King’s Highlander (Highland Wishes, #4) by Jessi Gage – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, fantasy, historical, Jessi Gage, romance, series

About King’s Highlander

Danu, goddess of Wolfkind, has fallen for a mortal. Ever since fate thrust her into the body of a mortal woman, potent desires have plagued her. Surely, returning to her true form will cure her of the longing to fall into bed with the handsome King Magnus. Unfortunately, in her current state, she has no power to transform herself. Worse, she has no power to save her people from the wicked demigod intent on subjugating them.

King Magnus has waited fifty years for Seona, the human woman prophesied to become his queen and the mother of his heir. Now that he has her, she wants nothing to do with him. Until a terrible accident steals her memory. Where Seona once hated him, she now flirts with him. Where she once fled his protective custody, she now marvels at every nuance of life within his castle walls.

Magnus has been betrayed too many times to trust easily. Seona’s new behavior is suspect. But try as he might, he cannot deny his growing passion for her. Just when he begins to believe Seona will finally be his in every way, he learns a truth that rocks him to his core and puts his kingdom in peril. To save his people, he must rely on a new, fragile faith that challenges everything he thought he knew, and risk losing a love that transcends mortality.

Warning: Two pairs of “happy ever afters” are on the line in this wild ride of a fantasy romance. It is recommended that readers experience The Wolf and the Highlander (Highland Wishes, Book 2)

Review of King’s Highlander

In 2015, at an online Facebook party, I received the audiobook of The Wolf and the Highlander from author Jessi Gage in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved it (review here). That book was #2 in the Highland Wishes series, but the nature of the series makes book 4 more of a sequel to book 2.

I don’t often go directly to authors to ask to review a book, but I made an exception this time.  I had great expectations for King’s Highlander and I was not disappointed one bit. The situation with King Magnus and Seona took such an immediate and compelling turn that I could not put this book down.

Danu, in the body of Seona, is both goddess and mortal. Both aspects of her personality appeal to Magnus but he is in the dark about how Seona changed from hating every fiber of his being to flirting at every opportunity. Magnus is suspicious but also terribly attracted to the new Seona.

Sadly, his attempts to act on that attraction will be thwarted by an attack on his kingdom. All the children disappear overnight. To understand how terrible this is, you must realize that the Wolfkind are a dying race. They have very few females and many are past the age of child bearing. So to lose the children is a horrendous blow.

While Danu is in the body of Seona, Seona is in Danu’s body and therefore, in her prison. Put there by the demi-god Hyrk, Danu was despairing of escape. It must also be hopeless for Seona, though she does have a friend. Fae Duff promises to help her escape, but she must make a promise in return.  Because that is just the way of the Fae.

The subsequent story of Magnus going after Danu’s enemy is full of energy and action and high emotions. I would not miss this story for the world! Add the story of the children and of Seona and Duff and you have a full course dinner of passion, tensions and excitement, with an ending that brings in an unexpected blessing. King’s Highlander is such a well told story. You can read this book without reading The Wolf and the Highlander, but reading the two in order would make for a fuller experience.

The author graciously provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Raven, Fire and Ice (Touch of Truth, #1) by Nita Round – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, fantasy, mystery, Nita Round, Steampunk

About Raven, Fire and Ice

Lucinda Ravensburgh sees the truth in everything she touches. When Captain Magda Stoner of the airship Verity, asks for her help in a very strange and messy crime, Lucinda cannot refuse. From that moment on, Lucinda’s life is changed forever. She discovers, no matter what the obstacle, nor the troubles they encounter, finding the truth is paramount.

Review of Raven, Fire and Ice

Oh wow! As soon as I started reading Raven, Fire and Ice, my eyes were glued to the page. Do not let the very brief book blurb fool you. This is a riveting story of rich characters, compelling earth magic and a vibrant setting that pulls you right into the scene.

Okay, that was a typical wrap-up paragraph for me. But I wanted to get your attention. The reason I decided to read Raven, Fire and Ice is because the author described it as steampunk. When added to the blurb, I thought, sure, I’ll give it a go. Wise move.

When the story begins, Lucinda Ravensburgh is doing her thing, using her gifts in her position as… Well, you don’t know what she is, so you just keep reading to figure it out. And it takes a while, but in the mean-time the action is riveting. The author’s style of writing is mostly dialog and action. There is not an abundance of descriptive narration and almost no internal character musings. It works well and made the story move very quickly for me, despite the 422 pages (so says Amazon).

The just right amount of descriptive narration vividly paints settings. From the Angles tower to the huge airship that must cause a bit of airship envy. From the new Raven Tower to the city of Wash Town with it’s many levels and layers. The brilliant settings seemed to take a life of their own, as much as the characters did.

And since characters make the story, I should say a bit about them. Lucinda is both confident and unsure. These two traits seem contradictory, but her honesty about them is both humble and boastful. I like her direct manner very much. Captain Magda Stoner made a brilliant entrance into the story clinging to proper titles so much that it became almost irritating. But it set the tone for her character. Correct, maybe a little uptight, but extremely capable. She is Captain of the airship with an assorted crew of able airship operators. Officer Ascara is in charge of security on the airship and off of it. Her seemingly casual manner is supplemented by vigilance and she is relentless when performing her duties.

This trio of women are an unlikely team of detectives that will discover the truth about disappearing people in Wash Town. While Lucinda was the person hired to do the job, Magda and Ascara are the catalysts that help her complete the process. Individually, each has her strengths. But as the team, the sum of the whole is greater than the parts. I like them very much!

They are more than a team which you will discover when you read about the Raven Tower and its emergence. They do spend a little time naked together and admiring each other in their nakedness. Are they meant to be more than a crime-solving team? In Raven, Fire and Ice, they do not become lovers, but the implication is that there might be something in the future. Each approaches the possibility of such a relationship in her own unique manner: amusement, pointlessness, hopefulness. I like that the relationship stays on a professional level, at least for now.  These three women as main characters overshadow all the other characters.

I will leave you with a passage from early in the book. More of foretoken of things to come, it also ties into the title:

As the door closed Lucinda leaned back in her chair and stared at the bare walls over the book cases. There were three quotes etched into the wall, and Lucinda recalled reading them over and over again. “Wise birds whisper,” she read, “Rage of fire,” on another part. Finally, “Strength of ice.” The words didn’t mean anything, yet they gave her a kind of comfort. No one knew why the words had appeared, but it had been in the early days of the tower’s formation.

The author provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Collision (The Prophecy Series, #3) by Lea Kirk – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, Lea Kirk, scifi romance

Review by K.J. Van Houten

Review of Collision

Collision is book three of Kirk’s Prophecy series. I definitely recommend reading books 1 and 2 first, to get a better sense of the ‘world’ of this series. Collision does not include a lot of detail about how the various species of Terrans, Matirians, and Anferthians have come together on the galactic stage. Unfortunately, there may be some spoilers for those books in this review.

Collision is the story of Flora Bock, whom we met in book 1 as a young child, orphaned in the invasion of Earth by the Anferthians. This book also starts out with Flora as a young child, but past the events of books 1 and 2, and she is now the adopted daughter of Alex and Gryf (whom we met in book 1), and there is peace after the war. But even a child continues to hold dislike and distrust for the Anferthian species that had invaded and destroyed the family she was born into, so it is no surprise she doesn’t want to participate in diplomacy of her adopted parents as they prepare to greet the arriving Anferthian ambassador K’nil. And she’s already prepared to dislike Fander, the ambassador’s grandson, who is arriving with him. The instant she and Fander exchange gazes, Flora’s fears seem confirmed as she hears an internal roar and the world spins, and for the first time ever, she faints. No surprise she’s surly and gives him a black eye the next day. It is a surprise, however, that he lies and covers for her so she doesn’t get into a lot of trouble for it.

Thus begins an uneasy friendship. Maybe a childhood that fluctuates between dislike and friendship is a better description. With not a lot of childhood around, Flora and her adopted brother and sister find themselves frequent playmates with Fander, who is learning a lot about the Terran culture he is in now. Maybe it’s no wonder that by the time Flora and Fander both reach 15, they’ve become close friends. Possibly more, if their one brief kiss hadn’t ended when Flora’s uncle found them together. Possibly more if this discovery hadn’t resulted in Fander being sent back to Anferthia, away from Terr and Flora for what seemed forever.

Part 2 of Collision jumps 9 years into the future, to Flora’s 24th birthday. Flora is now working with Ambassador K’nil, pursuing her own diplomatic career, and she’s eager for her new assignment which will send her away from Terr. She’s hoping for Anferthia, in part because she still feels a strong bond toward Fander and wants to see him again. She’s also looking for an explanation for why she has intense dreams that include Fander – the grown-up Fander she’s never seen or communicated with in person, his grandfather their only connection. Then, right before her eyes, just as he’s about the reveal some information about Anferthia he’s been withholding from her, the Ambassador is assassinated, Flora barely escaping with her own life.

The life she’s known is upended. She’s hiding the secret reliquary the Ambassador passed to her as he died. A treasure that she learned can be used as a distant communication device as the Ambassador had her use it as he lay dying to connect with Fander on Anferthia. Flora learns she is a target for assassination AND the Anferthians’ number one suspect for the Ambassador’s murder. Fander realizes he needs to return to Terr to protect her, which means revealing his own secrets.

Collision continues with the story of how Flora and Fander meet again, revelation that Fander is more than Flora realized, and the understanding of the bond between them that remains as strong as ever, if not stronger. Against a backdrop of political intrigue and fast-paced action, Flora and Fander find love does conquer all, including prejudice and greed.

Bottomline: Each book in the Prophecy series seems to be better than the previous, which, considering how much I enjoyed book 1, isn’t an easy thing to do. Lea Kirk definitely deserves high praise for the quality of her writing and the solidity of her stories. Worth double every cent I spent on the purchase.

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