One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 215 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




She should have been sunning herself on a beach in Hawaii, enjoying a much-needed vacation. Instead she's driving down a dark, nowhere road in the middle of Iowa, surrounded by cornfields, and about as far removed from sun, fun, and Mai Tais as she could get. Private investigator by trade, it's Grace's psychic gift that made her cave for her friend Mike, a detective with the St. Louis police department. He begged her to take a look at one last picture before she left. So she did. And after the startling intensity of the connection she felt for missing Maia Olson, she's now following the persistent pull of her gift as she tracks the child down. In Iowa.

Grace is a bit unsettled by the smack of huge bugs against the windshield, and the absence of anything resembling civilization is a little disconcerting, but it's the massive, black shape that hurtles out of the night in front of her car that shocks her into swerving off the road and into a ditch. And that's just the beginning of disturbing, freaky things Grace is going to experience, see, and learn after she's rescued by a man named Aiden and drawn into a world of Norse gods and fire demons.

She will be introduced to a heritage she can hardly imagine and meet her destiny in a town named Ragnarok.

Aiden is Odin of his clan, and it's his duty to lead the hunt that guards the portal between this dimension and Asgard. He lost his wife to fate, but his daughter was taken from him a year ago, snatched across the portal by fire demons during a flare. He doesn't know if she still lives. He knows he has no chance of finding her on the other side. Until, that is, he rescues Grace and realizes she is of his people, and a gifted seer and tracker.

The risk is phenominal. Grace may not even survive a crossing to Asgard. And even if she does, she may not be able to find his daughter. As he grows closer and closer to Grace while they wait for the next flare, Aiden may have to decide if the risk in rescuing his daughter is worth the life of the woman he is starting to love.


It started so well. Demon Crossings doesn't waste any time before it's hurtling readers down a dark road and tossing its heroine all over the place, or rattling her world with a massive paradigm shift and a hunky Norse god. Sharply written, the first quarter of the book sets up the world, the characters, and the mythology with speed and clarity while Grace's life starts to unravel around her. I found the Norse mythology a refreshing change from overused standards, and appreciated the sparks of originality it engendered.

I also enjoyed the concept of the plot, and thoroughly enjoyed several aspects of the storyline. I can't say, though, that the main characters really did it for me. I don't feel like I got to know either one of them particularly well, and I struggled to feel any sort of connection to them. On her own merits, Grace seemed mostly likable, though I did get a little weary of her stubborn refusal to be open minded as the book progressed, especially given her own experiences. Aiden struck me as a quiet, steady force of nature in his own right, but he tended to be burdened by an over-inflated sense of responsibility that wore on my patience.

They were both very internal characters, with far, far more going on in their heads than they were saying to each other. Neither were at all good at honest emoting or expressing. Those sort of closed off, contained characters frustrate me when I'm reading. Not to mention, the two of them as a couple struck me as the most emotionally reserved romantic pair I've read lately. The romance failed completely for me because of that.

Frankly, I had more fun with the secondary characters, who, while plentiful and colorful, were sadly underused.

I also had problems with the way the storyline progressed through the book. After the fast, interesting start, the pace of the book dragged and not much happened for far too long in the middle. The plotline seemed to tread water for awhile and instead of even doing much in the way of preparation, Grace and Aiden just seemed to spend their days tiptoeing around each other. Their physical relationship may have evolved during that time, but not much else did.

And then, like a flip switching, the book kicked back into gear and the plot lunged forward, ratcheted up the action, suspense, and danger, and provided several meaty scenes of story progression and several intriguing plot elements late in the book. I enjoyed those parts immensely, but couldn't help but be frustrated by their earlier absence.

In the end, the ups and downs were too much to make Demon Crossings consistently entertaining for me. Some parts were great and I enjoyed them very much. Some weren't. And my issues with the main characters and their romance were huge stumbling blocks. Almost everything else was a win for me, including the plot-driven story elements and the secondary characters. For me, though, there just wasn't enough "everything else."

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Lost City Shifters, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 50,000 Words
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Carina Press via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Fabulous Shifter Mythos

Nestled deep in mountains thrusting up from the lush jungles of Peru, the ruins of an ancient civilization predating the Inca has captivated archaeologist Sophie Martin. Having come to the site to help restore what an earthquake has damaged, she has a habit of wandering off on her own time, poking around and uncovering the most incredible artifacts of a long-dead people and working to find evidence to support her academic thesis.

That habit both enchants and frustrates Adriano as he manages the crew of workers at the site...and conducts his own excavation deep in the ruins of the civilization of jaguar shape-shifters that are his ancestors. He is Yaguara. Exiled from his people for five years, he came to the ruins for one reason, to find the stone that will gain him re-entry into his family and his small, secluded tribe.

He is perplexed by his fascination with Sophie. She's human, a first for him, and she's stand-offish, with a focus on her work that precludes interpersonal connection. She keeps stumbling into areas that are neither safe for her nor for his personal quest. He wants her, and he wants her out of his way. Of course, having the first clue how to seduce a human would be helpful for both.

When Adriano catches the scent of another of his kind in the ruins, he is suspicious. When that scent his accompanied by that of a wolf shifter, he's stunned. Cats and dogs don't exactly go together among his kind. Their partnership can mean nothing good for his people, and when Sophie comes under direct threat, Adriano will be faced with a horrifying choice. Secure his tribe's history and guarantee secrecy for his people, or save a human woman who may mean more to him than he'd ever thought possible.

Caught between an ancient rock and a hard place.


Wow! I was incredibly impressed by the depth and detail in the world building and the creativity and originality found in the mythos of this story. I don't know that I've ever read a novella that was so unique and richly developed in those areas before. Frosting on the cake is a setting and backstory that touches on my fondness for archaeology, the study of ancient civilizations, and Indiana Jones-type adventures. There was a lot for me to fall in love with very early into this story.

I haven't read the first novella of this series by Stone. Unfortunately it slipped past me. That's an oversight I plan on rectifying, because I was captivated by this one and a little stunned by the complex and creative story wedged between its covers. I would love to see how it all started. For now, though, I can be happy with what I have read.

Sophie and Adriano had thorough backstories and personal histories that added several layers to their character definition, as well as provided a nice bit of internal conflict. Both of them were solid and well developed, with quirks and charms that added to their personalities and brought them to life. Together they had a robust amount of sexual chemistry and their relationship worked well within the frame of the novella.

There were a few issues, a few trade-offs for the quality world building, mythos, and the depth provided the main characters. The external plot conflict was a little thin and sparsely detailed. Secondary characters and their ancillary plot threads petered out and were left unresolved. Several questions I had went unanswered or weren't addressed. There were also some abrupt transitions in the book, and a perhaps too-quick escalation of emotion in the romance thread.

Just about every one of those issues - actually, just about everything I thought and felt about the novella in entirety - made me wish that this was a full length novel. I would love to see what Stone could do with another twenty-five thousand words (I'm greedy that way). That sort of expanded format could have provided the necessary space to fill the few gaps, bulk up the external plot thread a little more, and allow for a more gradual relationship evolution.

Still, I liked this novella so much and so many aspects completely impressed me that I can't help but want more (again...greedy). I'll be keeping my eye out for other books by Stone, especially if they're about a secluded group of jaguar-shifters in Peru. I've got quite a yen-on for more of those.