LAST YEAR I WAS READING…(November 30, 2022)
Here are the rules:
Take your current read and compare it to what you reading this exact time last year. Which one do you like better? What is different about the books? Any special facts/things you want to make note of or bring attention to?
This meme was created by Reading Marie. It’s a great meme because it’s nice and easy to do.
This Year I Am Reading…
SSA Rain Christiansen used to be the agency’s golden boy. It just takes one moment of weakness, one slight, tiny, itty-bitty paranormal sighting, and all of a sudden he’s the agency’s embarrassment. His boss gives him one last chance to redeem himself—go down to Brickell Bay, play nice with the local police, and leave the ghost sightings behind. Rain is determined to do exactly that, even if it kills him.
Cold-case detective Daniel McKenna’s latest investigation is going nowhere fast. Five years earlier, high school student Amy Greene went missing after leaving her part-time job and was never seen again. Daniel is glad to finally have the FBI help that his department requested, even if it does come in the form of his ex.
It doesn’t help that Rain is pretty sure he’s falling in love with Danny all over again—if he ever stopped. Add to that the frustration of seeing ghosts at every turn while he works a case that’s stalled in its tracks, and Rain is starting to wonder if second chances and happy endings are just for fairy tales.
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle | Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
The spooks are plenty, the case is difficult, the romance is sizzling, the narration wordy and moving too slow for my taste. I’m on the 3rd arc already, so it’s not so bad.
Last Year I Was Reading…
Cameron wants to make it clear that he did not go into the festival to find a dragon mate.
Germany is supposed to be an escape. With a new mechanical engineering degree, a new job looming, and a whole life planned out that isn’t his, Germany seems like the best place to find himself.
So how does he end up discovering his lost magic heritage, running from bad guys with a secret agenda, and being adopted by the not-so-extinct Fire Dragon clan?
Cameron blames tall, dark, and sexy Alric, king of the Fire dragons. His fated mate. Because of course he is, and mates are meant to take the blame, right?
It may take a hot second, but as Cameron learns more about the scarred Alric and the life he’s landed in, Cameron realizes that perhaps this is where he’s meant to be, magic and mates and kidnapping and all.
Turns out coming to Germany wasn’t an escape but his awakening.
Tags:
Not-so-extinct, Shifter dragons, mages, fated mates, secret clans, epic libraries, hurt/comfort, age gap, not that Alric cares, magical heritage, mechanical engineers being BAMF, grumpy dragon kings being protective of their cute mates, really the cuteness is downright criminal, we might need a firehose for these two, or not, sass, so much sass, Ravi and Cameron are no longer allowed to be alone together, for reasons, dragons hoarding, when you live long enough statistics will get you, bats named Cheryl, beheadings, no damsels in distress here, just very unhappy mages, with trigger fingers, anyone have life hacks on how to get rid of kidnappers, Cameron is open to suggestions
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle | Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
Fabulous meet-cute, quirky characters, unique take on fated mates, awesome, awesome dragons, but went on a tad too long.
My 4-star review here.
Today we have a paranormal police procedural and a contemporary urban fantasy. They have few things in common. Both have mystery and a humorous tone, though the current is strong on mystery and lighter on humor, while last year’s is the opposite. Both involved finding people.
The current is from the 1st person POV of an FBI criminal profiler/medium recently assigned to the Missing Persons Unit of his hometown. Last year’s is in the dual POV of fated mates, where one is a long-lost mage, and the other is a dragon king. The current features an occasionally antagonistic second chance romance, while last year’s is a friends-to-lovers love story between a Korean-American tourist and a German dragon shifter. Both the FBI profiler and the tourist struggled to come to terms with their supernatural abilities.
The current book is P.S. I Spook You, the series opener of The Spectral Files. It stars straight-laced G-man Rainstorm Christiansen. The name is due to his rather unconventional upbringing and new age parents. And par for the course since his vegan hippie-dippy twin sister’s name is Sky, who lives in a fairytale cottage. Rain has always saw ghosts but chalked it up to mental illness. He was assigned to a missing person’s case in his hometown, which led to crossing paths with Danny Mckenna, the lead detective, and his ex-boyfriend whom Rain ghosted years before. An awkward homecoming for our boy, all in all.
This is a pretty solid police procedural. The mystery is tough, with barely any clues and very uncooperative POIs. The investigators had to do a lot of legwork and smacked into plenty dead ends and bad attitudes. It did feel a bit like going around in circles, but that’s how realistic investigations go, so I wasn’t too put off. Rain tend to be too talky in his thoughts. It’s the author’s style apparently since I also encountered the same niggle in their other books.
I’m at the part where finally, finally! Rain accepted that he could use the ghosts’s help in the case. Took him so long I wanted to shake him. I hope things will move faster now that they had a huge break thanks to the ghosts. My favorite ghost is Evan, the emo teen. Rain’s a lovable dork, so I’ll read the rest of the series that’s for sure.
Origin is the series opener to Scale ‘n’ Spells, a fated mates urban fantasy series. Cameron was vacationing in Germany when a handsome older gentleman befriended him, and guided him around the charming town. Little did he know, it was Alric, the king of the fire dragons. Dragons were long thought to be extinct. They kept their identity a secret after the Great War that almost wiped dragons out and virtually erased all mages. The dragons were beyond excited after their searching spell detected that the Korean-American tourist was indeed a mage and the first one after thousands of years. Hence, Alric subtly tries to suss out what the young mage knows.
Turns out Cam doesn’t know anything about his family’s heritage and thus doesn’t know any magic. He had to struggle a bit with the knowledge, but with the dragons’ warm welcome, patience, and his growing attraction to Alric, he moves in to the castle on that very day. The presence of mysterious men attempting to kidnap him helped move things along.
Dragons are mated with mages. The magic system is such that mages can use dragons as a power source. The book is chockful of wacky side characters revolving around the broody pessimistic king and the flirty cheerful little mage. The book went on for too long, with a lot going on. History had to be recounted. Cam had to be trained. Cam’s crazy family had to be accommodated. Cam and Alric danced around the fact that they were mates, plus the mystery of who’s behind the kidnappings. The cast is wonderful, and Alric is super adorkable! If you love dragons, this is the series for you.
Between spooks and shifters, sight and spell leave no stone unturned to uncover buried secrets and lost loves.
I’m ending the post with a book I’m looking forward to reading.
All Cassidy “Goldie” Nash wanted to do was be a nice guy. He certainly hadn’t meant to turn a corner too fast and knock a stranger down into a muddy puddle, and helping him up seemed like it was the right thing to do. He even gave the strange young man his coat because it was so cold out. Goldie thought it was odd that the man didn’t even say so much as a thank you before fleeing with his headphones firmly planted on his ears, and Goldie would later learn to regret his kindness.
He’d left his wallet in his coat pocket after paying for coffee earlier that morning, and now the silent man knows where he lives.
Goldie didn’t know it then, but speaking was the absolute worst thing he could have done…
Because the silent young man heard him, and he liked it.
Day Hanley was raised with a strict hand and a wildly perverse interpretation of scripture. Those who speak with venom under their lips and use their tongues to deceive must be quieted, and it is his mission to silence them. He hears it everywhere, a constant torrent of profanity and hatred spewing from every mouth that he has to shut out or he’ll go insane.
But Goldie is not like anyone else Day has ever heard before. Goldie speaks as an angel does, and Day has to find out why…
Even if it means he must silence him.
Virtuous Sinners is a collection of gay romance stories that center on killers who are guided by a virtuous code. These dark novels are connected only by theme and can be read standalone.
The killer’s virtue in Pure Silence: Silence.
I’m super super intrigued by the premise! This is K.L. Hiers so I’m expecting this to be smutty and fluffy.
What were you reading this time last year?
(I hope it’s as riveting as Morticia’s book)
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