Blood Claim (Half-Blood Princess Book 1) by Magen McMinimy

   Some things are not supposed to exist.  To humans it is such things as vampires.  To vampires it is the half-blood princess who is supposed to be half human and half vampire, which is an impossibility in the world of vampires.  Sophia Daletsky is the impossibility.  She is the half-blood princess.  And why is she a princess?  Her father is the first vampire.  Although half human, Sophia has been trained to fight by her cruel brother Irad and can very well take care of herself.  For the moment she is out of touch and out of sight from her entire family.  She's on a mission to find someone very special who needs protection from Irad.  What she doesn't expect is to run into an ex of another vampire she knows well.  Dante Baikov is beyond handsome.  He melts Sophia's heart rather quickly while she is on her mission to protect Dante's brother's girlfriend: Sarah.  Sarah is human, but the Baikovs are not.  Strangely enough, Sarah knows this.  It seems that she doesn't care that they're vampires and loves Tavien anyway.  Sophia must protect this seemingly gentle spirit of a girl, but the stakes are very high.  Not only are Sarah and her friends in danger, but Sophia's very life could be in danger.  Irad will not be put off easily, and although she is his sister, he won't hesitate to kill Sophia to get to what he wants.

   This is a shorter story, but still a rather fascinating story line.  I did miss some of the details that could have been added into the book though.  At times it feels like you are running through it, while others feel like you are living every moment in this book.  It is an interesting pace for a short story.  A lot of the attention in the book is divided between the growing attraction between Dante and Sophia and the struggle for her to keep Sarah and the others safe.  Another important point in the story is how no one knows who Sophia is for most of the book.  She doesn't like people to know who she is and even keeps it from Dante.  It seems that she is always trying to come up with a good time to tell him, but it never happens.  One of my favorite parts of the book is when her dad shows up in town per her request.  It's a shocker to find out who her dad is!

Lost in Starlight by Sherry Soule (available June 26th)

    Sloane is a high school student who works for the school paper as a reporter, has purple hair, wears dark clothes a lot, and loves watching horror movies.  But she isn't into mindless slasher movies.  Sloane is looking for a good story and Hayden, one of the guys at school, is looking like it.  He has the dark, sexy look to him that could get him any girl in school.  He is also a nice guy.  He sticks up for other students and saves animals.  Too bad his brother, Zach, isn't the same way.  He knows Sloane is chasing after Hayden to get a story and tells her to back off.  The thing is that she can't.  Hayden seems to have some weird supernatural powers and Sloane inevitably finds herself more than just drawn to him.  She really likes him, and she thinks he likes her too.  There's just one little thing about Hayden: he's part alien.  And because of who he is as well as his relationship with Sloane, she is in danger.  Their relationship must remain a secret.



    I wasn't so sure about this book at first.  I am not really big into teenage drama, probably because it's been some time since I was a teen, but the story really picks up and becomes one about ill-fated lovers.  Sloane is now constantly in danger from someone or another.  She is just a human while those out to get her are not so much.  I do have to say that the teenage drama does seem pretty realistic.
   As for the ending, it was very unexpected!  Total twist!  Never saw it coming!  Now all I want to do is read the next one because I need to know what happens next and how this will affect everything.  Does it mean even more trouble or maybe a way to a solution for Sloane?

Immortal Blood (An Immortal Heart Novel) by Magen McMinimy

 

Isabelle was a beautiful, successful woman.  The only thing was that she wasn't tied down.  She wasn't married and she had no children.  And she was in her upper twenties.  Lizzy was well aware of her situation every time she saw her younger sister, who was happily married with 2 children of her own.  Then she meets Zander and agrees to a date with him.  Lizzy's entire world gets turned upside down because of the handsome and dangerous guy.  Turns out he is a leprechaun that stole some of her luck.  Because of that, she learns about a whole different world; one involving vampires, immortals and more.  One particular immortal in particular seems to get under her skin: Bain.  He's beyond handsome, has a gorgeous set of wings, and a huge ego to go with it.  Although Lizzy is now in danger of Zander coming back to finish the job with her, she is more in danger of falling for Bain.  

  Lizzy comes to live with Bain and his family for a while to keep her safe until they can get some of her luck back from Zander.  While she's there, her relationship with Bain becomes heated and she gets to know some of his immortal family.  The main thing though?  She's human and he is not.  Her life is much shorter than his, and some of his family readily points this out to Bain.

   This book is for mature audiences only!  I tend to like the paranormal books more than just romance, but this one is a romance with some paranormal blended in.  The main story though is focused on the ever evolving relationship between Lizzy and Bain.  She is a successful woman who wants to eventually settle down with a good man and have a family.  He is a playboy and doesn't have a thought about settling down with one woman.  However, when Lizzy comes along, he can't help but be drawn to her since she resists the temptation he so readily offers.

Saving Grace (Serve and Protect Series Book 2) by Norah Wilson

Ray and Grace Morgan had been married for over four years when out of the blue Grace breaks the news to her husband that she is leaving him, for another man.  Ray never saw it coming and Grace leaves town taking pretty much nothing with her.  A while after she leaves, Ray gets a phone call that will change his life over the next few weeks.  Grace was in an accident.  Her vehicle rolled and she was at the hospital.  What's worse is that even though she remembers most things, there are some important memories missing.  The biggest one?  Who and why she was leaving Ray for.  She has no memory of any other man in her life and cannot remember the events that caused her to leave.  Ray brings her back home to help her body and hopefully her memories recover, but has a hard time dealing with the fact that she was with someone else.  It brings anger and resentment to the surface, but he tries his best to do what he can for her.  Meanwhile, Grace doesn't completely understand Ray's distance towards her when she is still in love with him.  If only she could remember.  Then things start spiraling out of control.  Ray has a near death experience that raises suspicion about their vehicle being tampered with.  While the guys from the police department check it out, one of them finds a surprise in one of Grace's bags she was going to take with her when she was leaving Ray.  They find several thousand dollars in cash.  Where did the money come from?  The deeper things get, the more suspicion is on Ray and Grace while at the same time someone is trying to kill them.  They must tread carefully and hide so they can to find out who it is that wants them dead, and try to salvage their relationship in the process.


This book is for mature audiences.  It has some very adult scenes in it.  But the book is a good read.  It has the romance element as well as some action and drama.  I really liked the fact that it combined all of these elements together.  Not to mention the fact that there are several surprises in the book.  And to watch Ray deal with feeling betrayed by the wife he loved and Grace not understanding what is going on because she just can't remember.  She wants Ray back, but it is a difficult road for her.  Grace also grapples with the thought that perhaps even she doesn't know herself anymore.  Things have changed so much and she is just not exactly the same woman.  Ray realizes that some of this mess is actually his fault as well.  In the end, it all ties up nice and neat.  A very satisfying ending.  

Empath by HK Savage

   Claire had lived most of her life not touching people, avoiding almost everyone, including her parents.  She could feel the feelings and thoughts of others so much that they could take over and become her own at the moment.  Touching people made this worse.  In order to try and get away from it all, she decides to move away from home and go to college.  She was never exactly the daughter that her mother had wanted. Instead she was socially awkward and didn't like to be around anyone really.  It was the only way to calm the noise in her head.  Upon moving to the dorms though, she meets Stephen.  He immediately pegs her gift and asks her to look up a book about it in the library.  She knows Stephen must be different because she cannot get a read on him like she can everyone else.  Through some persuasion, Claire meets the rest of his family only to find out that they are were cats.  They turn into what looks like a huge mountain lion that has tremendous power.  And they tell her they can help with getting her gift under control.  But even they don't know what type of power she has.  Through Stephen's family, Claire meets James and Henry who are vampires.  Henry is the man over the library that Claire works at and James starts helping her get her abilities under control.  Being an empath that can channel is very difficult to manage.  In no time at all she forms a bond with James and they become almost inseparable.  The bad news?  Her life is constantly in danger because of what she is and who she associates with.  A rival group of vampires is trying to move into the area and their master is brutal.  Claire has to wonder whether James will be able to keep her alive and is there any way she can really help in this fight?

   A very interesting read!  It started out kind of slow, but once you get into it, it's hard to get out!  Claire is no ordinary girl and has had to shun everyone around her so when she starts getting control of her abilities, she starts being able to start actually living.  She experiences new things and a deep love that develops very fast.  She can finally be around her family and touch them, hug them, without feeling all of the pain and such.  And after such a long time, James is finally starting to feel some human emotions again.  The two of them are strangely tied.  Their connection is undeniable and you keep seeing more and more of Claire's ability pop up throughout the book.  But one of the big surprises for me was about the connection they share.  It was surprising!  

Tristan: Finding Hope by Jessica Sorensen

I was a little disappointed with this short.  I realized it was a short story when I started it, but it was like the ending literally just cut off.  And for the title to be Tristan: Finding Hope, it sure didn't seem like there was much hope finding going on.  The idea is definitely interesting and thankfully we should be seeing more about this story because otherwise there would be little to redeem it from the way it was handled.  I think I would much rather just read the whole story instead of what seems like an excerpt from a story.  Fair warning, if you get it on kindle, it is only about 50% of what you are actually getting.  The rest of it is a piece of Breaking Nova.

I can barely give this 3 stars out of 5.  2 1/2 would probably be more appropriate realistically.

Redemption (Captive Series Book 5) by Erica Stevens

   It has been almost a full year since the war.  Braith and Aria reign now and things have finally become civilized between humans and vampires.  No more blood slaves. Equal rights for everyone.  Instead of blood slaves they have set up donation centers in every town.  That doesn't mean that every town is abiding by the new rules.  So Jack and William are out going through the smaller border towns making sure the law is followed.  They don't have a lot of trouble until they reach a small, hidden town that he never even knew existed.  In fact, most don't know about it.  And the people of the town like to keep it that way.  They like living away from everyone else because of what the vampires are that live there.  They call themselves Undesirables.  Almost every vampire in the town has some sort of flaw in their DNA.  Some keep on aging up until a certain point instead of the aging process stopping at maturity.  Some cannot stand the sun on their skin.  Here in this town they can live relatively peacefully without being judged by others.  Well, for the most part anyway.  The only one who gives trouble in town is the man running it: Calvin.  He's an old vampire with a lot of power and he is known to be mean.  Unfortunately Calvin has his eye set on Hannah, a local vampire that had just reached maturity the year before and worked in the local tavern.  He uses whatever leverage he can to touch her and get some time with her.  When Jack and William show up in town, everything is turned upside down.  Jack immediately realizes just how unwanted Calvin's advances are and he is determined to keep Hannah safe.  Calvin is a dangerous man.  What he doesn't realize is that Jack is willing to go to unknown lengths for this girl.  Bad thing is that it only fuels Calvin's anger since Jack can't seem to keep his hands off of her.

   A great new book in the Captive Series by Erica Stevens!  I personally love reading this series and have read them all more than once.  It is nice to see books that have fresh takes on vampires taking over society and what it would be like.  This is another one of those books!  Love to see the in-control Jack lose it because he found a vampire who has become something very special to him.  And this little eerie town that she lives in has secrets that will reveal themselves!  Just one more thing, there is a bit of a surprise to the ending!