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Book Review: A Glow of Stars & Dusk, by Eve L. Mitchell

I received an e-copy of Eve L. Mitchell‘s A Glow of Stars & Dusk through Netgalley.

One psychic. Six demons. And a whole lot of trouble.

I am a typical, though admittedly anti-social, woman who lives alone in the rural Highlands of Scotland. I also happen to be a clairvoyant who can summon the dead. It’s a pity the souls I see didn’t give me a heads-up, nor did I glimpse my own future on the night six demons came hunting for me.

Their leader believes I am a witch and refuses to let me go until I have performed a spell to lift a blood curse. A spell I do not understand and one that I cannot read. But does he listen? No. Is he infuriating? Yes. Is he hotter than hell? Well…obviously.

Being thrust into the world of demons is terrifying. I mean, they travel with hellhounds, and they’re not the only demons hunting me either. Can I trust any of them? My once boring life is in their hands, and I’m in over my head.

Fighting my ever-growing attraction to the arrogant demon leader is hard enough let alone learning to use powers I never knew I had. But I am Star Elizabeth Archer, and all I know is that I need to learn, because a whole lot of trouble is coming my way. Fast.

Sometimes you read a book and enjoy it, even though logic tells you the accumulation of the elements making it up should result in a whole you’d dislike. That’s how I fell about A Glow of Stars & Dusk. A woman is taken hostage, denied the information needed to make sense of her circumstance, alone with several men with expectations of her, who speak insultingly to her and disparagingly about women in general, a real alpha-asshole romantic lead, a relationship with abusive red flags flying every which way, ect. Most of these things I generally dislike on principal.

But being fantasy and the main male romantic lead being a demon (you have to expect some evilness, right?), I was able to set aside a lot of my qualms and enjoy the book for the snarky sarcasm and what-will-happen-next quality of the plot. I will warn that it has quite a dramatic end. It would stand alone (though I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t be too happy with it). But, as there is supposed to be a book two, I’ll call it a precipitous cliffhanger.

I did think the author went a little too far with the demons’ origins and age. It felt over-blown. Like, what interest would a 24yo women be to someone with that breadth of experience? But beyond that I have few complaints. I’ll be looking to read book 2 when it’s released.

Book Review: A Grimoire For Gamblers, by Amanda Creiglow

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I received an ARC of A Grimoire For Gamblers, by Amanda Creiglow through Netgalley.

Magic may be secret, but it’ll kill you anyway.

Small town mayor’s assistant Elizabeth has enough on her plate grieving her father’s suicide. She doesn’t need his stash of magical knowledge in the attic. She doesn’t need the hidden supernatural subculture of monsters it pulls her into. And she certainly doesn’t need hints that her father’s madness might have been a smokescreen for something far darker.

But uncovering her father’s secrets could be the only way Elizabeth can stop a string of suspicious suicides… if the local wizard doesn’t rip the memories out of her mind, first.

Wizards, right?

I generally enjoyed this. I liked the way Elizabeth thought things through and was able to hold multiple facts to be true at once. I liked her, as a character, and thought her adventure to save everyone was a fun one. I did think some of the Hail Mary saves actually working were a little too convenient to believe and the plot drags a little in the middle. But I always enjoy supernaturals who aren’t human and therefore don’t follow human logic or mores. And we have that in spades here. So, all in all, it’s a thumbs up from me and I’ll be looking for the rest of the series when it comes out.