Early Review: The Deepest Well by Juliette Cross

The Deepest Well

Author: Juliette Cross

Release Date: February 2, 2016

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Age of Gray Book #1

ISBN:   1619233371

ISBN13: 9781619233379

Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance

Review Copy Source: Author

Lady Katherine Blakely is married to a monster. On the same night she witnesses how low her husband can sink, she meets a charming stranger, a gentleman from top to toe. Yet even her gallant rescuer is possessed of a dark side.

Lord George Draconis Thornton, commander of the Dominus Daemonum, is on a mission to expel the demon prince Damas back to the underworld. But a golden-haired beauty derails his plans and stirs an attraction he’s never felt before, not even for his centuries-dead wife.

Discovering Lord Blakely is in league with Damas, George sweeps Katherine away from the chaos and devilry threatening her life. With every touch, their love grows by joyful leaps and bounds.

Sensing his enemy’s vulnerability, Damas kidnaps Katherine to his hellish lair, where he wages a sensual assault on her defenses. As George tears at heaven and earth to find her, he is painfully aware of only one way to save her soul. The cost will break her heart…and destroy his own.

Warning: Contains wolves in gentlemen’s clothing, a precipitous descent into Hell, and a frightening glimpse of a post-apocalyptic world where angels and demons wage war for dominion on earth.

I don't know why I didn't put it together before, but I was pleasantly surprised when I realized THE DEEPEST WELL tells the story of how Kat and George from The Vessel Trilogy met and fell in love and the hardships that they faced.

Kat and George's relationship has always been a mystery to me and THE DEEPEST WELL really cleared up all the questions I had about them as individuals and as a couple. I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, but I had no problem enjoying this book one bit. I knew Kat was a strong woman, but meeting her as Katherine really cemented how strong of a woman she really was. It would be impossible to not like George, his character just jumps off the pages. He's loyal, strong and ready to right Katherine's world. Unfortunately nothing is easy for this couple and there is a lot of heartache between the pages. I absolutely loved that Cross fast forwards us to what happened after the events of BOUND IN BLACK at the end of this book so that we see how Katherine and George end up.

I really enjoyed THE DEEPEST WELL and consider it a must read if you are a Juliette Cross fan and have already read her Vessel Trilogy. New to Juliette Cross? You will love it too and I don't feel you need to read her other books to fall in love with Katherine and George's story.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Guest Blog: Realm Walker Series by Kathleen Collins

UFI welcomes Kathleen Collins Author of The Realm Walker Series. Thanks for Joining us!!

The Power of Reading

The other day I was thinking about one day when I was in college. I lived an hour away from campus so running home on my two hour gap between classes wasn’t feasible. That day I wandered through the bookstore and picked up Bridget Jones’ Diary. I sat in my truck and started reading. As the time approached for my class, I looked between the clock and the book in my hand and made the decision to keep reading. Now, I could have gone home and read, but that would have meant putting the book down for an hour while I drove home. Nope. So I sat there, finished the book and drove home. Sorry Professor.

There is nothing I love more than absolutely being sucked into a book and the world the author has built. That feeling you get when you pick up a book and barely put it down again until you’ve reached the last page. As an author my favorite emails are the ones where readers email me to tell me that they were exhausted because they had to stay up all night reading. Awesome.

I have always loved books. What’s that saying about readers living many lives? I 100% agree with this. To me there is no greater fuel for the imagination than a good book. One where your brain paints full color pictures in your head of what the characters look like, what the world they live in is like. Avid readers understand that while you might not be able to go to all the fictional, fantastical worlds we read about, we can visit them whenever we like. And the really good worlds are worth visiting again and again.

So what were some of your favorite worlds to read about? What ones do you want to revisit again and again? Let me know so I can check them out. My list is below.

1. The gothic world of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
2. The country setting in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
3. Kate Daniels’ Atlanta in the Magic series by Ilona Andrews
4. The fantasy kingdom in the Study series by Maria V Snyder
5. Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

There are so many others but these were the first to come to mind. And these are all series or books that I have more than once.  Happy Reading!

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Kathleen Collins has been writing since Kindergarten. And while her ability has drastically improved, her stories are still about monsters and the people who play with them.

The rare instances that she actually finds some spare time, she spends it playing with her two boys. Three if you count her husband.

She is currently hard at work on her next book.

Find Kathleen and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Realm Walker
Realm Walker #1
Amazon BN Harlequin Print

 An estranged mate, a mangled body and a powerful demon who calls her by name…

As a Realm Walker for the Agency, Juliana Norris tracks deadly paranormal quarry using her unique ability to see magical signatures. She excels at her job, but her friends worry about her mysterious habit of dying in the line of duty without staying dead. That’s only the first of her secrets.

Most people don’t know Juliana became the mate of master vampire Thomas Kendrick before he abandoned her seven years ago. Most people don’t know the horrors she endured at the hands of the vampire he left in command. Most people don’t know her true parentage, or why a demon on a world-threatening rampage has taken a personal interest in her…

Even as Juliana pursues the demon, it goes after all she holds dear—including Thomas, who is back to claim her for his own. But if she can’t reconcile her past and learn to trust herself again, she will lose him forever.

Death's Daughter
Realm Walker #2
Amazon BN Harlequin Print

Juliana Norris, Realm Walker with the Agency, is an Altered. A fact that she runs up against every time she's forced to work with human police officers, and their species-ist commissioner, on cases they can't solve themselves. Which happens more than they would like to admit.

Her gift--the quality that makes her the best Realm Walker in the business, without boast--is the ability to read magical signatures. Whether the gift came from her father, the dark fae god of death, or the mage mother she can't remember, is anyone's guess. And when Altered children start going missing with only wild magical signatures as clues, her heritage is the last thing on her mind.

She can't afford such distractions, and she definitely can't afford to worry about the fact that her mate, master vampire Thomas Kendrick, hasn't spoken to her since she saved him from a demon--maybe it's because she had to stab him to do so. Because whoever is kidnapping these children must be very powerful to wield wild magic. Very powerful, and very dangerous indeed.

Blood Slave
Realm Walker #3
Amazon BN iTunes

Can she find a killer in a town where the basest desires are allowed to run free? 

There are zombies in the Dead Zone and Juliana Norris is sent to take care of the problem. And for there to be zombies, there had to be bodies. When vampires are found to be the culprits, Juliana is sent undercover in the red light district of Kansas City. Lying to her mate, Thomas Kendrick, isn’t something she wants to do, but she’s in another vampire’s territory and Thomas would not be pleased. Besides, she’s more than capable of doing the job herself, and she needs to prove it to everyone. Most of all herself. 

Charles Morgan is in control of the Kansas City area, making a rich living off his various enterprises. Juliana goes undercover at the strip club Lust and gets sucked into his dark, decadent world. More victims turn up and the Agency is positive they’ve got their man, but Juliana is not so sure. When the Agency refuses to listen, she reluctantly turns to Thomas for help. He intervenes but finds Juliana unaware of the danger she is in and discovers she may just be too deep for him to save.

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Review: The Alpha Drive by Kristen Martin

The Alpha Drive

Author: Kristen Martin

Release Date: November 17, 2015

Publisher: Black Falcon Press

The Alpha Drive Book #1

ISBN:   0996860517

ISBN13:  9780996860512

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Review Copy Source:  NetGalley

It's the year 2055 and an anarchist organization has taken control with the aim to create a world-class society. Half of humankind is unknowingly living in an alternate reality called Dormance . . . and there are no plans to wake them up.

Sixteen-year-old introvert Emery Parker is one such dormant. An academic scholar who avoids ruffling feathers at all costs, Emery finds herself being transferred to a boarding school on the outskirts of Arizona. Little does she know, a family secret has the power to change the course of the future. When she's approached with an opportunity to free the dormants, she sees no other choice but to accept, even though failure could mean having her memory wiped clean.

But when tech-savvy Torin Porter reaches out to her from the other side, Emery begins to question everything she was told about Dormance. If her family's secret falls into the wrong hands, the world as she knows it will be faced with irreversible consequences. Now Emery must play both sides to uncover the truth about her family's past or risk leaving mankind to live in an unconscious reality.

*There are some minor spoilers included in this review*

Although I was able to finish ALPHA DRIVE I found there were a lot of issues along the way.

THE ALPHA DRIVE lacked world building.  If I hadn't read the blurb for the book, I don't think I would have known what the heck was going on and even after reading the blurb, I didn't fully understand everything that was involved in the world.

The friend relationship between Emery and her brand new roommate was weird. They JUST met each other yet the roommate is super obsessed with knowing everything Emery does and gets upset with her like they are best friends that have known each other for ages instead of a small amount of time. I also didn't understand the point of Emery having a relationship with Anthony in THE ALPHA DRIVE. She makes it clear that she doesn't feel the same way about him as she did when they first met and she is a total bitch to him. I don't understand how he came to visit her so often when he lived so far away—when her sister came with her to drop her off at school, she took a plane back home—and there wasn't much to his visits when they happened. It didn't move the story along in any way or develop Emery's character at all. There just didn't seem to be much point to her having a relationship in the book at all. On top of these two secondary characters, there were others that didn't add much to the story. Emery's childhood best friend is mentioned, but Emery talks to her like once throughout the whole book, why mention her at all?

After reading THE ALPHA DRIVE I am left with about a million questions and not in the 'I have to get my hands on the next book' kinda way. The last portion of the book was a jumbled mess and although I wouldn't mind knowing what happens after the end of THE ALPHA DRIVE, I don't think I will bother going out of my way to find out.

I gave it 2/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Cover Reveal + Giveaway: The Magician by E.J. Stevens

I am excited to reveal the cover for THE MAGICIAN, the first novel in the Dark Arcana series by E.J. Stevens.  Cover art is by digital artist Ruxandra Tudorica of Methyss Design.

Cover Reveal: The Magician

The Magician 

(Dark Arcana #1) 

by E.J. Stevens

When members of tarot's Major Arcana begin manifesting in the mortal world, magic is in the air and change is in the cards.

Release Date: September 20, 2016

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Add to Goodreads.

The Magician Cover Reveal Giveaway

To celebrate The Magician's cover reveal, we are giving away a signed cover art postcard and a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends February 2, 2016 midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What do you think of the cover?

E.J. Stevens is the author of 14 works of speculative fiction, including the Hunters' Guild urban fantasy series, the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal series, and the award-winning Ivy Granger urban fantasy series.  She is known for filling pages with quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.

Connect with E.J. Stevens by following her on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter, Blog, Goodreads, and Amazon.

New Releases: 1/17-1/23

Tue. Jan. 19th

 Feverborn (Fever #8) by Karen Marie Moning

 The Isle (The Ward #2) by Jordana Frankel 

 Wickedly Ever After (Baba Yaga #2.5) by Deborah Blake

Wed. Jan. 20th

 Dreamwalker (Stormwalker #5) by Allyson James

Happy Reading!

Promo: Genesis Boxed Set

Genesis Boxed Set Genesis [jen-uh-sis] Definition: an origin, creation, or beginning. From demons, weres, and vampires, to dragons, shifters, and angels, GENESIS is the ultimate must-have boxed set for any urban fantasy & paranormal romance fan. GENESIS brings you eight new worlds to sink your teeth into. From some of the genre’s brightest talent, each title in this boxed set is the first installment of the authors’ respective series.

Featured in Genesis:

– The Devil You Know by J.M. Gregoire 

– Ghost of a Threat by Beth Dolgner 

– Everlasting Hunger by Brandy Dorsch 

– Fallen by Julie Morgan 

– Spark by K.C. Stewart 

– The Mortal One by Shannon Bell 

– Valkyrie’s Vengeance by Melissa Snark 

– Juan by Crystal Dawn 

Dig in your claws and hang on as these eight authors take you on a wild ride in GENESIS!

CURRENTLY ONLY $0.99 ON AMAZON!!!

RELEASED TODAY!

KEEP READING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOOKS FEATURED IN THE GENESIS BOXED SET!

 

Week in Review: 1/10-1/16

Books Received for Review

I Dream of Dragons by Ashlyn Chase
Windburn by Shannon Mayer
Waging War by April White
Gifted Thief by Helen Harper
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop

Books I've Read

Demon Princess by Kassandra Lynn
Grave Visions by Kalayna Price
What a Werewolf Wants by Kristin Miller
Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan

Reviews Posted

Of Flame and Promise by Cecy Robson
Gambit by C.L. Denault
What a Werewolf Wants by Kristin Miller

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* New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Cover Reveal for Forged in Ice by Alyssa Rose Ivy

* Tuesday- Interview + Giveaway for Healing Eden by Rhenna Morgan

* Thursday- Promo + Giveaway for Anna and the Vampire Prince by Jeanne C. Stein

* Friday- Guest Blog for Hunting for Spring by Katherine McIntyre

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* Did you know you can follow UFI on these other sites?

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You can also add me (as in Stacy) to your friends on these sites if you're on them.

Twitter

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