Shade of Honor
(Standard of Honor Series Book 1
Taki Drake, TS Paul
Russian, Fairytale, Mythology
Kindle
Bereft of their elders in magic, hired out to strangers to feed their families. Survival was a constant battle for the Russian Witches. Despised by other witches for their rigid focus on contracts, they were without a moral compass, honorless. That was not good enough for some. For the young witch, Zhanna, life was not worth living without honor – or her magic. Could she find both in her homeland? Would her desire and drive be enough to locate her shade of honor?
This is a story set in the Federal Witch Multiverse. And is set in Russia after the elder witches had been killed.
It didn’t capture my imagination and thus I didn’t complete it. It might appeal to a YA as the heroine is 17 and has a familiar – a very nice cat but…
Familiar Shadows
Federal Witch Universe, Familiar Magic #1
Taki Drake, TS Paul
fairy tales, mythology, folk tales
Kindle
Some days are just BAD. A couple of thousand feet in the air, hanging from eagle talons and bleeding out. Just a typical bad day for a rebellious cat. Meet Dascha, a perfect example of contrariness and smarts. This young Russian Blue is not interested in following the family business, at all! But a moment of inattention leads to danger and pain, and she is left with some hard decisions to make. Will she survive mage attacks, wolves, and, worst of all, her instructors?
These stories are written from the viewpoint of the witches’ familiars, starting with the kitten, in Russia.
Here we find out something about life is like now in Russia for the magic community now that the wars have decimated the elders and the teachers.
It is rather short and for me lacked development of the idea. It is childish in style and I am not sure if was aimed at children or not. Which is a shame and means that I shan’t be reading the next 2 in the series: Familiar Trials; and Familiar Travels.
Wickedest Witch
Eve Langlais
paranormal romance, mystery, contemporary, new adult, humour
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2nd Edition edition
(22 May 2013)
Evangeline is not a very nice witch, and she’s not afraid to show it. Her ruthless nature comes in handy as a problem solver until she lands a job where she’s forced to work with an uncouth shifter. He’s rude, cocky, totally unsuitable, not to mention part animal, but despite it all, she can’t help craving his touch.
Ryker is big, bad, and brash. When he’s partnered with a curvy witch, he does everything in his power to fight her allure. And fails. But he’s not too disappointed as he discovers wickedness has its uses, especially in the bedroom.
Vampires, a wedding from hell, and a cackling boss named Rumpelstiltskin, will these two wicked beings complete their job and admit, despite their stubborn nature, that they belong together?
The Wickedest Witch runs a ‘Solution’ agency – any problem solve – for a large fee.
Now Rumpelstiltskin has a daughter who he loves dearly and when she is threatened he calls in the WW. But he thinks he needs brawn too and calls in a cougar shifter to help and sparks fly in many directions.
If I was able to, I’d also wear a glamour that made me look taller and slimmer, but I just wonder am I really taller and slimmer? What would happen if you measured my height for instance? and what about my clothes? Are they real? Do I need 2 wardrobes? All questions I ponder…
Overall, another fun ride of a book with lots of mythical creatures.
I really liked this author’s style and proceeded to buy more of her books. I really must find out how the wedding happened – sounds good. An author with the style of Robyn Peterman but not as potty mouthed – less inventive language, but still lots of sniggers.
Vampire CEO: The Complete Series
Parts 1/2/3
Erin Bedford
paranormal romance, mythology, Metaphysical & Visionary
Embrace the Fantasy Publishing
Feb 2017
Kindle
Wait until he gets a taste of her.
Tossed out by her coven, Abigail has to brave the human world and get a real job. With no skills outside of potions and spells, she magics her way out of unemployment and into the executive suite of Midnight Pharmaceutical.
But something strange is going on at Midnight. While her boss is the very definition of dark and mysterious, he makes her witchy sense tingle with his odd hours and the string of women leaving his office every day...
She'll find out what's happening at Midnight; if her boss doesn't take a bite out of her first.
This book was written and supplied in 3 parts. I thought parts 1 and 2 worthy of 4.5 stars but…
A Dark Power – a witch as a succubus – meets a 400 year vampire. Sparks fly. Literally. From her hands! Attraction is rather high from both sides and she is working through her issues as a very bad witch and finds it difficult to cope with a new lover but……
I found Part 3 disappointing as just a very short ending – but not quite – leaves you feeling the story has more to say. 3 stars for this section. Although an Epilogue has now been published.
I thought that this story – whilst clearly, and intentionally, referencing Harry Potter and Hogwarts- had some good ideas and some really great names for people.
eg Anoxamander Bluefelt
Professor Schtrumpf
Professor Tuftwillow
It seems that there are 5 magical universities in North America and our heroine attended Penrose Academy. The 5 included Voudoun University which was a party school hidden in New Orleans and Our Lady of the Labyrinth in New Mexico which had no grades, no semesters and only ‘friends’ rather than students with a great golf course. The most interesting of course was the Northern Californian Arcane Polytechnic Institute, which occupied the same physical space as Stanford but was 10 seconds into the future, which meant that students could get degrees from 2 universities!
Penrose had a bar that sold Shamrock shakes – green with good luck charm included and a magical library which had book wars – where the books which suggested one theory would go to war with books that suggested an alternative theory; where the books moved about; where the books would give themselves up to a librarian if they were shelved incorrectly; and where the librarians were magically chained to the library and needed to be paid before you could enter the library. Another clear reference to other stories but done well enough not to irritate.
As the book also has the traditional werewolf struggling with his ‘curse’ and a witch and lots of references to current music I am sure it will appeal very much to the YA audience. The Harry Potter allusions help but don’t overpower and the writing style is fun and easy to read.
Shade of Honor
