Tag Archives: self published

Sever the Crown Complete Vampire Romance Series

Review of the Sever the Crown series, by Mysti Parker & Lindsey R. Loucks

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I received an Audible code for a copy of Emergence (book one) and then since I enjoyed it, I borrowed the compilation through Amazon Prime.

Description from Amazon:

◆ Start with Book One: Emergence

One woman. Five men. Together, they’ll sever the crown – or maybe the head that wears it.

Wren has a dark obsession—to find her mother’s murderers before they find her. Every new singing gig brings her closer to crossing their names from her list.

When a detective shows up with a new lead, she jumps at the chance with fangs bared. But to get the information they need, they’ll have to bust someone out of jail.

Sure. No problem. 

Ashe has just been framed for high crimes against the Southern Vampire Clan—but he’s not exactly innocent either.

While waiting for his fate, a five-pointed star tattoo appears on his wrist, similar to the tattoo of a stunning platinum-haired vampire. The sudden attraction between them is undeniable. Better yet, she’s just offered to free him. 

Sounds like a great deal. So what’s the catch?

Turns out, as their enemies close in, the catch could very well be their lives.

◆ Book Two: Defiance – Everyone knows it’s not a true vampire cult party until someone gets staked.

◆ Book Three: Obsession – Wren’s world has caught fire. But she’ll be damned if she lets it burn.

◆ Book Four: Relentless – Wren’s fourth mate just might be the death of her…that is if the world doesn’t end first.

◆ Book Five: Ascension – 3…2…1…It’s a race against time in an epic war for the throne. Queen versus queen.

Reviews:

I wrote reviews of these books as I went. I had more opinions at the finish of some than others. But overall, I liked the series but found myself growing bored by the end. I feel like the authors kept themselves constrained in the beginning, but by the last book, things were getting sloppy.

Emergence (Sever the Crown, #1)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It’s not particularly deep and I was expecting the heroine to meet all of her mates here, but it looks like it will be one per book. Despite that, I laughed several times, thought the writing sharp, and I liked the characters. Plus, the narrator did an excellent job, which always contributes. I’ve borrowed the rest of the series through Amazon Prime now. We’ll see if I like them as much when reading them, instead of listening.

Defiance (Sever the Crown, #2)

I didn’t dislike this, but I didn’t like it as much as the first. With two mates located, the Wren worship is just getting to be a little too much for me. I’m pleased to say that, despite being a reverse harem story, the book isn’t bogged down in too much sex, and the sex scenes aren’t overly long. I’m moving on to book three. We’ll see how things go from there.

Obsession (Sever the Crown #3)

I gotta admit I’m getting a bit bored with this series now. Contradictorily, it starting to feel like too much of the same (basically how amazing Wren is) and like the authors got bored with the confines of their own world and blew it open. In the previous books, we only had humans and vampires. Suddenly, here in this book, we have vampires, and witches, and celestials (aka angels and demons), lion, wolf and boar shifters, banshees, and portals through time. This felt like a huge departure from what previous books had lead readers to believe were the limits of the world.

Additionally, Wren now has three male mates, which I have no problem with. But I find it really unimaginative that there is no overlap. She gives one mate at time attention, there is no jealousy but there also isn’t any crossover. Not in the sense of having more than one in bed at a time or with any of the males feeling affection for one another. Somehow it gives a sense of monogamy, even in the Polyandrous relationship. Which might work if they weren’t all together all the time.

Also worth noting is that these books do not stand alone and this one ends on a particularly precipitous cliffhanger.

Despite saying all of that, I’m still moving on to book four. Honestly, I’ll read the whole series just to see if Zac finally gets turned and to be a mate. (I’m pretty sure he will and even think I know how that will come about, but I want to see it.)

Relentless (Sever the Crown #4)

Book four of five in a series in which the books do not stand on their own. So, it starts in the middle of the story and ends on a cliffhanger. It’s OK, but the whole series has grown stale, each book just seems to be more of the same. It’s not bad, it’s just not adding anything particularly fresh with each new installment.

Ascension (Sever the Crown #5)

I was really glad to see the fifth mate came about as I thought he would (and was who I thought). But I was so ready for this series to be finished by the time I reached the end. I felt like it just went on for too long. All five mates were sweet, but having 5 men to satisfy got repetitive. Especially since this is medium-burn (that’s a quote from one of the blurbs), so most of the sex was somewhat abortive and didn’t vary far from the most basic.

Then there was the final showdown with the villains. They’re literally caricatures. I mean every time the evil mates entered a scene they came in quoting ridiculous lines, even. There is no feeling of the rest of the vampire clan(s) (or humanity, for that matter). It all felt very surface level.

I know I’ve just been complaining. That’s my frustration coming through. But I did read five books without DNFing any of them, so I obviously didn’t hate it. The writing is still perfectly readable and I did like the characters, etc.

Review of Claiming Ana (Triple Star Ranch #1), by Brynna Curry

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I received an Audible code for a copy of Claiming Ana, by Brynna Curry.

Description from Goodreads:

The child of a gypsy and fey, small-town veterinarian Dr. Anastasia Brannon has always hidden her magic for fear of ridicule. A red-hot encounter with the new PI in town makes their attraction impossible to deny. Throwing caution to the wind, she indulges her desires but keeps her secrets close.

A man with a shady past and secrets of his own, Howl Raven uses his feral talents and tracking skills to make a living, doing his best to lay low and hide the curse that haunts him every month. So far, so good…until an uncontrollable shift outside the full moon leaves him the victim of a werewolf hunter.

When she finds the enigmatic investigator wounded in the woods near her cabin during a storm, Ana provides medical care on instinct. She may be the only one who can banish the wolf from Howl’s blood, but at what cost?

Review:

This was not great. It started out well enough by introducing several interesting characters that then play essentially no role in the book at all. (I assume they are only there because they’ll have their own future books.) The love is instant, the plot is thin and the ending anti-climactic. Basically, had the author taken the time to develop this into a full-length novel (where she could have fleshed characters, plot, and the world out) it could have been pretty good. But she didn’t. Instead, it’s barely 75 pages and the reader feels all that it lacks.

On a side note, I really wish American authors would get on board with the fact that Gypsy is considered a slur and an insult and shouldn’t be used casually. I realize that that message hasn’t been as widely heard on this side of the Atlantic and it has developed a different meaning that many are reluctant to give up. But many who can claim the heritage have been fairly vocal that they wish it not to be used.

The narrator (Teddy Hoffman) did a pretty good job, outside of the occasional tendency to get a little overly dramatic.

life's passages

Review of Life’s Passages: From Guyana to America, by Erwin K. Thomas

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I won a copy of Life’s Passages (by Dr. Erwin K. Thomas) through Goodreads. I’m always a little iffy about books involving religion (or more specifically religious people). But I was interested in other aspects of the book. So, I determined I’d put up with the religious aspects in order to learn something. I read it in one sitting, during my Solo Protest time.

Description:

Life’s Passages is a spiritual biography that traces my life as a member of the Thomas’ family up to the present time. Its theme captures the role of a loving and caring God in our lives. Readers will journey in the local environment of a small South American country – Guyana, and explore the realities of living in America as a student and professor.

Review:

I think this book has it’s purpose. If Dr. Thomas passed it to his friends and fellow church members, I imagine they’d love it. They know him, after all, and would be interested in his life. But as a stranger reading it, it failed to hold my interest.

I dove into it hoping to learn about a different culture and the life decisions that led a man to immigrate to America. Instead, I opened a book with no central theme. Thomas seems to just write chapters here and there on whatever occurred to him at the time (there’s not even a chronology). Nothing ties the narrative together. There is no central message. The mechanical writing and copy editing are surprisingly clean, but I think Dr. Thomas needed a content editor to walk him through how to make an auto-biography substantive and meaningful.

Lastly, the blurb heavily suggests that this is a religious book. Other than some of the quotes at the beginning of chapters and the occasional “by the grace of God” or “God answered our prayers” (all in the last 1/3 of the book) this isn’t a religious narrative.