Category Archives: books/book review

luna wolf banner

Book Review: Luna Wolf, by G. Bailey & Regan Rosewood

I accepted a review copy of G. Bailey and Regan Rosewood’s Luna Wolf through Love Books Tours.

Luna-Wolf-Kindle (1)I’ve been rejected by everyone—but an alpha heir wants me to be his pretend mate.

As the only wolf shifter in my pack not to shift, being rejected from my home when I turned eighteen was not unexpected when the shifter war is so close. But being sent to a secret academy full of immortal wolf shifters, demons, and teachers with no morals wasn’t something I planned for.

Luna Alpha Academy is for rejects only.

They choose wolves that no one cares about if they go missing and if I can survive long enough to learn the dark magic they teach, I might even be welcome back home as a wolf-witch.

Only catch?

My tutor is a hot shifter asshole who takes what he wants—this time it’s me.

In exchange for extra training, Atlas wants me to pretend to be his.

Every kiss, every possessive touch, every growl to anyone that comes near me only makes me want him more.

But I can’t have him. Not really.

He’s the alpha heir.

I’m a wolf who can’t even shift.

We don’t belong together, and it’s fake. It can’t ever be real.

Dark magic is my future and my only way back to my pack.

my review

I have very middle-of-the-road feelings about this book. Or rather, I liked the book fine, with the exception of a few critical elements, and I’m afraid that if I innumerate them, this review will come across as far more critical than I intend. So, let’s establish up front that I liked the book fine but have a few critiques that shouldn’t nullify the previous statement.

My biggest issue is the inconsistency in the characters, Atlas especially. He literally acts as if Nyx is a huge imposition on one page, and by the next, he’s hitting on her and has had a complete personality transplant. There is literally no transition between his attitude shifts. It was abrupt, unfollowable, and pulled me out of the narrative harshly. (Worse, it happened more than once.)

luna wolf photoMy second issue is how cliched and predictable the plot lines are. The primary immediate villain is a scorned woman fighting over a man—sometimes I want to shake authors and scream in their faces that women really can have motivations that don’t involve men—and the big reveal is seen coming from…well, basically, the beginning. Honestly, it all felt a little too focused on these small-scale dramas instead of the larger end-of-the-world level drama that is sketched out at best.

The writing is mechanically fine, if a little rough around the edges. The over-arching world seems interesting and I think I’d read another in the series. But, again, I’d call this a middle-of-the-road read.

On a totally unrelated note, I’m SO GLAD the book got a new cover. I’ve stumbled across the old one (with the pretty girl on the cover). And it made me seethe. A big deal is made in the book about Nyx being ‘curvy’ (and I do love a plus-sized heroine). That girl on the cover was not. So, I’m glad I don’t have to be irritated about that.


Other Reviews:

The Moon Alpha Series by G. Bailey and Regan Rosewood

Nocturnal Predators Reviews: Luna Wolf, by G. Bailey

mated to the monster banner

Book Review: Mated to the Monster, by Sarah Spade

I received a copy of Mated to the Monster, by Sarah Spade. I can’t quite recall if I won it or if the author was just offering review copies. Either way, I ended up with a copy.

mated to the monster cover
I really should’ve known better than to play around with that old book of spells…

How was I supposed to know that the incantations scrawled inside of it worked? That the first one I read would open a portal into a demon plane — or that the next one was an unbreakable vow to the seven foot tall shadow monster I unwittingly summoned into my bedroom?

He says his name is Malphas, that he’s something called a Sombra demon, and I’m his mate.

Monster, demon… whatever he is, his muscles are bigger than my head, and that club between his legs… I don’t know if mate means the same thing to him as it does me, but he’s gotta be kidding.

Spoiler alert: he’s not.

Mal has been waiting for more than a thousand years for the one woman meant for him. He’s convinced that’s me, and he’s willing to do anything to prove it. And maybe there’s something really wrong with me because, before long, I find myself eager to let him try…

my review

This was silly, fluffy, fun. Which was honestly all I was looking for from it. I wasn’t expecting anything deep or meaningful. Granted, it wasn’t anywhere near as spicy as I’d anticipated, mid-heat at best. And I did think it slipped over into the ridiculous on occasion. But Mal was super sweet (no alpha-ahole here), I like Shannon well enough, and the world/over-arching plot seems interesting. I’d read another in the series.

mated to the monster photo


Other Reviews:

consort to a dark fae banner

Book Review: Consort to a Dark Fey, by S.K. Kilburn

I accepted a review copy of Consort to a Dark Fey, by S.K. Kilburn through Reedsy.
consort to a dark fae cover

Aiden Moray is raising a son and a daughter with a fierce and powerful fairy, whose forest home is the secret doorway between the fey world and modern Earth.

When a fey monster crosses to Earth, kills one teenager, and injures two more Aiden must convince his incensed fairy wife to allow the human police and the FBI into her woods to investigate the attack.

As more people go missing, Aiden discovers that another vicious fairy wants the doorway between worlds and will not stop killing people until he wrests control from Aiden’s partner.

However, the antagonistic fairies are not the only ones interested in the newly discovered doorway. While Aiden’s suburban neighbors, the police, and the National Guard on the Earth side prepare for action against the forest, on the fairy side an entire fey kingdom is planning to invade Earth via the doorway.

When the two armies clash, Aiden must figure out how to save his family trapped in the middle.

my review

This was not a big winner for me, and there are two main reasons for this. As far as I can tell, this is Kilburn’s first book, and it feels like it. The writing and plot/plot progression feel untried and underdeveloped. Names/titles/endearments are used far too often in dialogue to feel natural, and the plot jots and judders along at an uneven, uncomfortable pace.

The writing is mechanically fine, as is the editing. But it was not such that you could ever sink seamlessly into the narrative. It also feels very much like there should be a previous book somewhere. Events are referenced and characters know each other from a previous encounter. So, I felt I was missing something. That’s the first reason.

The second is a little more amorphous. Even before I looked it up to verify the S. in S.K. Kilburn is for Scott, I’d have bet my left tit that this author is a man. While Kilburn isn’t too bad about the male gaze (despite the cover), it is 100% apparent that the only individuals with an ounce of emotional maturity are the males. I say males instead of men because one is 17 and still given the agency, understanding, and narrative authority that the women are denied. The males spend the entire book smoothing female, out-of-control emotions and keeping other men from pissing them off to disastrous effect. (That’s basically the plot of the book.) None of the female characters feel fully-fledged.

I appreciate that the hero is a little older, not an alpha-male sort, and that Kilburn brought back the fae of old—powerful and inhuman, but morally bound to a morality incomprehensible to humans. This is my favorite kind of fae. But that wasn’t enough to save this novel that I was forced to skim to finish (because I wasn’t enjoying it and just wanted to be done).

consort to a dark fae photo


Other Reviews: