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Book Review: Wings Once Cursed & Bound, by Piper J. Drake

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I bought a copy of Piper J. Drakes‘ Wings Once Cursed & Bound way back in August of 2023 as part of a #ReadForMaui: A Read for Maui Read-A-thon. Maui was burning, and I bought several books by local authors in support.

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My wings unbound, I am the Thai bird princess
The kinnaree
And no matter the cost,
I will be free.

Bennet Andrews represents a secret organization of supernatural beings dedicated to locating and acquiring mythical objects, tucking them safely away where they cannot harm the human race. When he meets Peeraphan Rahttana, it’s too late—she has already stepped into The Red Shoes, trapped by their curse to dance to her death.

But Bennet isn’t the only supernatural looking for deadly artifacts. And when the shoes don’t seem to harm Peeraphan, he realizes that he’ll have to save her from the likes of creatures she never knew existed. Bennett sweeps Peeraphan into a world of myth and power far beyond anything she ever imagined. There, she finds that magic exists in places she never dreamed—including deep within herself.

my review

Meh. I thought this was OK, but nothing more. I liked that Peeraphan had a backbone and no problem expressing herself. I liked that Bennet was assiduous about consent at every stage, and the reader can see his internal struggles. I even think the world was interesting.

The problem was that the world felt only sketched out, and, frankly, I was bored for most of the book. There really isn’t much to the plot and no real twists or turns to keep things lively. I have book two. But I’m not even sure I will read it.

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Book Review: Wings Once Cursed and Bound

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Book Review: The Witchslayer, by Opal Reyne

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I received a copy of Opal Reyne‘s The WitchSlayer as part of a Renegade Romance book box.

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When Amalia’s cat brought home a strange flying lizard during a terrible storm, she had no idea that it was a Dragon. Or that he would save her from burning at the stake, only to imprison her in his lair when she saw his human face. Now she is stuck in this cave with a moody, hot-tempered, and arrogant warrior – one who has killed her kind by the dozens.

She expected to feel trapped, but he somehow makes her feel unbelievably… safe.

Rurik’s only goal is to kill the Dark Witch, Strolguil the Vast. He never expected to find himself in a White Witch’s home in need of healing, or that she would be completely oblivious about his kind, or her own. He intends to abandon her, a lowly Witch, to her fiery fate, but he can’t ignore his blood-debt after she saves him.

Nor can he ignore the fierce desire that she grows in him when she roams free inside his lair.

However, there are Dark Witches afoot, and Rurik isn’t sure if he can shed years of hatred to trust the enchanting woman he has in his keeping.

my review

Meh. Honestly, I didn’t love this. I didn’t hate it either. I was just kind of bored by it. I liked the FMC, but the MMC didn’t have quite enough growth for me to ever truly like him. I merely found him tolerable. The plot was okay, but the book is far longer than it needs to be, and some of the dialogue clunks. (Too many characters asking things like “bla, bla, bla, is it not?”) I’ve read other Reyne books that I enjoyed more. But this one was a letdown.

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Book Review: Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon, by Delilah Dare

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I picked up a copy of Delilah Dare’s Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon as an Amazon freebie. You can find a review of book one in the series (Married to the Mahr) here.fallen for the two headed dragon cover
A hiking trip with her boyfriend turns into a tragic late-night news episode when Dana is pushed off a cliff, only to land in the lair of a two-headed dragon.

Taken by surprise, Rathym watches her scramble away – but by dragon code, he knows she now belongs to him. He will not allow his property to stray very far.

When Dana is inevitably dragged back to his lair, tensions rise, and Dana begins to wonder if he was right – she does belong to him.

my review

I’m going to be honest. I didn’t plan to read this book. I was not impressed with the 1st book in the series, mostly due to the author’s style. So, I was gonna skip the rest. But I made a fundamental mistake. I grabbed my Kindle for a trip I knew would leave me waiting in the car for an hour, forgetting that it was a new one and I’d downloaded almost nothing. Literally, the only thing downloaded from the cloud that hadn’t already been read was this book. (I imagine I downloaded it and Married to the Mahr at the same time.) So, there I sat with very few options but to read Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon, and let me tell you, I was no more impressed with it than the previous book.

Never have I seen an author set up an interesting element in a book that was as poorly utilized as Rathym’s two-headedness. I mean, sure, the two peens get plenty of play. But the two heads…none. Past the midpoint in the book, I started to wonder if he only had two heads when in large dragon form but not the bipedal human-ish form. But I didn’t know. I DID NOT KNOW. Halfway through the book, I did not know if the character had two heads all the time or only some of the time! I never knew. Having two heads is of so little importance that I didn’t even Fallen for the two headed dragon photoknow how to visualize the character. The heads don’t speak individually. He doesn’t seem to use them separately. There is nothing to indicate his two heads have a point.

I’ll be further honest: I skimmed the book’s last third, especially the sex scenes. There was so little plot, and I was so bored. I didn’t want to DNF because I dislike DNFing books, but I wanted to be done. This author seems to have conceptualized ideas that look like they should interest me, but the way she writes is a no-go for me.

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