Sleeping Roses by Rashelle Workman

   Sophie's life was tinged with grief and heartache.  She had started out well enough until the death of her parents.  After that she had went on, trying to live her life.  She went to college like they had wanted her to and during her college years she met Rina, her best friend, and David, whom she married.  She had been an amazing artist.  So much so that when she and David were married she had her own studio in their home.  But all wasn't well within their home.  She was unhappy, scared.  David had a temper and said he would kill her if she ever tried to leave him.  He would suffer no such embarrassment.  One day she finds him in bed with another woman and decides it is time to leave him.  It is a huge and scary step for Sophie, but she does it.  Rina is there helping her and being supportive as much as she can.  There is a job opening for an art teacher at the school Rina is Vice Principal at and Sophie gets the position.  David never let her work and demanded to know where she was at all times during the day.  There were dire consequences if he checked up on her and she wasn't where she said she would be.  Now she has some new found freedom, but she is still afraid.  Sophie knows that David is serious about killing her.  While she is trying to settle into her new life, she constantly has to deal with David lurking around and threatening her.  And there is a new guy in her life, Philip.  He works at the school too and is a nice guy.  But after suffering through her life with David, Sophie has a very hard time trusting men, including Philip.  Philip has a past too though.  One rather similar to hers.  Sophie has a secret though.  One that might cause a rift in their budding relationship.  Sophie's biggest problem at the moment is David.  When will the confrontation happen?  She knows it's coming and dread clouds any kind of happiness she has.

   This book completely threw me for a loop.  I had no idea that the ending would be like it was.  In fact, for a little while, you have a hard time distinguishing what is actually reality for Sophie.  I don't want to give away the ending so I can't even remotely get near it.  But I can say that it is shocking, and very fascinating.  It might bring a few tears to your eyes.  I think it will shock most people!

Dovetailed by Rashelle Workman

   The Immortal Essence series continues in Dovetailed.  Venus is a new goddess and still doesn't understand all of her powers and her real parents, Ith and Aetha (gods as well), left the planet.  It was now her job to take care of Kelari.  One of her new powers includes putting souls back into their bodies if they have not already left to where souls normally go.  And she is newly married to Michael, the halfling.  He is an all new breed, one that has never been seen before, and has powers all his own.  Unfortunately he is the only one who can get what is needed to help defeat the huge monsters about to invade Kelari.  King Antyon is determined to become supreme ruler over Kelari and then Earth.  But he is not the type of ruler they want and will destroy Kelari to get what he wants.  The beasts being set loose can even kill the immortal Kelvieri.  Amberlee, the fifteen-year-old girl that Venus thought was her younger sister until now, is being queened before she even goes through becoming a Kelvieri and immortal.  With both of her parents dead, due mostly to her betrayal of them, she is now the natural heir.  However, she was never groomed for this position because her parents had spent all of their energy on Venus.  Amberlee still struggles with jealousy of Venus as well as the guilt of her betrayal.  Now she must get her people to believe in her and do what she can to help them.  The rebellious teenage girl must become a leader.  Then there is her boyfriend, Palmo.  He is King Antyon's son and not to be trusted.  Instead of just explaining that to her, Venus lets Amberlee figure it out on her own.

   I love reading this series by Rashelle Workman!  It is all about immortals, huge scary beasts, deceit, love, and betrayal.  Amberlee must go through her own people trying to reject her because of her betrayal of them to King Antyon.  And her boyfriend is not who she thought he was.  Going from rogue princess to the queen and leader of her people is quite the journey for her.  Venus goes through the stresses of early marriage to Michael and the constant danger everyone around her is in now that they are under attack.  Michael learns of the powers he has and how they can help him save everything he loves and cares about.  Check out book one: Exiled

Blood and Snow by Rashelle Workman

   Blood and Snow is actually a collection of 12 novelettes by Rashelle Workman.  You can buy them
separately or all together as an anthology.  The best buy would be all together.  I could not wait to read each new novelette when they came out so I paid much more.  Imagine my displeasure at realizing they costed so much less together.
   If you are interested in vampires, fairy tales, and the whole supernatural genre then this is a series you should look into.  I very much enjoyed reading about a vampire who's name, funny enough, was Snow White.  But she doesn't start out as a vampire.  It is a story about her journey to becoming one and the friends she has by her side throughout her trials.  And these friends, yeah there are seven of them.  Then there is a dragon full of powerful magic.  Snow must overcome many trials and face an evil queen who wants to take over her body.  It's funny, dangerous, and even slightly ironic.  Ok it may be more than a little ironic at times.  I mean, even in the movie Snow White is "sleeping like the dead", if you know what I mean.  And in this book she sleeps for two years.  During those two years she goes on a great journey of discovery into the beginnings of vampires and how the evil queen came about.  And of course, as always there is that romance portion to the story.  There are several surprises along the way.  Like this surprise:  (SPOILER ALERT:  That crazy yet smart dragon is someone she knows!!!)  All in all it was an enjoyable read with the only downfall that the novelettes seemed to get shorter the closer you get to the very end of the story.  This is one set I could definitely see being longer....

All 12 novelettes:

Book Price:  Kindle Edition- $4.99
                    Paperback (Amazon)- $13.99




*image via Rashelle Workman