Review: Untamed Delights by Suzanne Wright (@suz_wright)

Untamed Delights

Author: Suzanne Wright

Release Date: July 16, 2019

Publisher: Montlake Romance

The Phoenix Pack Book #8

ISBN:  1542009685

ISBN13: 9781542009683

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

Return to the sensual and feral stirrings of the Phoenix Pack as a woman who’s already bound to one man is tempted by a wolf who’s bound only to his nightly desires.

Cat shifter Mila Devereaux can’t help but see it as a betrayal. That her one true mate imprinted himself on another female was hard enough to accept. Struggling to be at peace with her loveless fate, she doesn’t fight the suggestion of entering an arranged mating. Then she meets Dominic, a pack enforcer with a notorious reputation. It’s in his very scent. This irresistible playboy—and delicious badass wolf—is making Mila’s fantasies come alive again.

Alarming, compelling, and heady with sensual energy, Dominic is an expert at making women shed their inhibitions. Now everything about him—his killer smile, his perfectly sculpted body, and his smooth-as-honey voice—is drawing in a captivating new catch. But for the first time in his life, Dominic is feeling more than a fling. He finds himself tantalized by a female who makes him think of forever. He wants all of Mila and won’t be satisfied until he has it.

As the passion grows wild, so does the risk. They’re falling in love in the shadows and secrets of their pasts. And it’s threatening to destroy everything Mila and Dominic are fighting for. And are destined for.

I'm slightly devastated that UNTAMED DELIGHTS is the last book of the The Phoenix Pack series.

Each of the Phoenix pack books has had plenty of danger and action and UNTAMED DELIGHTS is no different.  There are actually a few different mysteries and dangerous situations coming from different directions in the story which made it that much better. 

The romance between Dominic and Mila was one of those slow build situations and I enjoyed their give and take with each other. I really enjoyed the way that Wright built their relationship around them not being each others fated mate after so many fated mate pairs. I also enjoyed that Mila didn't pine after her fated mate after he unknowingly rejected her. She really stood up for herself and it made me like her and her strength even more.

I really enjoyed witnessing Dominic's HEA. Both him and Mila really deserved each other and the life that they ended up in.  Again, I hate that this is the end. I love all the characters and I love seeing them and how their life is going along in every book. I did really enjoy the end jump ahead though and appreciated seeing how everyone turned out. This was a great series that I thoroughly enjoyed following.

I gave it 4/5 stars

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

Interview + Giveaway: Midnight’s End by Jill Ramsower (@JRamsower, @XpressoTours)

UFI welcomes Author Jill Ramsower. Thanks for Joining us!!

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?

I do all my own graphics—teasers, banners and ads. I’ve spent many an hour watching YouTube videos learning how to work photoshop. It was a pain in the rear, but now that I’ve caught on, I love having that creative freedom to make certain my graphics accurately represent the feel of my novels.


What do you enjoy doing on your down time?

Down time? Ha! The life of an indie author rarely allows for down time. If I did happen to have time to kill, I would read or do crafts. I also love traveling, so even if I’m not on the go for a book signing, I plan trips for fun as well.


What is your favorite part of writing? 

The plotting/planning! I love crafting the story, figuring out what twists and turns will unfold. I am a big plotter, so by the time I get to writing, I’ve envisioned the story all the way through and can struggle with getting distracted by the next story.


Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write?

Not really. I get my best work done early in the morning, so I’ll sneak into my office and write in my pajamas before the rest of the house is up.


What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?

My all-time fave is the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. Her work inspired me to write The Fae Games books, and I aspire to write as well as she does. I also love: Amelia Hutchins’ The Fae Chronicles, Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Fey, Karen Lynch’s Relentless series, anything Kresley Cole, Sarah J. Maas, or Cassandra Clare—really I could go on and on.


How would you pitch The Fae Games Series to someone who has not heard of it before?

The Fae Games books are urban fantasy meets contemporary romance—all the action and intrigue that comes with magic, paired with just the right amount of angst and passion. The most important component of these books is the characters, which is why they are the primary focus. Rather than excessive world-building or drawn-out action sequences, I write realistic characters who will become tangible to the reader. Some you will come to love, and some you will hate—in Midnight’s End, you’ll learn some characters stand solidly in both categories.


Can you tell us a little bit about the world that The Fae Games is set in? 

The books are set in modern-day Belfast, and at times, the world of Faery. The portals between worlds have been closed for centuries, and the existence of the Fae is unknown to humans. Only a handful of Fae are allowed to cross over to Earth, and they keep their powers a secret. The wild, uncivilized Unseelie caste of Fae are never allowed on Earth or on Seelie Lands, which begs the question—what would happen if they did manage to escape their containment?


Do you have a favorite scene in Midnight’s End?

I guess I’d say the cave scene where Knight and Morgan have been drinking. It was light and flirty, and I loved their interaction.


Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about? 

I think Morgan and Knight in Midnight’s End have been my favorite, perhaps because I’ve gotten to know them so well through their appearances in the other books. I loved showing a different side to each of them and giving them shape. Cat in Born of Nothing was definitely the hardest to write about. I knew my readers would probably be upset that she went through such a harrowing trial, but that was her path as I saw it in my mind. I had to be true to her story.


What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?

I recently announced that I will be setting aside fantasy romance for the moment and doing a mafia romance series that I’m super excited about. I was lucky enough to be invited to the Shameless Book Con in October, so I’ll get the first book in the new series out just before the event. 

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Jill is a Texan, born and raised. She manages the hectic social calendars for her three active children and occasionally spends an evening with her dashing husband. Aside from being an author and a mom, she’s an attorney, travel junkie, and voracious reader.

Find Jill and her books

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Midnight's End
The Fae Games #5
Goodreads / Amazon

Sorceress, enchantress, deceiver, murderer—I’ve been called all those and more, some that might make you blush. Lucky for me, I couldn’t care less what people think about me. I’ve had my sights set on one thing for the last thousand years, and that’s all that matters. I’ll do whatever it takes to find the cauldron, even if it means taking on a partner. They call him a knight in shining armor. For me, he’s my golden ticket. He fell into my lap, quite literally, and now he’s going to help me get what I want.
I don’t play particularly well with others, but he’s the best shot I’ve got, so I’ll hop on that train and hope it gets me where I need to go. He thinks he’s going to crack my shell and see what’s on the inside, like maybe there’s a warm, gooey center to make up for the hard exterior. He’s in for a world of disappointment. Everything soft and delicate about me became rough and hardened a long time ago. I’m Morgan Le Fay, and I’m the villain in this story.

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Tour Wide

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New Releases: 7/14-7/20

Tue. July 16th

 The Philosopher's War (The Philosophers Series #2) by Tom Miller
 Untamed Delights (The Phoenix Pack #8) by Suzanne Wright
 Within Ash and Stardust (The Xenith Trilogy #3) by Chani Lynn Feener

Happy Reading!!

Interview + Giveaway: Stranger Rituals by Kali Rose Schmidt @kalirschmidt, @XpressoTours)

UFI welcomes Author Kali Rose Schmidt. Thanks for Joining us!!

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?

I’m covered in tattoos. Including a tattoo of a man with horns inspired by Stranger Rituals. I love art, and I include tattoos in that.

I also like to spend most of my time outdoors, in the woods.


What do you enjoy doing on your down time?

Reading! Or writing. Even though writing is a job, and I include reading as part of it, it really is the best job in the world. Other than that, hiking through the woods or playing on a beach are some of my favourite things.


What is your favorite part of writing? 

Going to another world, exploring it, making friends (and enemies) in it. I also love reading up on history of elements in my books (for example, Elves, etc.).


Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write?

Yes. I listen to music 100% of the time, mainly metal, and usually Zeal & Ardor. For emotional scenes, I listen to the same song on repeat until I’m done with it (and usually crying, too).


What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?

V.E. Schwab and Sarah J. Maas, along with Holly Black, are my top three favourites.


How would you pitch Stranger Rituals to someone who has not heard of it before?

Adult dark fantasy about a blood mage running from a curse to stop a holy war.


Can you tell us a little bit about the world that Stranger Rituals is set in? 

It’s very, very dark. There’s a holy war coming up, and people are dying in the streets, in a rather gruesome fashion. Blood magic and elemental magic abound, and there is a lot of occult elements in the world in general.


Do you have a favorite scene in Stranger Rituals?

Yes. When Scarko is in a prison cell, alone, but I won’t say more


Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about? 

Vojtech from Stranger Rituals was my favourite. He’s awful, really, but he doesn’t wish to be, and writing his motives (which show up more in book 2, coming in the fall) and backstory was fun and a little painful.

Scarko was the hardest to write, and being that she is the protagonist, a lot of the book was hard to write. Her backstory is tragic, but she hasn’t become bitter. Instead, she uses dark humor to get through the day-to-day, which in some ways, is even more tragic.


What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?

Shadow Palace (Stranger Rituals II) will be coming in the fall. I also have a completed series called All the Dead Souls, if you’re into vampires and warlocks.  

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Kali Rose Schmidt is an author, mother, and villain lover. She likes bloody tales of monsters, yoga with the lights off, and anything that goes bump in the night.



Find Kali and her books

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest

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Stranger Rituals
Stranger Rituals #1

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes Noble / iBooks

A fighter with a venomous grudge.
A monster with an immortal curse.
A girl with a terrible gift.

All three out for blood in a land torn apart by harsh gods and holy wars. Each entwined with the other, on their own quests for vengeance, and yet held together by strange links to sinister pasts. As their fates unravel, a dangerous romance blooms, and violent darkness beckons.

At turns both darkly humorous and utterly morbid, STRANGER RITUALS is the startling first novel in Kali Rose Schmidt's dark new series.

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Week in Review: 7/7-7/13

Books Received for Review

A Pack of Love and Hate by Olivia Wildenstein
Wishful Thinking by Helen Harper
The Blacksmith Queen by G.A. Aiken

Books I've Read

The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy
Verify by Joelle Charbonneau
A Pack of Love and Hate by Olivia Wildenstein

Reviews Posted

Rogue by Debbie Cassidy (@amoscassidy)
A Fierce Princess by S.E. Rose (@seroseauthor)

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

* Monday- Promo + Giveaway: Wolf Instinct by Paige Tyler (@PaigeTyler, @SourcebooksCasa)

* Friday- Guest Blog + Giveaway: Magic Heist by Mary Karlik (@MaryKarlik, @InkyTheMonster, @XpressoTours)

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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.

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Guest Blog + Giveaway: Magic Heist by Mary Karlik (@MaryKarlik, @InkyTheMonster, @XpressoTours)

UFI welcomes Author Mary Karlik. Thanks for Joining us!!

What are your top 10 favorite fantasy characters? 

1. Harry Potter

2. Hermoine Granger

3. Snape

4. Bilbo Baggins

5. Toothless

6. Dobby

7. Aslan

8. Edmund Pevensie

9. Blink (From A Spell For Chameleon)

10. Hiccup 

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Mary Karlik has always been a dreamer. When she was a teen, she read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and then sat in every wardrobe in her Nanna's home, trying to open the door to Narnia. She didn't find it, but she did discover her voice as an author: one filled with her young adult self, and grounded in her roots as a Texan and her Scottish heritage, nourished by obscure Scottish folklore.
You can find her Texas roots in her YA contemporary romance Hickville series , which has been described as "100% solid storytelling," and begins with Welcome to Hickville High, a "lovely story about growing up."

She digs deep into her Scottish roots - there is magic there, she just knows it - for the forthcoming YA epic fantasy Fairy Trafficking series, beginning with Magic Harvest.

She makes her home in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico where she is a certified professional ski instructor, but she also loves visiting Scotland where she is currently studying Scottish Gaelic at the University of Highlands and Islands in Skye. Mary also earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, has a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and is a Registered Nurse.

Mary currently serves as the President of the Young Adult Chapter of Romance Writers of America and looks forward to raising a glass or two of gin and tonic with her fellow writers every year at RWA's national convention.

Find Mary and her books

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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Magic Heist
Fairy Trafficking #2

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes Noble / iBooks / Kobo / Google Play

Layla rescued fairies that had been kidnapped and brought the human world. But now they can’t find their way back to the magic realm and time is running out.

Layla is a powerful fairy with magical ability that stretches beyond throwing spells. But with all that power, she still doesn’t know how to get over one-hundred fairies back to the magic realm. With their magic gone, the rescued fairies have no immunity to protect them from the toxins of the human world, and they’re slowly dying.

To find the path home, Layla knows she must team up with the one man who can make her insides quiver with an accidental brush of his fingertips. The same man who’s alter ego dragon is the natural predator of fairies. The man she knows will give his life to keep the fairies safe—Scotland’s finest Specialist Crime Division leader, Ian Cameron.

Ian has only been a dragon shifter for a few days. He struggles to control the dragon spirit locked inside his human form, doesn’t know what magical powers he may or may not have, and has never been to a magical world. But none of those things frighten him as much as the little spark that ignites in his soul when the half – human fairy is around.

But this little fairy is no Tinkerbell. She is brave, powerful, and can wield a sword like a medieval knight.

With growing feelings toward Layla, he couldn’t refuse to help her get the fairies back to the magic realm if he wanted to. The problem is the dragon who lives inside him would like nothing more than to feed his appetite with all of those little fairies—especially the half human one who killed its leader.

“Mary Karlik, is truly a hidden gem of a writer.” – I Am the Bookworm

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Review: A Fierce Princess by S.E. Rose (@seroseauthor)

A Fierce Princess

Author: SE Rose

Release Date: May 24, 2019

Publisher: Self-Published

The Poisoned Pawn Duet Book #1

ASIN:  B07R38RY6M  

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

One Princess. Two Lives. And a sinister secret that will change her world forever.

Princesses are supposed to be polite and poised. Princesses are supposed to put duty before self. Princesses are not supposed to live double lives.

Princess Susanna’s search to find her mother’s cherished crown that went missing the day she was killed is about to lead her on a quest to stop an assassin from killing a man. Only this isn’t any man, this man is a prince, a prince that has no idea that he’s royalty.

What happens when a princess attempts to save a prince? Can she keep him alive? Can she keep herself from falling for him?

I picked up A FIERCE PRINCESS on Netgalley because it sounded interesting and had the Sci Fi and Fantasy tag. I enjoyed it, but there wasn't any sci fi or fantasy to be seen.  It does read a little like a fairytale, so maybe that's it?

I honestly don't know what I feel about A FIERCE PRINCESS. I read it, and enjoyed it, but when I look back I can see that it was just one of those reads I read because it was on my review list. If I would have purchased it, I might have been disappointed.

So, what I liked:
- I loved that Susanna was a princess with a secret hacker side. She was likable and I had no problem being in her head.
- The author did a good job portraying the emotions behind the death of Susanna's mother.
- Susanna's brothers were a nice addition to the story.

What I didn't like:
- Susanna thought she was some secret agent that could save someone from an assassin with no information to back that up. I mean, if she was some bad-ass that fights crime in her free time instead of a hacker I could see it. It just seemed really weird that she thought she was going to save him on a whim.
- The insta-romance was just ok. I didn't feel like we got to know Logan and I didn't feel like there was any development to make it more real. It just was with no real lead up.
- We get a bit of a slow start, then lots of stuff happening at once. No in between.

A FIERCE PRINCESS ends quite abruptly with a cliffhanger. I would love to say that I HAVE to read the next book, but besides wanting to know a little about what happens next, It's not going to be a must read for me. 

I gave it 3/5 stars

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