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Uncaged Review – Lure of the Wolf by Anna Lowe

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

To read an interview with Anna Lowe, and an excerpt from Lure of the Dragon, please see the September issue of Uncaged Book Reviews.

Lure of the Wolf
Anna Lowe
Paranormal Romance

She can’t remember her past. He wishes he could forget his.

Nina only has the vaguest memories of who she is or why two men tried to kill her one terrifying night. All she knows is how quickly she’s falling in love with her rescuer — a man with secrets of his own. With her, he’s kind, gentle, and fun — but there’s a ferocious, animal side to Boone and the group of Special Forces vets he shares an exclusive seaside estate with. Can Boone help her uncover the past before the killers catch up with her? Or will an unexpected twist of fate steal her only chance at true love?

If fate were to come knocking on the door of Boone Hawthorne’s beach bungalow, he’d shove it right back into the sea — especially if it started whispering any nonsense about destined mates. But one night, a woman washes up on his private stretch of beach. Before the wolf shifter knows it, he’s breaking every personal rule for her and making promises he’s not sure he can keep. Investigating Nina’s past means crossing paths with a powerful archenemy, cutthroat criminals, and a ruthlessly selfish ex-lover who will stop at nothing to get Boone back in her bed. Can he solve the mystery of Nina’s identity while protecting her — without risking his own heart?

Uncaged Review: Another thrilling addition to the Aloha Shifters series, this is book two, and it’s as good as the first one. These books all connect, not only with the shifters themselves finding their destined mates, but also with finding the Jewel of the Heart power stones, each different in their powers, but when brought together, they are even more powerful. And there are people willing to kill to get a hold of them. This one revolves around broody Boone, the wolf shifter in the group, and when he finds a woman washed up on the beach with no memory of who she is or what happened, his inner wolf claims her.
This book slaps you into the action right out of the gate, with Nina being thrown off a boat and left for dead. There is suspense, humor, action and hot romance. You are also treated to the inner dialog of Boone’s wolf, like we were treated in book one, with Kai’s dragon. This is a mesmerizing series – and a page turner. They just seem to end too soon.  Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: Need by Deborah Wilde with Excerpt!

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

To read an interview with Ms. Wilde, please see the September issue of Uncaged Book Reviews

The Unlikeable Demon
Hunter: Need
(Book 3 – Nava Katz)
Deborah Wilde
Urban Fantasy

The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: Winner of the 2017 Raven Award for Favorite Urban Fantasy.

Less Hopelessly Devoted, more Worse Things I Could Do.

Nava is hot on the heels of a demonic serial killer and finally working with her brother. The assignment should be a dream come true, not a nightmarish power struggle made worse by her twin’s refusal to believe there’s corruption within the Brotherhood. Nava is determined to find proof of their dirty dealings, even as she risks irrefutably breaking her sibling bond.

Speaking of clocking annoying males upside the head… Nava is also totally over smoking hot rock star and fellow hunter Rohan Mitra. There is a veritable buffet of boy options out there, and this girl is now all-you-can-eat. So when her demon hunt brings her first love, Cole, back into her life, her revenge fantasies for closure-on all fronts-are a go. Except neither her old wounds nor her new ones are as healed as she believes.

Still, she’s got work to do:
Brotherhood: unmask.
Demons: slaughter.
Guy problems: terminate with extreme prejudice.

 

Excerpt

“I could do with a boy or a burrito.” I rubbed my belly, the silky material of the long-sleeved tunic that I wore as a mini dress sliding under my fingers. Were TV shows and book covers to be believed, I’d stake out my prey with a sleek fall of hair, clad in head-to-toe leather. Too bad my curls were allergic to flat irons and tight leather pants gave me yeast infections. Learned that the hard way.

“In that order?” My twin brother Ari was a disembodied voice in the shadows.

I side-stepped the run-off dripping from the broken rain spout onto the alley’s cobblestones, thinking fondly of my double-breasted, classic trench coat back inside the bar. “Depends on how good the burrito is.”

The bar’s dented back door crashed open, releasing a spill of music, a sharp blast of chatter, and two demons glamoured up to look human.
I jerked my chin at them. “Took you long enough.”

The taller of the two, Zale, swaggered toward me in his white shitcatcher pants, his white vest stretched tight across his wiry torso, and his fedora perched rakishly atop his bald black head. He cocked his finger and thumb at me like a gun. “All right, all right, all right.”

Fucking Matthew McConaughey wannabe. The original was more than enough.

Skirting the edge of the dim pool of light cast by the sole bulb over the door, I sashayed forward on my three-inch heels, a whisper of a breeze rippling my hem. “You promised me witches.” I trailed a finger down his chest. “Gonna deliver?”
His friend Dmitri barked a laugh.

Zale shot him an amused smile. “You want the goods? Pony up.” He reached for his elastic waistband.

I reached for my magic.

Look at that. I was faster. Electricity snaked out of my fingertips in a forked bolt.

“My implication that I was willing to blow you for their whereabouts?” I smiled sweetly and cracked open the concrete beside his shell-toe shoes. “Total fabrication.”

Zale blurred out of sight. I wasn’t concerned because this raku demon only had short range flash stepping ability and a dark shadow had disengaged itself from the gloom to give chase. Ari, my fellow demon hunter.

My brother’s smirk, sharp as a razor’s edge as he tracked the demon, made it all too clear how hunting suited him.

“What are you?” Dmitri’s perplexed and vacant blink at me fit right in with his dishwater blond man bun and tapered floral pants, but was still insulting.

“I’m Rasha.”

He laughed. “You can’t be a hunter, you’re a girl.”

I grabbed my boobs with a shocked gasp. “That’s what this means?” Damn, I had a good rack. “I can’t sing either, but that doesn’t stop me practicing for The Voice auditions. So, yup. Girl and Rasha.”

He made a sound of disgust.

I didn’t need that kind of disrespect today, so I flicked a bolt of electricity into his crotch.
The felan demon dropped to his knees, his wheezed exhale a pretty good dying bagpipe impression.

“You were saying?” I asked.

Five tentacles sprang from his chest like Shiva’s arms, the one closest to me striking the ground with a sticky slurp. The air fogged with the stench of patchouli and fungus.

I swiped at my watering eyes. “You’re missing a tentacle.”

“I’m perfect the way I am.” His snarled–and issue-laden–response made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but the real kicker was his front tentacle lashing across my forearm.

Take the precision of a bee sting and magnify it by the mass destructive power of a nuclear bomb. That was close to the searing fire that his paralytic touch shot along every nerve ending in my body. I wheezed a gasp, my arm dropping to my side.

The felan snickered.

“Shut it, asswipe. At least I’m not wearing floral pants.” I tried to move my arm, receiving a wet noodle dangle for my efforts.

He fingered his fabric. “I’m wearing these pants ironically.”

“Not paired with that hair abomination you’re not. Might as well wear a button that says, ‘I’m a demon, ask me how!’” My arm felt like my mouth after a dental procedure–numb, swollen, and clunky. Had my elbow been able to drool, I’m sure it would have.
A sliver of moonlight guided me as I fired my magic at Dmitri, but the paralytic was already taking root, thick and sticky as molasses. My stream of blue and silver current stuttered out of me, the demon dodging it with ease.

Dmitri swaggered in closer, locked a tentacle around my ankle, and pulled. I crashed down on my ass, my legs wobbling like the finest Jell-O. “Cute panties,” he said.

I’d have killed him just for the use of that horrid word but my heart hammering at an unsustainable speed was all I was capable of. He pinned me down and wrapped a tentacle around each appendage like I was Gulliver imprisoned by the Lilliputians.

I stiffened out like a surfboard. My breath punched out of me in a scream, my pain spiking like I was coated in bubbling lava. I was half-convinced my flesh was melting from my bones. Gritting my teeth, I forced my magic out. Animated lightning bolts danced over my now-blue skin and a wave of current burst from my entire body to wrap around the demon like barbed wire.

It knocked the felan back a whopping half-step, but at least it broke his hold. I still couldn’t move, but I could take a deep breath.

“Witches. How do I find them?” I tightened my magic net on him, taking perverse satisfaction in his eyes bugging out of his head.

“Urban. Myth.” He flailed his tentacles, caught tight in my web. “There are no witches, you moron.”
My vision kaleidoscoped into black blobs, the paralytic sinking its hooks into every inch of me. Lungs burning, nervous system in a Code Red panic, I had to finish him off, except I was now seeing multiples of the lemon-colored tentacle tip indicative of his weak spot. His Achilles heel and the place I needed to direct my magic in order to kill him.

I dug down into my last molecule of energy and nuked Dmitri with so much magic that he charred like a well-done steak. The air reeked of fetid BBQ, but I’d hit his sweet spot and dispatched him into oblivion with a puff of lemon-colored-yet-hippy-scented-dust. At least I didn’t have to clean up after myself. Lack of a corpse, the sole public service that demons provided.
Fumbling for the edge of my Spanx with spasming fingers, I pulled out the modified EpiPen tucked against my hip and blue-to-the-sky’d it in my thigh. Thanks to the fast-acting antidote, the pain in my body subsided from “rip my skin off” to “whimper madly.” Much better. I twitched my fingers, happy to note they still moved, then flopped over, hands braced on the cobblestones. Luckily, the stones were dry. Landing in an unidentifiable puddle would have been an indignity too far.

The bulb over the back door cracked and sizzled out. I turned my head away from flying shards and sat up.

Zale blurred into the alley, eyes wide. Shadows pressed in as if they had weight and heft, tinged with an ashy smell. The raku backed away but he was cornered on all sides by darkness.
There was a languid elegance to my brother’s magic.

Zale spewed some super homophobic insults involving Ari’s interactions with his fellow hunters in a way I was almost positive was impossible.
The shadows expanded, like they were taking a deep breath, before wrapping themselves around each of Zale’s arms and his upper torso. They jerked the demon back against the brick wall, the crack of his skull momentarily shutting him up.
I yanked out the doctored-up EpiPen still sticking out of my leg. It contained a felan antidote provided by the Brotherhood of David, the testosterone-laden secret society of demon hunters that I had become the first female member of. The antidote had dealt with the worst of the poison–the fatality part–leaving me merely battered and bruised. A run-of-the-mill Wednesday.

Zale struggled as Ari strolled closer, a pale blue silhouette. The raku’s tendons popped along his skin as he strained against his bonds.

“F**king psycho.”

Ari stilled. Flexed his fingers. The shadows holding Zale gave a sharp jerk, snapping both his arms out of their sockets. The demon’s roar cut off in a cough as a shadow slithered up his chest, wound around his neck, and strangled him.

“Ari.” I scrambled to my feet.

My brother’s eyes glittered dangerously. He edged his face close in to Zale’s and Zale flinched.

“Boo,” Ari said with a hard smile and fired a shadow like a punch into Zale’s abs. His sweet spot. The raku gasped and disappeared, dead.

[symple_box color=”black” fade_in=”false” float=”center” text_align=”left” width=””]Award-winning author Deborah Wilde jumped from a twelve year screenwriting career to writing YA romantic comedies under the name Tellulah Darling because her first kiss sucked and she’s compensating. Both a hopeless romantic and a total cynic with a broken edit button, she branched out into adult urban fantasy as Deborah Wilde to satisfy her love of smexy romances and tales of chicks who kick ass. She is all about the happily-ever-after, with a huge dose of hilarity along the way.[/symple_box]

DeborahWilde.com

 

Uncaged Review: Did you ever have one of those books that you have to put down for one reason or another and the whole time you are away from the book, you just want to finish whatever task you are doing so you can get back to the book? That’s exactly how I would describe this latest installment for this series. The snarky Nava is back, and even though sometimes she seems like she’s in over her head and too stubborn to admit it, in this book, she gets back on track with her brother, and with Rohan, but it is not smooth sailing getting there. There are people dying of heart attacks in the city, young people without any history of problems. Ari and Nava are assigned to find out what’s happening. On a side note, Nava is still trying to find the spine that was infused on the demon in the last book, hoping to prove the Brotherhood is not on the up and up. Rohan and Nava are not seeing eye-to-eye these days because of his last mission, but he’s back and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.

This book does not slow down, we get great action sequences and fun sexy times and a whole lot of humor, and keeps you engaged throughout. The ending was more than I could have hoped for, but still only left me wanting more. Keep ‘em coming, Ms. Wilde Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Vanquished by Jessica V. Fisette

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

The Vanquished
Jessica V. Fisette
New Adult/Fantasy

Kendra Stephens only wants to survive her first semester at Braxton Law without flunking out. However, she can’t catch a break from the horrid nightmares and dangerous, unexplainable happenings that only worsen at meeting Alaric A’mswirth, a mysterious man whom she suspects to be the cause of her terrors—and is undeniably the reason she’s still alive. A man who, one minute, is about to kiss her and the next wanst nothing to do with her. Kendra doesn’t remember him or how they are connected, yet as memories resurface she vows to uncover the truth about the residents of the strange town she now calls home and the man that haunts her dreams. Nothing is as it seems as she is plunged into a world filled with trickery, betrayal, and dark desire.

Uncaged Review: The very ordinary life of a girl getting ready to go off to college, and even though she could have chosen any school she wanted to go to study law, she chooses Braxton Law, a college that has kept its historical integrity. Kendra has started having nightmares, and when she gets to college, they only get worse, and the hot guy across the hall, Alaric, isn’t helping matters with his hot and cold attitude. When someone tries to kill Kendra, she has no idea why, but Alaric is there to save her. The next morning, the would-be killers are dead. Kendra starts to get suspicious and wonders if Alaric is more than what he seems on the outside. But everything will reveal itself…

This is a love story, that does transcend time – and when everything starts clicking into place, you’ll be turning pages quicker and quicker to get to the end. The ending was satisfying, and I hope the author returns to this world soon.
Reviewed by Cyrene

4 1/2 Stars

Uncaged Review – Fragile Brilliance by Eliot Parker

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Fragile Brilliance
Eliot Parker
Mystery/Suspense

When off-duty Charleston police sergeant Ronan McCullough responds to the assault of a college student outside a downtown sports bar, he is brutally attacked and nearly killed by the assailants. As he struggles with the physical and emotional damage and doggedly pursues the perpetrators, his personal and professional relationships are strained to the limit; and what he uncovers in his investigation takes him to heart of a deadly drug ring threatening the very core of the city.

Uncaged Review: A fast paced gritty crime book that features on a new drug that’s hitting the streets hard turning up at football games and frat parties. It’s up to Ronan McCullough a police sergeant to put a stop to this. As he gets deeper involved in the case after saving a boy from death while off duty, only to have that same boy turn up dead at a routine football game.

It’s a deadly game of cat and mouse in this book and also features a lot of everyday social problems. A must read for any crime thriller fans. I really enjoyed this story. Reviewed by Jennifer

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – Justice Unending by Elizabeth Spencer

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Justice Unending
Elizabeth Spencer
Young Adult/Fantasy

Within the walls of the Bastion, it’s an honor to become a host for an Unending—the bodiless, immortal spirits who rule the country.
But for Faye, it meant her sister would have to die.
When Faye sneaks into the Mother Duchess’s manor, she just wanted to see her sister one last time. Instead, Faye finds a manor in chaos, a murdered man, and an Unending assassin named Aris who needs a new body—Faye’s body—to bring the Bastion to its knees.
Now Faye’s harboring the Bastion’s most wanted criminal. And if she wants to live, she’ll have to escape the Duchess and her immortals, all while keeping Aris from harming anyone else.

There’s just one problem—Aris is not the villain. And now Faye is the only one who can help her stop the Duchess before anyone else—and especially Faye—has to die for the Unendings’ whims.

Uncaged Review: The author creates a rich scifi/fantasy world with a medieval feel to it. Unending are immortal spirits that choose human bodies to inhabit, and in which the human dies in a process called Fixing. This is viewed as an honor, to be chosen, and when Faye’s sister Justine is chosen by an Unending called Belisama, Faye’s heart is broken at the thought of losing her sister. Trying to find a way to see her sister one last time, she witnesses a murder – and trying to flee the Bastion – an Unending embodies her – and urges her to escape. With her best friend Edward’s help, she gets away but struggles with the truth and the Unending inside her. According to Aris, Faye’s Unending, humans don’t have to die to host an Unending, and exposes the side of the Unending that nobody knows of.

The author does a great job with the dialog, and the originality of the story. Even though the symbiotic relationships between two souls have been told in many ways, the author gives this a fresh take on this relationship and how they learn to trust each other. The pacing is spot on, and I look forward to a book two. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Child with Silver Eyes by Kristen Collins with Excerpt!

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

To read an interview with Kristen Collins, see the August 2017 edition of Uncaged Book Reviews!

The Child with Silver Eyes
Kristen Collins
SciFi/Fantasy

Ash was just your average Alpha, his pack was loyal and they had not been visited by trouble in years.
Life was good.
Life was simple.

That is until fate decided to mess around and not only place his mate in the picture but also a dying Angel that fell from the sky with her baby. In a single moment his life was forever changed. Protect the hybrid child to serve good and keep her out of the Lucifer’s hands. If evil was to get a hold of her she would be the world’s undoing.

Life for Mia hasn’t went well since leaving Ouray and everything she had ever known. Then by chance she meets Ash Stormcloud and his adoptive daughter, Tibby. Tibby is a beautiful child and Ash is alluring, pulling her in a way that other men never have done before. Things take a turn for the better until Damon, Tibby’s father, and Alpha of the HellHound pack decides to come searching for Tibby. In a fight of good versus evil, who will win?

Excerpt

“So, are you a nurse? I noticed you’re wearing scrubs,” I asked curiously.
“Yeah, I just moved from Colorado; the year-round winter-like weather just wasn’t for me. My family had a shop there for generations. I don’t know how to explain it other than I needed a change of scenery. I guess I just felt the mountains of New Mexico were calling my name for too long, so I decided to settle down here. I love my job, though; helping others is just my passion in life,” Mia said nonchalantly while sipping her Dr. Pepper.
“Sounds like you live an interesting life,” I said, impressed by her and her words.
“Enough about me; what about you? What do you do besides taking in children and giving them a wonderful life?” she said, still grinning from ear to ear. My rough hands itched to touch her soft, porcelain skin.
“I’m a forest ranger actually; ya know, Smokey the Bear?” In my best voice impression, I looked at Tibby, saying, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Tibby giggled, reaching for me, so I scooped her up, cradling her to me. “Making sure the forest is safe and the people traveling in and out of it are part of my job, too.”
“You know, for someone who just got that baby there, y’all sure are cozy. You, Ash Stormcloud, must be some kind of child whisperer or something. She absolutely adores you, and rarely takes her eyes away from you.”
“We had a talk; she means everything this world to me now, above all else.” And it was true, I thought to myself. Tibby might as well have been born to me, instead of whatever she was born into.
Tibby started fussing, and threw her bottle of juice across the table. “Tibby, what’s wrong?” My inner wolf stirred, a feeling of possessiveness threatening to come to the surface.
Strange feelings came over me out of nowhere, and the smell of sulfur tinged the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, along with goosebumps on my arms. Subtly, I sniffed the air; the sulfur smell lingered, mixed with an unknown wolf scent. Someone was in my territory without my permission.
“Mia, could you excuse me for a minute? I need to run to the bathroom for a second.”
“Yeah, go ahead! I’ll get Tibby and me some ice cream. Would you like some chocolate ice cream, sweetie?” Mia said playfully.
I nodded, hustling to the bathroom and locking the door behind me. Quickly I dialed Pete; as always, he picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Hoss, what’s up?” he said, extra chipper.
“Hey, Pete, have we had any shifter visitors check in today?” My nerves were starting to feel shot, and I’d only had Tibby fewer than twenty-four hours.
“Umm…” I could hear papers rustling in the background. “No, we haven’t had any visitors since the Bear Claw Alpha visited a few weeks ago. Everything all right? Is Tibby okay?” I could hear the concern in his voice.
“Yeah, she’s fine. We’re at Mad Jack’s and I smelled a wolf—he smelled different, strange…like sulfur. I didn’t see who it was but I want you to call Tessa and Jason up here to track the scent ASAP. I gotta get Tibby out of here and home, where she’s safe.”
“We’d better call the elders together and decide on a battle plan in case of an attack. I’ll get started on that; meet in thirty?”
“Yeah, we’re packing up now. See you there.” I needed to get Tibby out of here now.
As I made my way back to the table I noticed that Mia and Tibby were gone, and so was the bag. Instantly I was alarmed, and looked around the restaurant. Panic and anger clouded my vision; my wolf was ready under the surface, claws out.
“There he is! I told you he would be right back, honey.” Mia’s voice sounded sweetly behind me.
“Tibby! Thank God; Mia, where did you go?” I said harshly.
Mia was taken aback by my sternness. “I’m sorry, Ash, I didn’t think. She was dirty and needed changing, so I took her to the bathroom and cleaned her up.”
“Dirty?” I said, confused.
“Yes, Ash; she had a dirty diaper, and food covering her from head to toe. Where did you think I took her?” Mia said accusingly.
We were getting stares from everybody around us, so I dropped a few bills on the table to cover our check and tip the waitress. I then grabbed Mia’s arms and guided her, with Tibby, outside to my pickup.
“Mia, look, I’m sorry; that was really rude of me in there. All I saw when I came back was that you and Tibby were gone, and I lost it,” I said regretfully. Man, not only was I getting paranoid but I might have just blown it with this beautiful lady standing in front of me.
“Oh God, Ash! I would never hurt a child, especially this beautiful little angel. I never thought of it; I’m such an idiot! Okay, well, I’m gonna go before I embarrass myself anymore today.” The doubt I felt quickly faded to panic. I couldn’t just let her go after making an ass of myself, when she’d done nothing wrong. Talk about an open mouth and insert foot moment.
“Mia, stop…”
“No, I’d like to leave with some grace while I still have it.” Guilt was written across her face, and I wanted to bang my head against a wall a few times for acting so stupid.
“Just wait a minute, please, Mia. You did nothing wrong. I should have never assumed you just took off with Tibby; I’m a total jerk.” I buckled Tibby into her carseat and gave her some toys to play with.
I turned around and took Mia’s hand. “Look, I’d like to make it up to you…” She would barely look me in the eyes. “Please, Mia? I swear I’m usually not such a jerk. What do you say?”
“I’ll think about it,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. The tension between us had passed for the time being. Her scent wafted through the air, filling my nose and imprinting itself in my brain.
“Well, how about you text me every time you’re thinking about it, and we can discuss the pros and cons about everything.” I couldn’t help but smile back at her as her smile spread from cheek to cheek.
“I’ll think about that, too…but it really was nice to meet you, both of you. May I tell her goodbye?” she asked sincerely.
“Yeah, sure!”
Mia climbed into the backseat and gave Tibby a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Okay, big girl. Make sure you keep him out of trouble, and make sure he gives you some extra chocolate pudding, too. If not, then keep him up all night long to teach him a lesson.”
Tibby let out a squeal of laughter, and cooed and ga-ga’d baby talk back to Mia. I felt pleased that she really liked Tibby; for just meeting her, I really liked her as well. Mia rubbed her thumb across Tibby’s forehead in a strange way, almost like she was drawing an invisible symbol on her. I shrugged it off as nothing.
Mia jumped down from the pickup before I could assist her, and turned back to me. Slowly she backed away to her Jeep, as if daring me to chase her. Little did she know that my inner wolf wanted to chase her like prey and take her as his own. She was a temptress, whether she meant to be or not, and she was playing a dangerous game with me. Mia was Little Red Riding Hood and I was the Big Bad Wolf, and I wanted to devour her from head to toe.
“’Bye, Ash Stormcloud. See you around…”
“Oh, you will—I’m looking forward to it,” I said, a smug smile on my face.
“Maybe, maybe not…” she said with a quick wink as she took off down the road. I watch the taillights of that red Jeep disappear around the corner, but her scent of cucumber lingered.

Uncaged Review: 

A classic tale of good vs. evil, in the very literal sense, with Angel and Demon involvement but an interesting twist. A child is born, part Angel, part shifter – a forbidden union. When the shifter Damon, makes a deal with Lucifer, after the birth of his daughter Tiba with the Angel Allita, she knows she needs to get Tiba somewhere safe and hidden from Damon – so he doesn’t corrupt their daughter. Wounded – she manages to make it to shifter lands that promise to protect the child.

This is a short story so I won’t get into details, but it’s nicely written and even though a lot of it felt a bit rushed to me, the author does a nice job with the room she has. There is a character overlap in this book from Grimm Love – and still remains in that world. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Accidental Wife by Cj Fosdick

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

The Accidental Wife
Cj Fosdick
Western Romance/Time Travel

Self-determined Jessica Brewster is wary of any emotional relationship, after being betrayed in a bet. When the beloved grandmother who raised her dies, she inherits a mysterious teacup which when rubbed transports her back to 1886 in Old Fort Laramie, switching places with her look-alike great-great-grandmother—wife to her ancestor’s magnetic first husband and mother to his charming nine-year-old daughter.

Uncaged Review: Jessica Brewster is mourning the death of her Grandmother when she spots a teacup which transports her to a time period in 1886 where she has to play a charade of wife and mother, plus find a way back to her time. The storyline was well written and thought out. In the book we are subjected to a lot of ups and downs. This is the first book in the Accidental series. A must read for fans of Time Travel Romance. Reviewed by Jennifer

5 Stars

Uncaged Reviews – The Escape Series by Rachel Rust – with Excerpt!

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

The first two books in The Escape Series by Rachel Rust. Excerpt from Or The Girl Dies, see the August edition of Uncaged Book Reviews for an interview with the author.

Or the Girl Dies
Rachel Rust
Young Adult/Thriller

One school project. One kidnapping. One night they won’t forget.

Natalie is an honors student with perfect grades. Victor is a drug dealer with a cryptic past. When a school assignment forces them to work together, things quickly spiral out of control.

Victor fails to complete his part of their project, so Natalie hunts him down the night before it’s due. But Victor’s kingpin boss interrupts their study date and drags Natalie down into a seedy underworld where anything can be bought and sold—including her.

Over the course of one night—while dodging bad guys and trying not to inhale—Natalie discovers shocking truths about Victor. And she’ll need to choose between preserving her perfect academic future and helping him escape his troubled past.

Except one final revelation about Victor may be too much for Natalie to survive.

Excerpt

Victor’s eyes had fixated on the rearview mirror. He downshifted, slowed down, and wedged himself into the next lane of traffic.
“We’re being followed.” His gaze held steady, watching behind us in the mirror. I made a slight movement to look over my shoulder. “Don’t look,” he said. “Stay facing forward.” He shifted gears. “Got your seatbelt on?”
“Yes.” My skin prickled under the weight of unseen eyes and a cold rush of blood coursed through my veins. Terror was outdone only by the pounding of my heart in my ears.
Victor hit the brakes and we fishtailed off the street and into a narrow alley, jamming my shoulder into the car door. The alley was barely wide enough for one car with a row of garbage cans sitting outside of dingy, rusted back doors to various businesses. My eyes squinted half-closed as though that would protect us from other cars or people or flying bullets. I had watched enough TV to know that fleeing down an alley didn’t always produce desired results.
Victor slowed down at the end of the lane, then turned right into a grocery store parking lot. He weaved in and out of the aisles, and then backed into a parking space with a view of the alley. We sat there in silence with the car in first gear and Victor’s body visibly tensed for a solid couple of minutes before I developed the nerve to speak.
“Who is following us?” I asked. “Was it the guy in the white car that was at your house?”
Victor’s phone buzzed. He stared at the screen, jaw clenched, then scanned me head to toe. “Where do you live? We gotta go to your house.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you need different clothes.”
I sucked in a quick breath. “What’s wrong with my clothes?” Getting fashion shamed by my friends was one thing. Being criticized by a guy whose t-shirt looked like it hadn’t seen the inside of a washing machine in years was a whole other level of rude.
“Nothing’s wrong with your clothes, but you can’t wear that.”
I glanced down at my jeans and sneakers. “Everyone wears jeans.”
“Not where we’re going tonight.”
“Oh no,” I said with a laugh. “I’m not going anywhere with you tonight. Especially not if you have scary people following you.” Maybe I had been hell-bent on making him help me with our school assignment before, but being encountered by a mysterious man in black and then chased down an alley had knocked my determination down a few notches, and increased my self-preservation. Maybe I could convince Victor to come to my house and work on our project there, and then once we were finished he could go off on his demented adventures with whatever crazy people he called friends.
“You have to come with me,” he said. “You have no choice.”
“The hell I don’t, I’m not —”
Victor shoved his phone in front of my face. A text message stared back.
Go chat with LB and bring the brunette. Dress her nice.
“The brunette,” I said, my voice barely a whisper. “Me?”
His silence confirmed it.

Uncaged Review: High school, only ten days left until graduation, and the teacher pulls a partner assignment, and Natalie gets stuck with the biggest loser in the class, Victor – who seems to sleep the whole way through the class. Rumor is he’s a major drug dealer and a complete jerk – but if she doesn’t ace this assignment, her GPA will falter and her scholarship to college could be lost. This book spans over a 24 hr period and when her teacher and her father tell her she needs to figure out how to work with her partner, she sets her mind to make sure the assignment gets done.

This is the night from hell, and the twists and turns this novel takes will have your head spinning. Natalie gets more than a high school senior could bargain for, and we are left on a roller coaster of danger and intrigue, and even though you are on the edge of your seat, there is a bit of humor to break up the tension. Natalie is thrust into a world she could never had imagined and all she wanted to do was keep her 4.0 GPA. Great fun. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

The Watched Girl
Rachel Rust
Young Adult/Thriller

Where do you run when there’s nowhere to hide?

After barely surviving a dangerous school project, Natalie Mancini is relieved to have her normal life back. Until she’s terrorized by a vengeful associate of the drug trafficker she helped arrest.

Along with Eddie and the FBI, Natalie fights to save herself from an opponent more powerful than the last. But outrunning the watchful eyes of her new enemy may prove impossible.
Natalie and Eddie grow close as they struggle to escape danger once again. And details begin to surface about why they were put together for their school assignment. Was their pairing more than just coincidence?

Uncaged Review:  This book picks up soon after the events in book one, and it starts out with a major bang. You are thrust into the action within the first few chapters, and Natalie is back into the thick of it. If you thought the first book was fast paced, this one does it justice. The sophomore slump is nowhere to be seen. Natalie is kidnapped in broad daylight, and Eddie is MIA. Smacked around, and taped up, she’s too be sold to a human trafficker – whose lost a lot of money from Natalie and Eddie’s interference in book one. But the bad guys aren’t the only ones that have been watching Natalie, the FBI has been keeping tabs on her also.

If you like a fast paced storyline that keeps you on the edge of your seat and turning the pages – this set is highly recommended. The intrigue, the betrayals, and even the romance get a jumpstart in this one. As good or better than Or the Girl Dies, all I can say to Ms. Rust, is write faster please.
Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – Progenitor by Sherri Morrer

By
Cyrene Olson
-
0

Progenitor
Sherri Moorer
SciFi

Kalea Kerner was an electrical engineer focused on taking over her father’s company, until her uncle sat up from his deathbed and healed her broken foot. The miracle of their healing without the aid of recently developed nanotechnology puzzles doctors, especially when other cases of miracle healings are revealed. When the witnesses to the resurrections demonstrate abilities beyond human capacity, both medical professionals and government leaders are desperate to discover why witnesses to the healings are evolving, while the people who healed them are degenerating through their original diseases. These strange events on the brink of the twenty second century unite doctors, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down grappling with the possibility that something greater than their advanced technology may have come into the world.

Uncaged Review: A solid SciFi – and even though I’ve read the type of plotline that is the base of this story many times, the author delivered it in a very unique way. When some terminal patients start recovering miraculously and without scientific explanation, and the ones that witness it, are gifted a slight boon in their abilities, you wonder if it’s a miracle, or what else is happening. When the scientific group discover some transmissions coming from outer space, will they be able to find out what and where it’s from before something else happens?

I’m not going to give spoilers, but this is a really well written book, but it is a heavily dialog driven story. The author does a good job getting the technical information to the reader via the dialog without slowing down the plot too much. The author also does a pretty good job with the characters, even though I never did picture them well in my mind like I normally do and even though I liked the characters, I never grew all that attached to them, and this is where the dialog driven narratives fail for me. I think the plotline held my interest and kept a good pace, and it did end on a cliffhanger. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 by Various

By
Cyrene Olson
-
0

Best Women’s Erotica
Various
Anthology/Erotica

Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, edited by award-winning author and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, delivers risky, romantic, heart-pounding thrills. Featuring a diverse range of characters, sexualities and scenarios, these 22 steamy stories revel in erotic adventure, from the sparks between strangers to the knowing caresses of longtime lovers.

Uncaged Review: A collection of very sensual and erotic stories featuring all sorts of people and situations. To a couple who bring strangers back to their bedroom, to an older woman fresh from divorce wanting to feel loved and be alive again. Set in all different time periods. I’m sure there something for everyone in this book. I found it to be a rather enlightening and hot read. Reviewed by Jennifer

4 Stars

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