Touch of Darkness
Dawn Husted
Urban Fantasy

Wanting to leave his supernatural family behind, seventeen-year-old Thanatos runs away. Against his better judgment, he befriends an ordinary girl. But it won’t be long until the darkness he’s hiding from comes calling–he can’t hide forever.

Uncaged Review: This is a really good prequel story to an upcoming series that shows how Thanatos life is shaped by a young girl. It sets in motion his life, and it does exactly what a prequel is supposed to do, get the reader fired up to read the first book in the series. The characters are well developed for the amount of space they get here, and the ending probably isn’t what you expect. It definitely has my interest for the first full length novel – when I actually get time to read it. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Fairy’s Touch
Ella Summers
Urban Fantasy

The games of gods play out upon the backbones of mortals.

Leda Pierce has come a long way since she left her home on the frontier of civilization one year ago to join the Legion of Angels. She is a soldier in the gods’ army, has crossed swords with demons, and shares an apartment with her angel lover in New York.

Every day brings Leda closer to becoming an angel herself—until a promotion ceremony goes horribly wrong, leaving her powers in magical limbo. Worse yet, the gods have taken over her training at Crystal Falls. Leda’s failed magic and the gods’ impossible challenges are the least of her worries, however. Someone is using the challenges to expose people’s most-guarded secrets, and the skeletons in Leda’s closet would mean her execution.

Fairy’s Touch is the seventh book in the Legion of Angels series.

Uncaged Review: Sometimes when you get this deep into a series (this is the 7th book in the series) the series starts to slow down and get repetitive and monotonous. This is not one of those series. This time out, the suspense and secrets that are revealed ramp up the book in different ways than previous installments. The action sequences are spot on without overdoing them, and the connection between Leda and Nero is stronger than ever.

We learn a lot more about the gods, and their secrets and the dangerous games they are playing. Keeping her own secrets safe from being known, is getting harder and harder for Leda and Nero. There is more than one twist and turn in this book, and it’s a great ride. I also like the fact that this author keeps her main characters together and makes their bond stronger and doesn’t break them apart just to create tension. Well told and written, even the few small typos didn’t detract from this story and I’m looking forward to the next one. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

The Merging
Logsdon & Young
Urban Fantasy

Sin City is always running amok with disturbances and glitter, but sometimes those two items merge and the nightlife gets out of hand.

Kind of like mixing Hell and…well, more Hell.

Ian Dex is the captain of the Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department, the crew responsible for kicking the crap out of any supernatural stupid enough to mess with the Strip. He’s a cop, a millionaire, an amalgamite, and a horndog—and makes no apologies for it. 

When an ubermage appears on the Strip, strutting around in his Chippendales-style outfit and sending out other ubernaturals to kick up dust and unleash destruction, it’s up to Ian Dex and his team to do what they do best: bust heads and shred souls. 

Casinos are clamoring for help, cops are fighting tooth and nail just to survive, and tourists think it’s all part of the Vegas experience.

The weather forecast for tonight on the Strip is dark… with a chance of bloody.

Uncaged Review: This urban fantasy kicks in pretty fast – and set in Las Vegas, because – well, why not? There is some fun comedic moments and good action sequences. To be honest though, I didn’t like Dex as much as the authors want the readers to. He’s a little full of himself but if that was toned down a bit, he’d be more likeable. In this series, the team is better together than apart, and the secondary characters are well thought out.

I’m definitely going to continue on with the series to see where the authors lead us next. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Fangs and Fairy Dust
Joynell Schultz
Urban Fantasy

Why is she alive?

Eleven murders, all connected by severe loss of blood. Each of the victims is male…and dead, except for a stunning young woman named Aliza.

Is she a victim or the perpetrator? 

Ryker’s trip to Dubuque should be quick and painless—swiftly laying down vampire law before the humans get suspicious. When Aliza reminds him of what it’s like to be human and the love he lost right here in this city eighty years ago, feelings he had locked tightly away begin to emerge. Feelings of betrayal, guilt, and love that haunted him for nearly a century.

But can he overcome his past to see the present?
How is Aliza connected to the crimes he came to prevent? 

Uncaged Review: A shorter novella that can introduce you to the Angels of Sojourn series. Ryker is an older vampire, working for an organization called the Blood Board, that tracks and eliminates rogue vampires to keep their secrets safe. When he is tracking a rogue, he comes upon a survivor – and is determined to get information from her about the attack if he can. Little does he know, that she isn’t all that human herself, although she doesn’t know it yet.

I liked the premise of the book and it has my interest for the series. This is easily a standalone and you don’t have to read the series to catch on, but it doesn’t waste a lot of pages with stuff it doesn’t need, so it never weighs down. This is a new-to-me author, and is now on my radar. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars