Once Upon a Summer Night: Mists of Fate by Nancy Scanlon

Publisher:   Diversion Books
Published:   April 11, 2017   
ISBN:            B01N35BGFA
Genre:       Time Travel Romance
Format:     Ebook
Obtained via:  Publisher  
Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com
 

THREE HEARTS

 

With his cousin and partner, Brianna, happily ensconced in late 1400’s Colin O’Rourke is focused on expanding their company Celtic Connections including an office in England.  But things are not moving along as smoothly has he’s like.  It seems a very popular tabloid reporter is determined to find her niece, bookish Eleanor Carberry, a husband.  And the meddlesome aunt has some very specific ideas about said husband.

Eleanor (Ellie) is content with her life as a London bookshop owner. She loves her bookshop and her relatively quiet existence.  But when her aunt asks her for a “favour” which is actually her aunt trying to find her a husband, despite her reluctance, Ellie agrees.  s wealthiest, Ellie reluctantly agrees.  Despite meeting a few choice gentlemen Ellie finds herself more and more drawn to Colin. 

And Colin finds himself attracted to Ellie.  And Ellie seems to like him, but there’s a fly in the ointment.  Colin is also a protector – a guardian of his family which requires him to travel not just place to place, but time to time.  When the paparazzi come after Ellie because of her aunt’s machinations they head off to Colin’s cottage hidden deep in Ireland.  But while there Ellie, along with her friend Gwen, end up back in the late 1400’s. Can time and distance bring these two star-crossed….or is time-crossed, lovers together?

I’m a long-time fan of time travel and when I stumbled on Nancy Scanlon’s Mists of Fate series I was treated to an entire time travel series.  I liked Colin from book 1 on and was delighted to see he has his own story in book 3, ONCE UP ON A SUMMER NIGHT.  He is wonderfully conflicted between following his heart (Ellie) and maintaining his duty to his family.  He learned long ago not to tempt the Fates…even though they throw some curves his way.  Colin never really knows when….as it what year…he will end up when they send him on a mission.

 
Scanlon writes “sweet” in the sense that she has romance and the push and pull of true love finding its way.  She writes is in a way that cross-generations can enjoy it. It’s a nice read for a teen new to romance and at the same time seasoned readers can sit back and enjoy. The mechanism for the time travel is different – a unique take on the idea of love transcending time. 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

SOULJACKER by Yasmine Galenorn

Book One of the Lily Bound Series
Diversion Books
March 7^th, 2017
ISBN# 9781682307014
Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Romance, Mystery
E-book
Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)
Obtained by Self-Purchase

3.5 Hearts

 

Lily O’Connell is a succubus who owns Lily Bound, a salon that caters to the sex fantasies of the paranormal world. It’s a perfect way for her to feed on the Chi she needs to survive and be independent as well. It was working just fine until a client gets murdered in her salon and then all bets are off. Finding out that a vampire did the murder, well that leaves her cold but it was the news that the Souljacker, a gifted tattoo artist turned vampire, has escaped from the institution for the criminally deranged and he is coming to get every one of his clients, that scares her to the bone. With one of his tattoos on her body and no where to turn, Lily finds herself in the fight of her life as she tries to keep her friends safe and stay alive. With a chaos demon PI by her side, Lily will find her life as she knew it is changing.

 

I adore this author’s work and if you ever read one of her books, you know she is a gifted storyteller who keeps the reader glued to the pages till the very end. SOULJACKER is the first book in her new series about a succubus and it has familiar aspects within the story. Many different paranormal creatures (Fae, vampires, weres, etc), extensive world building, captivating characters and more all dot within this first book. I really enjoyed seeing a different paranormal creature take the main stage and found Lily to be a breath of fresh air in a sense that a succubus isn’t as prolific as vampires, weres, fae in stories. Lily is intriguing and the reader gets glimpses of her long past within the pages and I highly enjoyed finding out more about her. The story starts off a bit slow but by chapter two, the action picks up steam and you are off and running with Lily. The story flows smoothly and keeps your attention till the very end.

Meet Lily O’Connell. She owns Lily Bound, a elite sex salon that caters to weres and fae. Lily is a succubus who needs the life force-or Chi- to survive or else bad things happen when she is starving. She has lived a somewhat quiet life for awhile after roaming the world for centuries and put down roots in the Blood Night District of Seattle. I enjoyed Lily a lot. She is an independent woman who enjoys sex, feels she is giving service to those who need it and has a great tight nit group of friends. But murder can play havoc on a business and your life as Lily finds out. She now has angry widow who is a were who threatens her business and her life, a deranged vampire hunting her and her friends and now a love interest in a chaos demon. Life for Lily is about to get a tad bit more dangerous than the staid life she lived under the radar. I really liked Lily’s dynamic with the other characters. You can get a sense of her inner circle and Archer, the Chaos demon fits in nicely. All the characters are intriguing and well written. They are quite enjoyable, even the bad guys. I really am looking forward to seeing more about them in future books. There are a few plot twists that will keep you guessing and I am eager to see where this authors goes with it.

SOULJACKER is a wild ride from start to finish and is a perfect introduction to this author’s work if you never tried her before. If you enjoy a mystery set in a supernatural world that will keep you glued to the pages, then you will enjoy SOULJACKER. I look forward to seeing where this author goes next in the series. I just hope we won’t have to wait forever for book two.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement

 

THE SHADOW PRINCESS by Mary Hart Perry

Publisher:   Diversion Books

Published:   February 11, 2014

ISBN:  978-1626812536

Genre:   Historical Fiction

Format:   Ebook

Obtained via:  Netgalley

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

THREE HEARTS

Queen Victoria’s daughter, Vicky, sits in Potsdam grieving the loss of her beloved Frederick III, Emperor of Germany.  Her husband taken from her all too soon her days are empty and frustrated because her son, Wilhelm continues to sacrifice the good of the country to add to his own coffers.  When her niece Princess Maud comes for a visit Vicky is delighted to see her until she hears Maud’s news—not only is a man on the loose on London’s streets killing women—the police believe it could be her nephew, the Crown Prince, Eddy.  Determined to help her family Vicky heads back to England with Maud.  There she begins her own search for the killer who comes to be called Jack the Ripper. 

Detective Inspector Thomas Edmondson is determined to find the Ripper and while suspects appear, he cannot shake the believe that the Crown Prince is the culprit behind the killings.  Worse, he believes there is a royal cover-up behind the killings. Determined to find out the truth he approaches the royal family.  But when he meets Vicky his world is turned upside down.  While his head screams he is a mere commoner, his heart pines for the princess.  He is not alone in his feelings—Vicky finds herself drawn more and more to Thomas. 

To protect her family, determined to track down the Ripper, Vicky puts herself in harm’s way.  Torn between duty and his heart Thomas seeks a way to bring both parts of his world together.  Can they find and keep each other before the Ripper tears them apart?

I very much enjoyed Mary Hart Perry’s first book on Queen Victoria’s daughters, the THE WILD PRINCESS.  THE WILD PRINCESS combined history, a fictional account of Queen Victoria’s children and romance into a well written, thoroughly enjoyable story.  I looked forward to reading THE SHADOW PRINCESS as soon as I heard about it.  It was a bit of a disappointment to me. 

It isn’t a bad story.  In fact the subject matter is pretty interesting in terms of who Vicky was and the whole Ripper story.  Just who was Jack the Ripper?  They never found out, but rumours abounded including that it was Crown Prince Edward.  Having a female member of Queen Victoria’s family investigate the murders, at first because of she tried to clear her nephew’s name and then because she cared to deeply for the women of London.  The whole mystique of Jack the Ripper has fascinated me for years.  It isn’t an easy subject to successfully carry off and Perry does it pretty well.

What disappointed me was that there were times I felt like the author couldn’t decide if she was writing a thriller, a romance or a young adult.  Not that you can’t have all three wrapped up in one good story—it was the jarring shifts from one genre to another without blending them that had me rolling my eyes a few times—mainly at the times the story slid into a young adult.  Vicky is a forty-something adult woman, the Empress of Germany and she will suddenly come across like a sixteen year old with a high school crush.  The elements just didn’t blend together all that well.

You do need to suspect belief in terms of Vicky and Thomas meeting in the first place—but their relationship does move along so you do want them to find a way to be together. 

As this is not a series there is no definitive order to the books.  I would, however, recommend reading THE WILD PRINCESS first because it is a much better told story and showcases Ms. Perry’s writing far better than THE SHADOW PRINCESS.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.