Tag Archives: self published

Book Reviews: Deliciously Dark Fairytales #1-4, by K.F. Breene

I purchased e-copies of K.F. Breene‘s A Ruin of Roses, A Throne of Ruin, A Kingdom of Ruin and A Queen of Ruin.

About the book:

I could save him, but he would ruin me.

The beast.
The creature that stalks the forbidden wood.
The dragon prince.

He has suffered a fate worse than death. We all have. A curse put upon us by the mad king.

We are a kingdom locked in time. Shifters unable to feel our animals. Stuck here by a deal between the late king and a demon who seeks our destruction.

The only one keeping this kingdom alive is Nyfain, the golden prince to a stolen throne. The last dragon shifter.

He’s our hope.
He’s my nightmare.

When he catches me trespassing in the forbidden wood, he doesn’t punish me with death, as he’s entitled.

He takes me, instead. Forces me back to the castle as his prisoner. Seeks to use me.

Apparently, I can save him. I can save the whole forgotten kingdom, locked away by the demon king’s power.

But it would mean taming the monster beneath his skin. It would mean giving myself to him.

It would mean my ruin.

I enjoyed this quite a lot, though the second half significantly more than the first. I thought a lot of the humor in the first half—before the main characters had much of a relationship—fell flat and the whole thing felt a little silly. However, once Finely and Nyfain met things took a turn for the better. Her humor worked a lot better when it had a foil, someone to bounce off and return.

The steam factor isn’t all that high in this first book, though it’s my understanding that it picks up in book two. There is quite a lot of sexual tension and ‘almosts’ though. So, if that’s your cupcake, you’ll be happy with this book.

What I like most though is the way Breene is playing with gender tropes. Nyfain is physically bigger and stronger, true, but Finley is the hero of this book, hands down. I mean the last sentences kind of make the point excellently: “If he wanted to play hero, I would. And I’d make him my damsel.”

And Breene manages to make Finley the hero(ine) without emasculating Nyfain or stripping Finley of any feminine traits. She’s butch, yes, but she’s not the dreaded ‘man with tits’ we see some authors sculpt when the only way they can think to make a female character strong is to write her as a man, even as they describe them as a woman. No, Finley is going to save the day and she is going to do it as a woman. The question is just what the journey there will look like.

All in all, I’m looking forward to book two.

About the book:

The only thing protecting me from the demons…is the beast.

Nyfain, the golden dragon prince, tried to set me free. But there is no freedom in this kingdom. Not for anyone.

The demons have sought me out. They want to trap me. To use me against Nyfain.

It’s only a matter of time before they call in the demon king.

Nyfain thinks I should save myself. That I should barter with the demon king to escape this place.

But can I give myself to the creature responsible for torturing the people I love?

In order to save them, though, I might not have a choice.

I liked this even more than the first one. Finely continues to be a super badass heroine who is clearly going to save the day and I’m completely here for it. Nyfain showing his softer side and being ready and willing to submit to and support her authority was endearing. And the two of them exploring fantasy and kink together was great. For me it wasn’t even about the sex—though there is plenty of it—but seeing them open up and talk about things that, outside of their singular situation, would be awkward and embarrassing was a a lot of fun.

I did think there were some inconsistencies. For example, the first time the two came together sexually he was so ‘big’ they really had to work for him to fit. But this was never an issue again, not even when they did anal. And I thought Finely became just a tad too competent and confident. At one point she took on seven powerful demons at once, without being a life-time warrior, and defeated them with ease.

But all in all, I’m still all in to see how the series continues.

About the book:

Never sell your soul to the Demon King.

Too late.

In an effort to save all that I love, I have to finish the job Nyfain started… and ruin myself.

I’ve made a trade with the most cunning creature alive.

Me for them.

The dungeons will be my new home. Dolion’s destruction will be my new goal.

I just have to get out of here and back to my golden dragon. Preferably alive.

While I’m still enjoying the characters and the series. This particular book wasn’t a comparative winner for me. It felt very much like a middle book, which (in a sense) it is. What’s more, what I’m enjoying about this series is Finely and Nyfain together. And they are apart for most of this book. In fact, Nyfain is barely in it at all.

In a way, this is still Breene playing with expected gender roles. Finely goes off to save the day and Nyfain is left waiting and worrying at home. I recognize and appreciate the fact. But I still missed their banter and the progression of their relationship.

What I got instead was quite a lot of legitimate humor in the book. Especially in the form of Hadriel and Leala, and the new dragons (Vemar was my favorite.) I laughed a lot. And I enjoyed the heck out of that.

I’ve pre-ordered book 4 and I’m hoping it’s the last of the series. Not because I’m not still liking it, but because I fear it will jump the shark before too long if it doesn’t wrap up.

About the Book:

I thought once we released the curse, I’d only have one enemy to contend with.

Wrong.

The queen lives. Not only that, but she knowingly hid herself from me and the rest of this kingdom until the moment the curse was broken. Now she is back, and her desires aren’t clear. Neither are her motives.

Will she try to take the throne for herself?

We can stop her…unless she had a hand in that curse. In which case, will we need to battle her and the demon king before we can finally live in peace? Or has this all been for naught?

Regardless, we have very little time before the demon king returns to wipe us out.

There’s a spoiler below.

Well, this series wrapped up well. I’ll admit that this last book was not my favorite. I didn’t feel like it had as much of it’s own plot as some of the other books. It felt very much like it was just wrapping up the threads of past books. (Though one thread never snipped was the blacksmith’s sword. I really wanted to see him give the sword over.)

Mostly though, I thought the whole baby and happy family was a pat and unimaginative way to provide a happily ever after. I’m not opposed to it being a plot point, but when it IS the happy ending I lean toward bored.

Despite that, I enjoyed spending time with the characters (Hadriel and Vemar especially) and am happy to have continued the story until the end.

Other Reviews:

A Queen of Ruin (ARC review) – Massive finale (literally and figuratively)

Feeling Fictional: Deliciously Dark Fairytales Series

Book Review: Mint Freeze, by Laurel Chase

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Last week, I suddenly remembered that you can buy signed copies of books from authors on Etsy. So, I purchased several. Mint Freeze, by Laurel Chase was one of them.

Talk about rags to riches. Cinderella had nothing on me.

I have a sparkly new crown, a remodeled ancient castle, and I’m mated to six of the most delectable princes a girl could conjure.

But my happily-ever-after honeymoon still seems a long way off.

There are plenty of magical creatures in Haret and Earth who would kill to see me dethroned – literally – and we can’t let our guard down yet.

Still, my men promised me a break and a bucket list, and my mates always deliver their goods. We’ll just have to get our sugar in small bites.

I’m Carlyle Licorne, and I’m ready for my next sugar fix.

The Sugar Bites series features Carlyle and her six men, navigating the new Haret as only she can do – with snark, sugar, and shanking.

These fun novellas follow the main Haret Chronicles, but they can be read before those books, too.

I am just infuriated. I can’t even tell you if this was a good book or not because I’m so distracted by, yet again, picking up a book labeled book one and finding out that THAT IS A LIE. I have complained about this before. Hell, I wrote a blog post way back in 2016 complaining about this very thing.

I started this book and very quickly sensed that I’d been dropped into a story. Characters appeared without introductions. There was no world-building or even descriptions, places were named but nothing else. And the plot was 100% based on events that apparently happened in the past, outside of this book (one presumes the previous series).

So, a quick Goodread search provided me two pieces of information. I was reminded that the blurb says,

These fun novellas follow the main Haret Chronicles, but they can be read before those books, too.

And that the The Haret Chronicles is a 7 book series. And since I’m deeming the above statement untrue, that makes Mint Freeze book number 8, no matter what the cover and blurb say. Because even at page 107/130 (82% into the book) I came across quotes like this,

What we’re doing—what you’re doing—it means everything, Carlyle.

My heart gave a lurch. I knew it. God, did I know it. I lost sleep over the pressure of what I was supposed to be able to do, and the fear that I wouldn’t be enough.

But, if you’ve not read the previous books (like I haven’t, trusting that ‘book one’ on the cover) you have no idea what they were doing or what she was supposed to able to do.

The book is entirely like this. I could have chosen a hundred other quotes. I chose that one because it’s so late in the book and illustrates the point that the reader is never given the information missing from the previous series and it’s pertinent to understanding this book. YOU CANNOT READ THIS AS A COMPLETE WORK.

You, in fact, can’t read these books before The Haret Chronicles, as the blurb claims, and feel as if you’ve been given any sort of satisfying story. Period. I literally just spent 130 pages with characters I didn’t care about—since the reader is apparently expected to already know and care about the characters, that opportunity isn’t given here—chasing a plot I knew nothing about, in order to…yeah, I got nothing. I don’t even know what the end goal was. Plus, it’s a cliffie on top of everything else. I mean, I read the book. But I feel nothing but frustration having done so. And I can’t imagine that was the author’s intention.

What’s more, over half of this novella appears to just be pulled directly from past books and fed to the reader as memories. So, I don’t even think this is a new story. Having not read The Haret Chronicles, I can’t know if it’s literally a cut and paste (from previous books) job or if it’s freshly written. But it felt like a cut and paste job.

So, if you’ve read The Haret Chronicles, this is probably a fun little addendum and you’re experience with Mint Freeze was probably completely different than mine. I can see what role the ‘sugar bites’ are supposed to play, after all. If you haven’t read The Haret Chronicles, don’t believe the lie that you can read this first. Put this book down and go start at the beginning.

The writing seems fine. The three characters included here (Carlyle and two of six of her mates) seem likeable enough. The sex scenes were fine. I might have liked the series if I hadn’t unknowingly started it at book 8.