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Uncaged Review – The Brother’s Curse by Christine M. Germain

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

The Brother’s Curse
Christine M. Germain
Horror

A year after the brutal death of her parents, Crystal Francois moves back home to the eerie small town of Lakeview Falls. When one of her neighbors goes away abruptly leaving his home to be watched by a young man named Jason Warwick, Crystal finds herself falling for him instantly because of his charming ways and dashing good looks.Two weeks before her 25th birthday, she receives a rare antique purple amethyst stone necklace that is left for her by her late mother; A necklace with a deadly past and horrible consequences when being worn. She finds out that wearing the necklace causes her and her friends to be the target for two sadistic tyrannical evil 18th-century old Shapeshifter brothers who will not stop till they find her and retrieve the chariot stone necklace that holds their father and 24 demonic Shapeshifters captive. When young men from town go missing, and bodies showing up eaten or skinned alive. Lakeview Falls is on high alert. It doesn’t take long for Crystal to discover that the new guy in town isn’t who he claims to be or if he is even human.

Uncaged Review: This is an engaging read that
the author balances the horror with a bit of romance
and some humor to level out the horror.
And this is a horror book and it can be a bit scary
at times but the dark humor balances it out. There
are a lot of characters to keep track of, and the
author does a great job keeping them all separate
with unique personalities. I, as a reader, had a bit
of a challenge keeping up with them.

There are some great twists and turns in this book,
and the world building is well done. I didn’t find
many slow spots and it grabbed my attention right
away. This is a series that horror and dark fantasy
fans will enjoy. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars


Uncaged Review – Given by Amy Pennza

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Given
Amy Pennza
Paranormal Erotica

The day I rode to the Rift with my brother the king, I never expected him to deliver me into the hands of our enemies. Desperate to stop the Deepnight from covering his kingdom in shadow, he’s pledged me as a blood slave to King Laurent, ruler of the vampire kingdom of Nor Doru.

Survival means giving Laurent my vein and my body. And when his cruel and arrogant general, Varick, demands the same, I must obey.

But all is not as it seems in the vampire court. King Laurent has secrets, not the least of which is how much he enjoys his general’s company. Almost from the moment I enter the twilight world of the Deepnight, I learn my journey across the Rift was so much more than a barter. And it’s not just Laurent and Varick I need to be wary of. There are rumors of darkness stirring—of long-forgotten danger rising in the old elven lands.

Something is stirring in me, too. As I unravel the secrets of the vampire court and discover my own hidden abilities, I must choose between love and survival. Trapped between two powerful men, will I become a pawn in the battle for power, or will I take control of my own fate?

Author’s note: The Bitten and Bound Series must be read in order. Mind the cliff.

Uncaged Review: The author warns us to “Mind the
cliff.” As in, the major cliffhanger at the end of this
book. And it’s a doozy. One thing going for it is that
the 2nd & 3rd books are out now, so you can continue
on immediately. This is a hard hitting paranormal,
with MM, MF and MFM. If that’s not your style, then
this isn’t for you. If that doesn’t bother you, you will
find a book that twists and turns and a well thought
out story and world. This can be a bit confusing at
first, when you are trying to keep the worlds separated
but it will fall into place as you keep reading.

Given is a half human/half vampire, and the growth
and strength we see in her as the book goes along is
noticeable and terrific. When you get to that ending,
don’t toss the Kindle or cuss out the author. Just go
get the second book. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – A Pool of Crimson by Suzanne M. Sabol

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

A Pool of Crimson
Suzanne M. Sabol
Dark Fantasy

Killing vampires is easy. Trusting one will be the hardest thing Dahlia Sabin has ever done.

Dahlia has lived a lonely existence as a killer of the undead. Known as The Blushing Death to those that fear her, Dahlia uncovers a plot by Columbus’s Master Vampire, Ethan. He intends to raise a demon from the depths of hell to destroy the city, cement his power, and take control.

In her pursuit to stop a demon from manifesting, Dahlia sinks deeper into the city’s supernatural underworld and discovers that vampires are not only deadly; one in particular could be dangerous to her very soul and her heart. Patrick, the Master vampire’s second-in-command with dark penetrating eyes and a cool, deadly sophistication, can’t stay away and Dahlia can’t tell him no. There’s something that neither of them knows, Ethan wants Dahlia’s unleashed power for himself and is willing to do anything to get it.

Dahlia is in a race against time to send the demon back to hell, at war with her better judgment, trusting a dark and intriguing vampire with his own agenda, while struggling to save her own neck. As the portal to hell opens, Dahlia has only herself to rely on in order to survive, if she can …

Uncaged Review: I really enjoyed this first book in
this series. Dahlia is a vampire hunter, but when she
has to work with one to stop the top vampire in the
city from raising a demon, she’ll face the fight of her
life. This book doesn’t slow much, Dahlia is in over
her head throughout the book, but she’s pretty bad
ass and the fight scenes are terrific and gory. This is
a good start, and I am definitely looking forward to
the next book in the series. Dahlia is a strong character
and gets herself in more trouble with her snarky
comebacks, but it’s very entertaining. This is a hot
urban fantasy which is sounding like it will become
a reverse harem in the future books, which is always
fun. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Third Man on the Left by Roni Hall

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Third Man on the Left
Roni Hall
Romantic Suspense

Tragic stories are common in the ER but nurse Dani takes the blame for a toddler patient’s death personally, confirming her abusive father’s belief that she is inept. To prove her competency and free herself from overwhelming guilt, she volunteers for a humanitarian mission trip to Tanzania where she can focus on doing good.

Prior to leaving, she meets the love of her life, Noah, who says he will wait for her. However, her mission partner/physician, Carter, is a surfer poster boy who has a thing for Dani. Noah’s gut tells him something about the picture perfect doctor is off but the expedition goes on.

Weeks into her trip the mission is savagely attacked by rebels and Dani is a microsecond too late to prevent her coworker from a devastating injury but saves him from certain death…for now. More rebels are on their way and Dani escapes into the jungle with four lives who are now solely dependent on her for their very survival. The ultimate test of her competency has begun.

Was the strike on the mission random, or was she an unsuspecting dupe in a smuggling deal gone bad?

Uncaged Review: I don’t normally read a lot of
romantic suspense, it’s not a genre that I gravitate
to. But the author did a great job pulling me
into this story, with danger, suspense, romance
and some really good plot twists that I didn’t see
coming. Some of the villians in this story don’t
present themselves as bad guys right away, but
slowly you will peel the layers and find the different
characters and their true colors. This book
drew me in, and I had a hard time putting it down.
The end of the book will have the reader glued
and waiting to find out what happens, reading
swiftly to get through it.

Great read, and a high recommendation for the
suspense lovers, and maybe the “not so suspense
readers” also. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – Wings of Passion by Kelly Nicolson

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Wings of Passion
Kelly Nicolson
Shifter Romance

Sienna falls out of the sky and into Adam’s life…

She’s a shifter with the ability to turn into a golden eagle and she’s fleeing danger, but with an injured wing, she crashes onto the balcony of Adam, a man who likes to be in control.

Adam’s orderly world is turned upside down with the arrival of the golden eagle, and now that he has her, it’s clear that control is over-rated. If it means keeping Sienna, then he’ll embrace the wildness.

Once they commit, Sienna and Adam will do whatever it takes to keep each other safe, and with the hunters determined to capture Sienna, that might not be easy. To stay together, they’ll have to learn to rely on each other and embrace the bond growing between them.

Uncaged Review: When I first started this book,
I was afraid it wasn’t going to be something that
really appealed to me because I’m not really into
the instant lusting that happened here very quickly.
But once I got past the first couple of chapters,
it turned into a really good suspenseful romance.
Sienna is flying away from a shifter hunter, with
a damaged wing. She’s an eagle shifter, and she
flies until she crash lands on Adam’s balcony.
Adam rescues her and brings her into his apartment,
and hopes to help her heal. After the first
couple chapters, this book picks up speed and you
meet the rest of the characters in the book.

This is a good start to this shifter series, and a nice
original take on this genre. I’m looking forward to
the rest of the series. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – Death’s Intern by D.C. Gomez

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Death’s Intern
D.C. Gomez
Humorous Fantasy

A talking cat, a boy genius, missing people, and an untrained Intern for Death. What could possibly go wrong?
Did that really happen?

There’s no way Death offered me a job. I’m a musician that makes her living as a waitress, with absolutely no training in the supernatural world. This is all a very bad dream.

But Bob has been kidnapped, and I can’t possibly lose the only friend I have.

Bob, you’d better be alive. Because if I just gave my soul to Death for nothing, I will personally kill you. Not to mention, it seems Death’s Interns have fairly short life expectancies.

God, don’t let me die.

Uncaged Review: I really enjoyed this book as the
start of a series. The premise is very original, and I
actually found myself smiling and laughing a couple
times. The best I can explain, is that Isis, who is on
her own, scraping to get by, by being a waitress at a
Mexican restaurant. When a homeless veteran friend
named Bob goes missing, she’s compelled to find out
why, being a vet herself. When Death offers Isis a job
as her/his intern – she finds out about a supernatural
world right under her feet.

I can’t get into everything, but the main plot is a
group of witches that are kidnapping people that no
one will miss, like the homeless in order to take their
souls to keep them immortal and young. There is a
cast of characters that are very originally thought
through and Isis soon finds a family that she’s never
had before. This is a fast paced urban fantasy that
jumps out of the gate at a sprint and keeps on going.
Looking forward to continuing with this series.
Reviewed by Cyrene

4 1/2 Stars

Uncaged Review – Rebel Dragon by Anna Lowe

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Rebel Dragon
Anna Lowe
Fantasy Romance

Can this rebel dragon learn to play by the rules when his destined mate’s life is on the line?

Off to Maui for a relaxing vacation? Hardly. Surfer Jenna Monroe is on the run from a stalker who lusts after her blood. Instead of combing the beach for lost treasures, she’s forced to venture deep into the terrifying world of shapeshifters. There, even the good guys are hard to trust — all except for the hot-blooded rebel she can’t get out of her head.

Connor Hoving and his band of Special Forces shifters were planning to leave trouble behind by moving to Maui, but destiny has other ideas. His whole future — and that of his brothers — depends on acing his new job as head of security at an exclusive seaside estate. But Connor can barely get his inner dragon to focus with alluring, off-limits Jenna around. Can this rebel dragon learn to play by the rules when his fated mate’s life is on the line?

The closer Connor and Jenna become, the higher forbidden passions blaze. The more they give in to simmering desire, the more impossible love seems. And the more secrets they uncover, the closer their enemies creep. Vampires and ruthless dragons lurk in the shadows, and it’s impossible to tell whose side fate will take. Only one thing is certain: great heroes don’t get to pick their destinies — only the choices they make.

Uncaged Review: This is a great start to a new
series. This series spins off from the Aloha Shifters,
Jewels of the Heart series and if you’ve read
that series, you’ll love the idea of seeing your
old faves come back into these books. This time
out, Connor, an ex-Special Forces expert and his
brothers are hired by Sila’s team to be security
for a large estate. Meanwhile the woman he met
on the plane, Jenna, is staying at the same estate.
Jenna is running from a stalker they believe is a
vampire in L.A. and is new to the world of shifters.
Imagine their surprise when they bump into
each other on Maui. Sparks fly, even literally,
when these two are near each other.

This is a book full of action, romance, hot sex
scenes and even some nostalgia as you see old
favorites. The book will twist and turn and you
won’t guess the outcome easily with this one.
Jenna has some surprises up her sleeve, and to see
her come into her own is amazing. Connor will
grab your heart as he turns from the rebel he once
was to the leader he was meant to be. You don’t
have to read the other Aloha Shifters series first to
read this one, but if you haven’t, you are missing
out. Highly recommended for fantasy romance
lovers. Reviewed by Cyrene

5 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven by Jennifer Ivy Walker

By
Cyrene Olson
-
0

The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven
Jennifer Ivy Walker
Fantasy Romance

In this dark fairy tale adaptation of a medieval French legend, Issylte must flee the wicked queen, finding shelter with a fairy witch who teaches her the verdant magic of the forest. Fate leads her to the otherworldly realm of the Lady of the Lake and the Elves of Avalon, where she must choose between her life as a healer or fight to save her ravaged kingdom.
Tristan of Lyonesse is a Knight of the Round Table who must overcome the horrors of his past and defend his king or lose everything. When he becomes a warrior of the Tribe of Dana, a gift of Druidic magic might hold the key he seeks.
Haunted and hunted. Entwined by fate. Can their passion and power prevail?

Uncaged Review: This is a great beginning to a
series. I was awed by the amount of research that had
to go into writing this, especially about the herbs, and
plants and all their uses and research about the Celtic
lore that was done so well. When I first started reading,
I thought of Cinderella meets the Knights of the
Round Table meets Middle Earth, and it has a lot of
similarities of mixing in fairy tales with the lore. It’s
done so well, that you become absorbed in the tale.
The cons: The different perspectives didn’t line up
time wise, so when you are reading about Issylte in
one chapter, the timeline jumps or goes backwards
when they switch to Tristan or Morag. Also, this book
started slow for me, but even though it was, I don’t
feel like anything should have been left out either.
The pros: This is well written story with characters
you know from old lore, and new ones that you come
to embrace. And the villians – are OMG villians that
you will despise.

So if you don’t read fantasy or you want to jump in,
this is a good start. I’m really looking forward to
book two. This does not end in a cliffhanger, but sets
up well for the next one. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 1/2 Stars

Uncaged Review – Brightblade by Michael Suttkus & C.T. Phipps

By
Cyrene Olson
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0

Brightblade
Michael Suttkus & C.T. Phipps
Dark Fantasy Horror

Psychic. Superhero. Spy. Detective. Bounty Hunter. Ashley Morgan has been many things and failed at all of them. The twenty-eight-year old has her whole life ahead of her but has already resigned herself to working a dead end job bringing in the debt-ridden supernatural criminals of New Detroit. A chance encounter with the vampire sheriff reveals a secret that motivates her to change her life forever: her long-missing brother Arthur is alive (in a manner of speaking).

Ashley sets out on a quest to not only find him but also deal with old lovers, treacherous criminals, a magic sword, and a quest to raise an ancient vampire from the dead.

Brightblade is set in the same world as the Red Room series, The Bright Falls Mysteries, and Straight Outta Fangton.

Uncaged Review: This is a start of a series that
is a spin-off of sorts from others, set in the same
world. I didn’t read any of the other series, and
had no trouble keeping up with this one. Ashley is
a psychic with telekinetic abilities, and is working
as a bounty hunter when we first meet her.
In this world, Detroit has been taken over by the
vampires and it’s now known as New Detroit.
The jobs in this supernatural underbelly are not
career boosters by any stretch. As she works as a
bounty hunter, she really sets out to find her missing
brother, and along the way, she gets involved
in a scheme to raise a vampire and get a magical
wand that can cure vampirism. The supernaturals
in this book are not the romanticized versions you
see in other books, but they are also not complete
monsters.

The cast of characters are well done, and for the
most part, developed well enough that I could get
a decent handle on them. My favorite has to be
Zadkiel, Ashley’s magical sword that has an angel
embedded. Overall, I like the action and the series
and am interested to see where it goes from this
book. Reviewed by Cyrene

4 Stars

Uncaged Review – The Archivist by V.S. Nelson

By
Cyrene Olson
-
0

The Archivist
V.S. Nelson
Dark Fantasy/Horror


◆ A lost teenage girl ◆ An abusive man ◆ A face-stealing demigod ◆ A plan for revenge ◆ A chance to escape death.


There is no God waiting for you in paradise. No afterlife where friendships severed by death are reformed and family members reunited. There is only the Aether, a dimension of insatiable hunger that will possess you no matter your beliefs or the life you led.

Yet there is hope for a lucky few. Archivists, existing between the world of the living and the world of the dead, can offer salvation… for a price. Taking your essence in the final moments before death, they tether you to the physical world. They become your afterlife, linking you with the living while your body rots.

17-year-old Sun-young Kang lives with an abusive man and will do anything to protect her 12-year-old sister, Laure. After a chance meeting with a young archivist, Sun-young hatches a plan to dispose of her abuser for good. But soon Sun-young learns there is more at play, and as she grows closer to the mysterious archivist, believed to be the last of his kind, she finds herself the centre of a plot to ensnare him.

The Archivist is a macabre fantasy about death, loss and love. It is an incredibly rich novel with a truly original concept. It is cinematic in its scope and details the haunting, but also beautiful, gift an archivist could offer a person in their final moments.

Uncaged Review: This book is very addicting,
in a dark twisted way. The blurb has you thinking
the Archivist is a type of salvation to an afterlife,
that you can spend with your loved ones after
your body gives up the fight. And it is that in a
way, but it can also be a tormenting and a suffering.
If your family can’t afford the Archivist, then
your essence is sucked into the Aether, which I
never really got a handle on, to be honest. The
book is very dense, and you need to pay attention.
It’s like one of those movies that if you look away
for five minutes, you’ve lost a chunk of plot.

All in all, this is very original, but does border on
more of a horror than just a fantasy. The relationship
between the Archivist and Sun, and her sister
Laure, is a something of a surprise to both him
and to the reader. This is a good suspense entangled
in this book, but I’m not going to describe it
because I don’t want to give anything away, and
I’m not so sure I could describe it properly. But
it’s an addicting read, with a good suspense woven
in, and hard to put down at times. Reviewed
by Cyrene

4 Stars

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