One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Colbana Files, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 255 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: N/A
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballantine Books publisher Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.






She fled to the end of the earth...

When she was a child, Shay Morgan survived the sort of brutality that leaves the deepest scars and the most terrorizing nightmares. To protect herself, she stays off the grid, living in Earth's End, Alaska. She has few true friends and the one man she loved dumped her because she could never open up to him, no matter how much she wanted to. Her life is a lie told to perpetual strangers, the truth too shattering to ever be revealed.

Two weeks after a serious car accident, Shay has finally recovered enough to start to getting back to her life, but a trip to a friend's bookstore brings her face to face with her ex-boyfriend Elliot Winter. On its own, their conversation has the power to leave her hurting and shaken, but it's what she sees on the bookshelf beside the man that rocks her to her core. A signed copy of the latest thriller by author Shane Neil.

The problem with that seemingly innocuous discovery is twofold. Shane Neil is a very carefully guarded secret of Shay's. The name is her nom de plume. But she sure as hell didn't sign any of her new books...for that bookstore or any other.

...it wasn't far enough.

The closer Shay looks into the mystery of who signed the books she authored, the more troubling her life becomes. Facebook, Twitter, and online outlets everywhere have been impacted by this impostor in a detailed and disturbing case of identity theft that threatens to expose Shay to the very man she's been hiding from her entire adult life even as it targets Elliot, the man she still loves. But when identity theft turns out to be the very least of the perpetrator's crimes, Shay may no longer have the luxury of worrying about her past. Her present has become deadly enough.


One of my favorite things about Shiloh Walker's books is her gift for creating truly damaged characters who have been through hell and are flawed and/or broken as a result, who are then, through the plot of the book, put through more hell before they get a chance at redemption or happiness. That gift is sometimes a double-edged sword, though, because occasionally her characters have gone through so much and are going through so much more that I can sometimes find the journey from Point A to Point HEA a little too dark and depressing, or the level of damage a character has is so severe that it makes it hard to relate to them and really embrace them in their full role.

That was the case for me in this book.

I struggled quite a lot with Shay as the main character. I loved the concept of the story, and could understand and sympathize with why she is where she is geographically as well as emotionally at the start of the book, but somewhere around the middle it started to really drag me down. I couldn't quite connect with the story or the romance because of just how much Shay was going through and how deeply damaged she was.

I liked Elliot, and I thought the story was scary for just how easy it was for the Big Bad to infiltrate Shay's life and completely take it over. She had worked so hard to hide that she managed to create the perfect opportunity to be victimized yet again. Given the proliferation of social media in our daily lives, it's eerily easy to imagine everything that the Big Bad was able to do. That's actually a little terrifying.

It didn't create a good foundation for the romance for me, though, and I need to be on board with both the romantic elements and the suspense elements for a romantic suspense novel to really work for me. I just think Shay needed some serious therapy and as good as Elliot was to her (eventually) and for her, I don't think he was enough to truly heal the sort of wounds Shay has.

None of that makes this a bad book. Walker writes extremely good suspense and very hot romance, and the combination of the two couldn't possibly be bad, as far as I'm concerned. It just wasn't quite something I could fully connect to and enjoy, either. Walker's Ash Trilogy worked much better for me in that regard.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Ash Trilogy, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballantine Books publisher Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





It was supposed to be over. She was supposed to have closure. In the six months since her cousin and best friend Joely Hollister had been viciously brutalized and slaughtered, and the monster responsible identified and killed, Nia Hollister was supposed to have been able to heal a little. Move on a little. Get over it...at least a little.

Supposed to matters not at all when you can't get the terrified, agonized screams of your last remaining family member out of your head, even if they are imaginary.

The thing is, the facts didn't quite add up, no matter how many the cops in Ash, Kentucky had shoveled at her. The timeline was...just a little off. Nothing too bad, nothing so out of whack that it couldn't have happened the way she was told it did. But definitely in a way that left Nia with a feeling of hopeless incompletion and unassuaged grief. Definitely in a way that compelled her to risk everything to find answers. To rip away the blinders and hunt for a killer she believed was not only still alive, but still hunting women.

That meant returning to the small town of Ash, Kentucky. It also, apparently, meant accepting the help of the one man she thought, at one time, was responsible for Joely's death. Because once Law Reilly sees her again, he makes it clear there is no way in hell he is going to let her stir up trouble for herself without watching her back.


It had to be big. After three long books, the only way for this trilogy to come to a successful conclusion for me was that it had to be big. Walker did not disappoint. At least, not in the suspense and psychological thriller aspects, because man, the killer in this trilogy is one sick, twisted, horrifying monster and readers get more than a glimpse into his blood-stained, murderous mind with several chilling and disturbing scenes from his point of view - including the dehumanizing rape and murder of some of his victims.

Not for the faint of heart, that.

The way Walker keeps readers guessing with a couple of well-placed red herrings and slick hidden-in-plain-sight twists and turns was especially well done, though, and one of my favorite aspects of this book and the trilogy as a whole. Well, it kept me guessing anyway, as my list of potential subjects kept spinning like a terrifying Rolodex since the start. And I like being kept guessing very much.

Again, Walker's gift for complex and damaged characters sets this book apart from others in the genre. Nia's pain over the loss of Joely, along with her control issues and stubbornness, gave her dimension and depth, even as it sometimes made her a little difficult to like. I have to admit, there were moments where I wanted to shake her for her frustrating behavior even as I was relating to her, knowing I wouldn't have done much different in her situation.

Nia wasn't the only one who occasionally gave me fits. Law, who was a calm, rational presence in the first book but stumbled a little in the second, seemed to go overboard on the caretaking for me in this one. And I had a hard enough time accepting these two as the romantic main characters to start with, because I still hadn't gotten over the way Nia showed up at Law's with a gun she intended to use, or Law's subsequent response to that incident, in the previous book (bros before hos, man, even if your bro is your female best friend).

Maybe because of that, their evolving relationship never really seemed truly organic to me, and it lacked a certain depth of emotion that could have elevated it beyond what ended up seeming a purely physical, lust-based physical attraction. Their relationship just never really clicked for me, the largest stumbling block - in fact, the only stumbling block - of this read.

For romantic suspense lovers, though, this is definitely a trilogy I'd highly recommend. True, not every single element in every single book was to my personal taste. A handful of the various antagonists' (the Big Bad and lesser antagonists in each book) actions and decisions didn't work for me. The main characters, while diverse and damaged and wonderfully complex, didn't always fit together as neatly as I would have liked. When it comes to the trilogy as a whole, though, any issues I had with individual books ended up being relatively minor. And for the record, I loved the first book (a rare five-star gem), liked the second (four stars), and because of the excellent conclusion to a very dark and disturbing suspense arc and an okay, if not spectacular romance, more than liked this one (four and a quarter stars).

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Ash Trilogy, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 372 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballentine publisher Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Hope Carson doesn't think of herself as a survivor but she escaped an abusive husband and survived an attack by a monster. She's skittish and nervous and spends most of her time looking over her shoulder, but she's still alive. In the small town of Ash, Kentucky that's become more than half the battle.

District Attorney Remington Jennings doesn't want to believe Hope could be responsible for the vicious attack on her friend's life or the suicide attempt that almost took her own, but the call he makes to her ex-husband puts all sorts of doubts in his mind about the woman he's been inexplicably drawn to from the moment he first saw her. Maybe that indelible attraction is why every instinct Remy has rebels at the thought that Hope is mentally ill and dangerous - to herself or anyone else.

All he wants to do is protect her, to get her to trust him, to be close to her. He doesn't want to prosecute her. Unfortunately the evidence and the statement from her ex-husband seem to indicate that Hope Carson is a lot more than appearances - and his instincts - want to admit. Unless both the evidence and the ex-husband aren't what they seem.

But if that's the case, Hope is in a hell of a lot more danger than she could ever be to herself. And she's not the only one.


Another solid romantic suspense by Walker. I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't read the first book in the trilogy, though. Not so much because the story here doesn't work as a standalone but because of the backstory and character dynamic introduced in the first book. The emotional impact of the first chapter alone would be completely lost on someone just joining the trilogy here. And that first chapter was a doozy. I was sick inside while Remy spoke to Hope's ex. It set the tone for the rest of the narrative and I can only imagine how much of that would've been lost if I hadn't read the first book.

I love the blend of story and character that Walker's created for these books. Primary and secondary characters have depth and individuality, and I love that their interpersonal issues are messy and emotional and realistic. The interwoven plotlines of the characters' evolving relationships add cohesion to the story and work well within the small-town setting. Add in the story elements of a particularly nasty psychopath and a thriller that spans the series and all sorts of Happy Reader buttons are being pushed by this trilogy.

I did have a couple of issues with this installment that I didn't have in the first. Early in the book I started to get a little overwhelmed by the various shifting points of view and multiple threads of plot and and sub-plot. There is so much going on with so many different characters that the story waters got a little muddy and chaotic in places as the book progressed. It was never so bad that I was turned off the read, but it did trip me up a here and there.

The romance arc wasn't quite as appealing to me as the one in the first book, but that was more an issue of personal reading preference. I just wasn't as crazy about Remy and Hope, either as individual characters or as the lead romantic couple, as I was about Ezra and Lena in their book. Hope's damage and the emotional baggage she carries, as well as how she deals with both, is realistic and understandable, but it just isn't my cuppa for romantic heroines. Remy, too, crossed the narrow line between supportive and overprotective just a few too many times for my taste.

I still enjoyed the characters very much, and appreciated their romance, but neither it nor them really knocked it out of the park for me.

One of the things I did like about this one was the continuing serial killer arc. The glimpses we see from the killer's point of view take chilling and creepy to a whole other level, especially when it comes to his thoughts and actions concerning Hope. And I'm still absolutely clueless about who he is.

There were several developments in the arc of the psychological thriller that really worked for me, and though the main characters and their romance weren't quite as entertaining to me as the other book, I still heartily enjoyed this read. Fans of romantic suspense should start at the beginning, but they should definitely start this trilogy. I'm anxiously looking forward to seeing it reach a climax and resolution in the next book.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Ash Trilogy, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle




It was a gorgeous day as Lena Riddle walked her retriever Puck along their normal path through the woods. The weather was perfect, the company perfect, and Lena was enjoying herself as much as her dog. Then she heard...something. It was faint, like a soft grunting, and it raised the hair on the back of Lena's neck even as Puck started to balk at continuing along their path. He'd never done that before.

As eerie as that experience was, it was one that eventually faded from her mind as time passed. It was an inexplicable one-off, freaky but largely forgettable. Then one night a woman's scream shattered the stillness with panicked desperation and ripped Lena from a dream.

Ezra King is a cop on leave, staying in his grandmother's house in the small town of Ash to heal from his wounds and a tragedy that still haunts him. Meeting Lena definitely draws his attention away from his own problems. She is beautiful and compelling...and way more than he can handle, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to try. From wanting her.

When their paths cross again at the police station, he overhears her statement about the screams that had woken her the night before. It's clear to him that the cops aren't convinced she heard what she claims to have heard, as if her blindness somehow precludes her from being a reliable witness. They thought she imagined it, or had been dreaming.

Ezra isn't so sure. His cop senses are tingling. But Ash isn't a big city where violent crime is as prevalent as it is tragic, it's a nice little town where nothing ever happens and everyone knows everyone else. Where a blind woman has taken his breath away and left him shaken.

Could it also be a place where something very, very bad happened to some poor, unknown woman? And if so, the person responsible may not like Lena having been witness to it. He may not like it at all. That's not a risk Ezra's willing to take.


I loved this series debut by Walker. It had all the elements that make a Romantic Suspense one of my favorite genres. The main characters were complex and well-defined, and their chemistry simmered and smoked on the page. The storyline balanced their romance and the threads of suspense in such a way that both plot elements were fully rounded out and meaty. It's a delicate balance, and one that many in the genre don't quite manage.

Walker does flawed and/or damaged characters particularly well, and that was in evidence here with Ezra, who has the full travel set of emotional baggage dragging along with him everywhere he goes. His physical and emotional wounds help flesh out his character and explain a lot about who he is as a man and a cop. He's not perfect by any means, nor does he fall victim to that too-good-to-be-true pitfall, but his faults and moments of darkness emphasize his struggle to rise above his issues for Lena's sake and safety. I loved him a lot.

And Lena is everything I adore in a romantic heroine. Strong and independent, intelligent, with a bit of a bite to her personality when warranted, she appealed to me on every level. Her blindness is a challenge she meets and beats daily, and there's not an ounce of self-pity or weakness in her even as she works around the few limitations she has. I loved her attitude.

I also appreciated Walker's attention to detail in regards to Lena's blindness. In the first few chapters in particular she described things from Lena's point of view in a way that subtly but masterfully clued readers in to her lack of vision without spelling it out. As the book progresses she remained true to the basic but often overlooked fact that description given from a blind character's point of view has a very different emphasis than for one who is sighted.

There were a nice group of secondary and ancillary characters with a myriad of tiny plot threads woven together between them, colored by their combined sense of familiarity and personal history, and driven by a few small external conflicts that added depth and complexity to the plot even as it flavored the whole of the story with a lovely small-town feel.

Not to be outdone, the main arc of the suspense is a taut, grisly psychological thriller that Walker deftly weaves throughout the rest. It's my personal favorite of the suspense genre, which I'm sure added to this book's appeal for me. It's also a thread that spans the three books in the trilogy, so there is no final resolution to that storyline at the end of this book. Instead of making the book feel incomplete, however, Walker provided readers with plenty of story between the main characters, including a hell of a romance, and those elements allowed for a nice sense of closure at the end, even as it enticed me to pick up the next book.

And I did. In fact, I have to find out who the sick, sadistic bastard is who is raping, torturing, and killing women. Walker keeps his identity tightly concealed. That, too, is a preference of mine in psychological thrillers and romantic suspense. Then again, this book hit so many of my preferences for books in this genre that I couldn't help but love the whole book. I can't wait to see how it all evolves from here.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 5
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 216 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle




She has known about demons for a long time, since she was attacked by one and managed to kill it. It had been possessing her sister at the time. Vanya bears the ragged scar on her cheek as a perpetual reminder, not that she needs one. Not that she could ever forget killing the thing that wore her beloved sister's face after it stole her soul.

Since then, she's made it her mission in life to kill as many demons as she can, all the while knowing it is just a matter of time before she dies from the attempts. But that's the way of things for a human who is fighting so many things that are decidedly not. Will told her so when he found her years ago and gave her a choice - an opportunity, really. To turn her obsession into a...celestial occupation of sorts. To become a Grimm. And her time has come.

Vanya won't be doing it alone. Baby Grimm need training, after all, and Will wouldn't just leave her hanging. He knows what he knows, that there is one particular Grimm who needs to help the new girl on the block. But Will is under no illusion about how well that information is going to go over with the man who calls himself Silence.

A couple of hundred years experience has taught Silence that change is not a good thing. Nor is letting anyone get too close. With a human past so horrific that it left him scarred and mute, he has long been the very silence that his chosen name describes. The thought of training anyone leaves him cold, but that sort of choice is not one that Will allows.

Silence is sent to the newest Grimm, helps her through her change, and starts the arduous process of training her in everything she needs to know. He's surprised by the connection that springs up between them and the gifts he gets as a result. Given his past, though, Silence isn't surprised at all when it becomes tragically apparent that there is a price for even that small blessing...a price that will be exacted in blood and death. This time, however, it won't just be his.


This fifth installment of Walker's Grimm's Circle series is far and away my favorite of the bunch to date. I believe it's lengthier than its predecessors (though I didn't check to verify). Story elements are well-defined, characters robustly fleshed out, and the plot threads are numerous and meaty. More so than in several of its predecessors.

Vanya and Silence, though, are who make this book for me. Vanya, for all that she's young, is tough and strong, streetwise and gritty, with a steel-covered core that hides her grief, fear, and insecurities. Layered and complex, damaged by her past, she's a sympathetic heroine, and Walker does a particularly nice job displaying both her strengths and her vulnerabilities as she and Silence grow closer.

Speaking of Silence, I loved him. Admittedly, part of that wellspring of drooling adoration is that I have a special place in my heart for heroes and heroines who function perfectly well, even triumph, despite having an injury or disability that makes day-to-day living harder for them. Silence is mute, but his muteness is his least defining character trait - he is so much more than an inability to speak.

He and Vanya fit very well together, and more than just romantically (though of course, that romance was sexy-hot). They compliment each other in skills and abilities, personality and temperament, commitment and intensity. It was a good match, and reading along as they opened up to each other was a lot of fun and offered up some sweaty, bed-breaking, yummy good times.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the secondary characters, too. Will and Mandy, who were featured in an amusing and awesome prologue, have had a continuing plot thread throughout the series, and I've enjoyed seeing their relationship progress. Especially now that Mandy is awake again. Another favorite was Finn, who practically leaps off the page and sets fire to every scene he's in. He's got so much story presence, it would surprise me if he wasn't screaming in Walkers's head for his own book (or singing off-key about bottles of beer on the wall or something else equally distracting). I hope he gets it.

There is one thing that is niggling me about this series, though, I have to admit. There doesn't seem to be a well-defined plot-driven series arc or much plot-driven external conflict in each book and I'm starting to feel that lack more and more as the series progresses. Each book's story focus stays pretty tight to the relationship of the main characters, and Will is coming off as the Grimm equivalent of eHarmony.com. That's not a bad thing in small quantities, or mixed up with other plot elements, but after this many books, it's making the series seem a little one-note to me.

My only other issue with this story is that despite how much I loved Vanya and Silence, I wasn't crazy about the relationship conflict in this book. I'm not a big fan of the "I know best" decision making process that affects both without the input of both. It's part lack of communication, part fear, part (needless) self-sacrifice, and all-around annoying.

Still, Vanya and Silence were series favorites for me. I liked them very much as individual characters, loved them together, and enjoyed their story. They fit well into this highly imaginative series and their story provided my favorite book of the set.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 4
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 128 Pages
Formats: Kindle




Centuries ago Luc and Perci lived a happy life together as man and wife. It's tragic what a little death can do. Since becoming Grimm, guardian angels who protect humanity from soul-stealing demons, they've worked side-by-side as partners. Luc, blind but for when he sees through another's eyes, and Perci, whose disability is far less noticeable and infinitely more debilitating, have not once been apart in all that time. Nor have they been together.

Their marriage died when they did, because the sad truth is that no matter how many years pass, Perci has never recovered from the circumstances surrounding her death, nor risen above the agony of the losses she suffered at the vicious hand of a madwoman. Not like Luc has. Not at all.

And though Perci knows that Luc loves her and yearns for their former life together, she also knows that she doesn't. And no amount of regret or length of time is going to change that. Still, partners they remain, locked in a devastating cycle of co-dependency and grief, until Will, leader of the Grimm, gives Perci a new job. On her own.

She's tasked with guiding the odd and ferocious Jack Wallace, a man who does things and knows things that no human should be able to do or know. A man who stirs Perci's heart and body in a way that she hasn't felt in several lifetimes. A man who willingly, almost gleefully, engages in battle with demons at every opportunity and fights like he is riding a death wish straight towards hell.

Together, Perci and Jack are two broken souls who may just be able to heal each other, but only if they survive not only the demons who hunt them, but the very traumas that made them.


I'm happy to say that this fourth book of Walker's Grimm's Circle series has more story and character development than its predecessor, which was my biggest issue with Crazed Hearts. And Walker is right back on track with complex, layered characters, complicated backstory, gripping emotion, and solid romance. Unfortunately, in Tarnished Knight, I still had some issues that came from a couple of other directions.

On one hand, I can't help but commend Walker for creating such a damaged character, one who ran a serious risk of being utterly unsympathetic. Perci is not an easy woman to like at the beginning. We know she's suffered for three hundred years (we find out the details later in the book), but her damage seems almost cruelly self-involved when held against Luc's love and dedication to her. Plus, Luc's blind, so she's leaving a blind man who relies on her to see, one who is in love with her, because she's too wounded to forgive him or herself for their past.

Yeah, for a long time Perci was utterly unsympathetic.

In fact, I hated her. And my heart ached for Luc. It was made worse for me because of the parts of the narrative that are told in Perci's first person point of view. There was nothing to buffer me from thoughts and feelings that I found distasteful, and while she was obviously regretful, she was also resolute about not loving Luc any more. It was and intense way to flesh out a character, but it did nothing to endear Perci to me.

I wasn't crazy about the narrative shifting point of view from first to third and back again, either. Being in Perci's head wasn't any kind of fun, but the back and forth was worse. I found it made the pace of the book jerky in places and distracted me when I was reading.

But then there was Jack, and for all that Perci first made me mental, I loved Jack immediately. His life is cloaked in mystery, his knowledge of Grimm, his mother, his far-better-than-human abilities, and the teasing glimmers of his past were all brilliantly conceived and fabulously executed. I loved his personal journey, and as pieces started to fit together, drawing tattered wounds of the past closed in a bloody bundle of emotion and horror, I found myself rooting for Jack and hoping he got the woman he didn't know he always wanted.

The pity in that was that I wasn't nearly as happy for Perci. I was too emotionally fatigued by Luc's pain to be fully on board with the romance when it started heating up. I couldn't help but feel that Perci didn't deserve such a quick chance for a Happily Ever After.

Still, for all that I thought Crazed Hearts lacked the sort of emotional impact that Walker is so damn good at, this one doubled it up and served heaps of it. I was wrung out by the end, and yes, by the end, I was far more mollified by the story and no longer begrudged Perci her peace. If she'd been more palatable for me earlier in the novella, though, I would have been much happier about the read overall.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 3
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 108 Pages
Formats: Kindle




If there's one thing Ren knows, it's crazy. He should, given the century or so he's spent dancing that particular line of darkness. And he no longer has his best friend, occasional partner, and sometimes lover Elle to help keep him steady. Instead, head Grimm and general pain in the backside Will has tasked him with training the still human Mandy for the role she will one day fill.

It's not a bad gig, really, but he stays away from people as much as possible, remaining with Mandy at his cabin in the woods. The stress and pain from his empathetic gift is far less damaging that way, and he can sense danger coming long before it gets anywhere close to reaching them.

Danger or evil, like what he feels hungrily circling the young woman he finds standing next to her car on a road through his woods. A woman who rocks him to his foundation even as she scares the hell out him. Not because of who or what she is, but because of what she has with her.

Aileas Corbett thinks she's losing her mind. That's the only rational explanation for her grim certainty that her brother's death was not only suspicious, but had something to do with the book that she has in the back of her car. The book that she can feel...whispering...to her. A book that feels actively malicious.

She's on the run because she doesn't know what else to do and she isn't sure where to go. She's running because she's certain that if she stops, she'll die. Only when a wolf dashes out in front of her as she rides through the woods does she finally jerk her car to a stop. Then, as if it happens every day, a strange and oddly compelling man walks up behind the wolf and confronts her, too much knowledge and too many horrors reflected in his eyes.

Insanity. Impending doom. And two people on a collision course with forces of evil bent on ultimate destruction. Not everyone is going to get out of this one alive.


As much as I love the concept for this series, and as big a fan as I am of the first two books, I can't say I fully enjoyed this one. I was surprised, too, because I had been really looking forward to a Happily Ever After for poor Ren, who I felt so badly for after seeing him lose Elle in No Prince Charming. Because of that, I was open to liking just about anything that would give him a chance at happiness of his own, but this one didn't quite do it for me.

Though the writing is as solid as ever, I didn't feel like the plot of this novella had much meat to it, either in relation to the external plot conflict or the romance threads. There also seemed to be a curious lack of character depth in either of the main characters. Yes, I've met Ren before, but only as a secondary character, and Aileas was a completely new commodity. Though the framework for strong, original character definition was in place for them both, I never felt the narrative dug far enough beneath surface development for either of them.

And that may be the first time I've had that issue with character depth and dimension in a Walker story. Realistic and gritty character development is usually one of her strongest gifts as an author.

Sadly, the external conflict of the sadistic soul-sucking book from hell and its merry band of bloodthirsty orin was also a little disappointing. Despite a couple of powerfully emotional scenes (another Walker standard), overall I felt the threat and danger was fairly limited in scope and lacking in substantial layers. Too much of the story seemed little more complex than Ren protecting Aileas at his home while danger advanced.

I have to admit, I also had problems with the end of the novella. I am not a fan of that type of conflict resolution or romance denouement. I've read similar situations in other books and it's never worked for me, though that is strictly a reading preference, and a completely subjective opinion.

The pieces were all there for this novella, and my hopes were high for Ren, but his story didn't seem to give him everything I was hoping for him. It didn't give me everything I was hoping for me, either. The good points, though, are there, if scattered more than I would like. I'm a fan of this series, even now, and hold out hope for a longer, more detailed and fully invested story with better defined characters in the next installment.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Rafferty, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 346 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle




After bullets ripped up Luke Rafferty's leg in a firefight in Afghanistan, he knew his time as an Army Ranger was done. He was ready to start a new chapter in his life. Six years later, Dr. Luke Rafferty is a doctor of emergency medicine at Rudding Hospital in Kentucky. He's happy with his job and his life. Well, most of his life. His love life could use some improvement.

He's got a crush on a pretty case worker with Social Services who he's seen around the hospital. Not that he's built up the nerve to talk to her. But he wants to. He intends to, really. Soon.

Devon Manning is more than a case worker, she's often the last bastion of hope for children with nothing but horror in their lives. She's so good at her job because she's been there. Her past was traumatic, but she's risen above it and turned her experience into a calling. Still, she can't help but be marked by it.

When the handsome Doctor Rafferty is on hand to help her with a new charge she's brought to the hospital, she can't help but feel the tingle of attraction. Any woman with a pulse would. She's a little flustered, though, when he shows his interest in her. There's something about the man that draws her, though, and something about the way he handles his patients and himself that appeals. She doesn't really want to decline his advances.

As Luke and Devon work to get to know one another, though, they miss the clues that would warn them of the impending danger. Someone else has an interest in the pretty, feisty case worker. Someone with far less noble intentions and a deadly grudge. And if she doesn't pay attention, if they don't heed the warnings, that someone will make sure to exact his revenge. In as bloody and painful a way possible.


Shiloh Walker gives good read. That's really all there is to it. I've come to expect solid story from her as an author, and she has a genuine gift for creating layered, believable, often gritty characters. In fact, she excels at characters with a dark or sad past that marks them and defines them, and she's adept at molding them into intensely sympathetic, complex people.

Such is the case here with Luke and Devon. Luke's childhood, his relationship with his twin, and his life in the military have shaped him in such a way that it's clear early on that he's a decent, dedicated man who's a bit of an adrenaline junky and easily bored, but he channels that into emergency medicine. He has a couple of issues from the lingering effects of the guilt he experienced as a child and his lack of a maternal influence in his life. His relationship with his brother is fraught with conflicting emotion, his sense of responsibility is sometimes a bit skewed, but he's a strong, decent guy and easy to embrace as the male lead.

Devon is a gem. She's exactly the sort of strong, independent woman I admire in my fiction, though she's by no means perfect. She's got her insecurities and flaws, and the scars from her past are more than physical. Walker shaped her and guided her through the events of the book with a steady hand, shaking her world up and bringing highs and lows, putting her through sexy fun and emotional angst and danger that is harrowing. Devon's reactions to the things that start piling up in her life aren't always wise, nor healthy, but they certainly are organic to her as a character and believable for it even when they frustrated me.

I loved the layered storyline and how it evolves. Walker front-loads the relationship development between Luke and Devon, initially only hinting at the suspense elements. By the time those elements start pouring more and more tension into their lives, Luke and Devon are a couple (albeit a new and sometimes shaky one), so instead of a storyline that has to focus on getting them into a relationship as the suspense mounts, this story focuses on the effects - some of which are devastating - on the characters and their established  relationship during a growing crises.

The relationship conflict is the suspense...or a direct result of it...and I liked that very much. It put a fresh spin on things for me.

And Walker kept me guessing throughout, too, which isn't always necessary but is usually appreciated. Unfortunately, part of the guessing led to some revelations that didn't appeal to me.

The story was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the romance elements, appreciated the characters immensely, and was snagged hard by the walking disaster waiting to happen that is Luke's twin, Quinn. I can't wait to read his book. He was a force of nature in this one, too infrequently heard from for me (I'm greedy), but riveting when he was.

My problem was the big reveal of the Bad Guy that caps off the book's climax. I was surprised, all right. But not for good reasons. I was surprised because it didn't make sense to me. Neither the identity of the Bad Guy nor his motivations. And because it didn't make sense, especially when I looked at the big picture and how all the pieces fit together, I couldn't reconcile the Bad Guy's timeline, choices, target, or actions as they related to the main characters.

That put a bit of a damper on the read for me. Not enough to dislike the book, or even relegate it to three stars - there was way too much good preceding the end that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters were wonderfully well-drawn and believable, their relationship evolution was awesome, and the suspense elements (disregarding the end) were tense and powerful. The conflict resolution and denouement just didn't fit for me or leave me with the feeling of triumph or satisfaction that I like to have after reading a romantic suspense. It did, however, leave me hungry for Quinn's book. It absolutely did that.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 6
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 129 Pages
Formats: Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by the author. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





They lived as humans. They died as legends. They returned as guardians. They are Grimm... 

Jacob knew as soon as he saw Celine that she was his. Unfortunately, even after four years as a Grimm, guardian angels who fight the demons threatening humanity, all Celine knows is agony over her loss and regret for the choice she made to become one of them. And she fights like she's more than ready to rectify that mistake.

Their ever-freaky leader Will wants Jacob to take over as Celine's partner in a last ditch attempt to pull her back from the edge and help her heal before she goes out in the violent and bloody blaze of glory she seems to crave. But Jacob is burdened by chains of grief and regret, and he's loathe to use his abilities on Celine, forcing her to experience even more agony in a dim hope that it will help her finally rise above her misery.

Can you ever save an angel with broken wings when her only focus is the fall?


I've been a fan of this series for so long. The concept is brilliantly unique, and I've long admired Walker's ability to create deeply emotional backgrounds and history for these fantastic characters, tossing them together with bits and pieces of fairy tales, history, and legends, and creating solid original story with a hearty dose of dark, delicious sexuality around it all. And her characters are graced with a gritty realism that extends far beyond the covers of the books they inhabit.

This one wasn't my favorite in the series. I struggled with the first half quite a lot. It's one of the shorter novellas in the bunch, and after its predecessor Locked in Silence, which may have been the lengthiest, the short length here was a detriment for me.

The setup for the plot and the definition of the characters seemed too condensed and rushed, and was chaotic and lacked clarity because of it. The potential was there, and there wasn't a huge amount of external plot conflict taking up space. The story focus is on individual character growth and relationship evolution, which is a series-standard and one for which I have no complaint. I felt the timeline of the events in the first half of this story was very jerky, though, with a confusing lack of detail, and the transitions were very abrupt. It made the story progression seem both haphazard and stilted in places.

As much as I loved my first glimpse of Rob (can't wait to read more about that crazy, red-eyed bugger), with my issues about the timeline and my concern over a lack of initial character development, the first half seemed less sleek and sophisticated than I'm used to in this series and characters' actions and emotions felt forced for a good portion of it.

At around the halfway mark, though, the story smoothed out and started to dig deeper into the characters and the evolution of their relationship. Some external plot conflict and action were tossed in, always appreciated, and Rob was added back into the mix. The sultry sexuality that highlights this series also made an appearance - and none too soon. I enjoyed all of that very much, and felt the book settled in nicely from that point on.

For as much as I struggled with the beginning, the second half entertained me. I had a few minor issues with the relationship conflict and subsequent resolution, as there were one or two elements in them that felt a little too similar to events in the previous book, but that didn't prove too much a detraction.

This series is far more episodic than firmly connected by an overall series arc, but I enjoy reading them in order. Plus, I've noticed a subtle increase in demon activity in the books lately, and some brewing badness that is landing even the most experienced Grimm in unfamiliar situations. It has me interested in seeing if the series is gaining more plot-driven elements. I look forward to seeing how it continues from here, and finding out just which crazily beloved legend from our past or our fairy tales will be stirring up trouble next.

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Menage a trois
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 2.5
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 821 Locations
Formats: Kindle


Ren is still hurting from losing his best friend and century-long occasional lover, Elle, after she and the man she loved, Michael, reunited. That pain is adding stress to the pressure of the darkness that is never far from his mind lately. Leave it to their boss (for lack of a better term) Will to send him back to Elle and Michael to wait for another task that the three Grimm must handle.

Seeing Elle is like salt in a grievous wound, and even her kindness causes pain. As an empath, he knows she feels his pain. As Elle, he knows she'll try to ease it. What surprises him, almost unmans him, is that Michael is surprisingly amenable. And the truth, the one that neither Ren nor Elle can escape, is that both still bear wounds not yet healed, and each needs the other for the love of their friendship and the hope of some peace.

For those unfamiliar with Shiloh Walker's Grimm's Circle series, this is not the place to start to become familiar. This short story is more of a coda on the end of the second book in the series, No Prince Charming, and should in no way be considered a self-contained short story. There almost no explanation of the events in the book preceding it, and little exposition on the world in which it occurs. For those who haven't read that second book, this short story could seem little more than a salacious bit of gratuitous erotica.

In truth, though, it's closure for two people who desperately needed it, and though the focus is on Ren, whose story is up next in the series (yay!), the events are just as important to Elle. Her death was such that it scarred her in ways that aren't important to list here, but with this little tale, those scars were tenderly addressed.

I'm not entirely convinced it was necessary to be handled in this format, though, and I was disappointed that the sole focus was on the sexual scene. The "job" Will sent them on was completely ignored except in passing. It did make this little piece of fiction seem a bit unnecessary and salacious, even to me, who is a fan of this dark and unique series. It wasn't bad, but it isn't enough to draw in new readers - may in fact give them the wrong impression of the series, and it isn't quite enough to entertain beyond the sexuality for those who are familiar. I'd recommend it only for those who are Grimm's Circle fans.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Grimm's Circle, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: (Long) Novella, 3282 Locations
Formats: Kindle


Over three hundred years ago, a young noble woman named Giselle was swept up in a wild romance with a man she knew only as Michael. She was the daughter of a baron, and unlike the fairy tale, she wasn't abused by her step mother, she wasn't hated by two step sisters - she only had the one, and that one was a friend and a sister to her. Also unlike the fairy tale, there was no happily ever after with Prince Charming for Cinderella. In fact, when she realized her Michael was the Prince Louis Michael III that had been betrothed to her step sister since they were both children, Ella realized the scope of her heartbreak. She'd given herself to a man who claimed to love her, but not enough to buck society and give up a well made match for such naive dreams as love. She ran from Michael and from their love.

And died doing so.

That night she rose again as a Grimm, a guardian angel that was tasked to go out in the world and save humanity from whatever evils threaten it. She never saw Michael again. And Michael never stopped loving her. He gave up his life for her, disappeared from history and from his family, and joined Elle on the side of the Grimm, and though he'd been told that one day he would get a chance to win Elle's forgiveness, and one day he'd be needed to risk his existence to save hers, he hadn't expected the wait to be quite so long.

Over three hundred years have passed. The call has finally come. Elle is on a mission to rid Sandusky, Ohio of a nest of succubi and incubi using a sex club as an all-you-can-eat buffet. She's called in her best friend and occasional lover, Ren, to assist her. She wasn't expecting the powerful Will, her boss and the Grimm's handler, to call an audible at the line of scrimmage...and she definitely wasn't prepared to see Michael for the first time in over three centuries. No Cinderella could prepare to see her Prince Charming after their chance at happily ever after had ended in agony, fear, and death.

I love this series and am so pleased with the originality of the concept behind it. Fairy tales we've loved as children have been brought into the present, their characters brought to life and their lives explained in new and fascinating ways. The Grimm brothers have nothing on Shiloh Walker, that's for sure. This dark, edgy series is ripe with sensuality and the depth of emotion that Walker portrays so well. I love the mythos she's created with her Grimm angels and think the twist on the HEA stories of old are unique and brilliantly imaginative. And Walker writes some smokin' sex scenes, too.

I got quickly hooked on this series when I stumbled across Candy Houses (Grimm's Circle, book 1) (my review here) and quickly downloaded No Prince Charming when I finished it. I was blown away by Walker's creativity and couldn't wait to get my hand on more of it. I wish they were longer, though. They're not quite what I would consider full length novels, but they're longer than most novellas, and they are bursting with so much potential that I can only wish they were longer to see more of it realized in each story.

In No Prince Charming, I wish more time had been spent on the development of the plot conflict and explaining more of the world of Grimm's Circle. I felt Candy Houses did that a bit more comprehensively than this one did, but there's still room for more. There was plenty of relationship development between Elle and Michael, along with those glimpses of their past which I enjoyed, but that and the sexual relations overshadowed the issue with the succubi and inccubi and I felt that aspect of the plot lacked a little definition and depth. I wish there'd been more offered to broaden the Grimm mythos, as well.

The complex emotional angst between Michael and Elle and Ren was handled very well, and I couldn't help but feel deeply for Ren with his love of Elle. I wish his character had been fleshed out a little more, but I'm thrilled to know his story is coming up next. I'm still not sure exactly who he is, fairy tale-wise, but we'll see. I wasn't totally sold on the sexual relationship between the three of them at the club. Despite it being set up as necessary to capture the succubus queen's attention, I felt the scene compromised the development of Michael as a character. He'd been vehemently opposed to sharing Elle in any way, shape, or form and it had been well documented that his rage was mindless when Ren touched her before, so his active participation and his permission for Ren and Elle to enjoy each other for the time being seemed really out of character.

There were a couple of other contradictions and plot holes, as well. Elle had indicated her gift as a reflector worked well on demons and humans but not on other Grimm. She could sense their emotion a little, but not reflect it back. Then she did several times with Michael. And Michael's gift of mind control somehow morphed into mental communication back and forth with Elle when needed. I found that a little convenient when he'd claimed he'd never even tried to use the mind control on a fellow Grimm before. There were a few other similar scenes that brushed against my ability to suspend disbelief, as well.

Despite those issues, I think Walker has a gold mine of opportunity with this series. The creativity and originality is unparalleled and I'm thrilled to see where the next road leads. Walker has never disappointed me when it comes to dark, gritty, emotional tales with complex characters and layered motivations, and this series is really showing off how impressive she is as an author both stylistically and creatively. I hope it continues for a good long time.

I would caution sensitive readers that while I don't consider this novella an erotica romance (there's more plot issues and relationship issues than sex), nor a menage a trois story, the sex is graphically described and the novella contains scenes of unconventional sexual acts as well as scenes of multiple partner sex and sexuality.

Grimm's Circle Series: