romance, shifters, tenaya jayne, vampires, werewolves

Born in shame. Cast from society. Shape Shifter/Elf hybrid, Forest must fight for any respect she can get. Targeted in her youth by a vampire noble who placed an illegal slave mark on her, she is forced to obey him, no matter what.

Slipping the grip of her master and abandoning the prejudice of Regia, her native world, Forest takes a job on Earth, guarding the portal, using her skills as a warrior to enforce Regia’s laws. Now, called home for a black ops mission, Forest must put aside her own prejudice to transport the vampire prince, Syrus, through enemy territory in a time of war.

Prince Syrus, mage and master of the Blood Kata, wants Forest more than he’s ever wanted anything. In spite of their mutual mistrust, their attraction cannot be denied. Through the danger of their mission, and the secrets they both keep, it doesn’t matter what they feel. Forest is forbidden.

 Blurb and cover from Goodreads

5 out of 5 stars

And we have another winner! Another book that basically made me useless to the world and emotionally traumatized my little readerly heart. Highest marks to the author.

The plot:

One of my absolute favorite things about indie books is that I’ve noticed that they tend to be more “to the point.” There’s none of this big, looping, long, boring string of Stuff before you get to the good parts. (No offense to traditional, some of my favorites are traditional.) Anyway, this book was action packed, romance packed, suspense packed, just over all packed.

One thing that did bother me was the omniscient perspective. There were parts where perspective was swapped through the course of a scene and I felt like it should have been more consistent or maybe broken up to make it clear who was talking.

The characters:

Syrus and Forest are simultaneously adorable, hot, and hilarious together. Their banter and Syrus’ enthusiasm for human paraphernalia were so cute and I love the idea of the big bad vampire prince scrounging the pantry for Froot Loops, that’s not something you hear about every day.

I liked how their relationship was equal—there wasn’t one dominating the other. A lot of times—particularly in vampire romance—there’s the alpha male stuff. It’s fine every now and again, but it was refreshing to have a vampire love interest who’s a master in martial arts and also lovingly tells his girl what a bad@$$ she is.

There is a laundry list of characters who need to have an unfortunate meeting with Buffy or perhaps the Winchester boys in a back alley—Leith, Philippe, Christiana, Zephyre, it goes on—so there will be plenty of baddies to get their just desserts come the next books.

I very much want the next book, it’s just a matter of how soon I can get it. And the book after that. And the prequel novella. Really, I just want them all.

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