Born of Blood and Flames by. Amber Darwin | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Born of Blood and Flames (Gravestone Book, #1)

Author: Amber Darwin

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 268

Publication Date: 8/9/21

Publisher:

Categories: Paranormal, Dark Fantasy, Romance

“The Darkness found me, and when I awoke, I became the most gifted Blood Witch my generation has ever known.

I am a weapon.
I am hunted.
I am everything they fear.

My name is Vivi Graves, and my story was never a fairytale.”

Life hasn’t been simple for the city of Thornfall’s best Blood Witch turned bartender. Shunned by most other witches, abused by The Academy of Elders, her love life is a dumpster fire, and even her sassy familiar doesn’t listen to a word she says. But at least she’s escaped the clutches of her corrupted mentors. Or has she?

When a terrifyingly sexy man shows up at her workplace, all shadows and temptation, her current reality starts to unravel. There’s no denying that he’s dangerous for her health, her heart isn’t safe either. But as their fates intertwine, buried secrets expose themselves and the past comes back to punish them both.

Is blood thicker than water?
Does love conquer all?
And in the depths of hell, can Vivi survive the flames?
There’s only one way to find out…

** Born of Blood and Flames is a medium burn, enemies to lovers, dark fantasy, adult paranormal romance.

Where do I start? I picked this up because the synopsis mentioned witches and a sexy man plus it’s Fall and fall reading is a time for witchy and sexy books!

I love Vivi Graves – she’s a Blood Witch, she swears, she’s snarky and sassy, and she can fight. Vivi is also a bit broken inside. Her childhood was messed up and seems like her school years were pure torture. The Academy of Elders need her for something but she doesn’t want to give them the time of day. But then someone tall, dark and handsome strolls into town and everything between them is lust at first sight and she doesn’t know why – who is he and what does he want? In this book we find out Vivi is more than just a badass Blood Witch and Seer.

First off, the world building is great and detailed. I didn’t know what to expect but we get a detailed account of Thornfall and some info about Underhill Academy where Vivi went to school to learn about her powers. She had a miserable time at the Academy and harbors bad feelings about the place and people. Also we get to travel to the Netherworld where Killian (tall, dark and handsome) is from. The Netherworld is the underworld where Kilian rules but he has his own problems to deal with and we find out more about what those issues are when Vivi is there. I liked learning about Thornfall and the Netherworld and all the types of beings living in both worlds.

The characters really make this book amazing because Vivi is snarky, sassy and broken but she has a best friend, Marlow who is fantastic. She’s funny, level-headed and says the most inappropriate things! Linc rounds out the three of them, he’s a shapeshifter who is in love with Vivi, so it complicates things between them but I really hope they can be friends again. I can’t forget about Calypso, Vivi’s cat and familiar, when no one is around it’s just Vivi and Lippy. And in Killian’s world we have his badass half-siblings, a wild siren named Anise, a dragon shifter named Jagger (love him!), and the gorgon twins, Bane and Dante! They also have a volcano dog named Grim! It’s a fun cast and crew.

Now the romance between Vivi and Killian is full of angst. The attraction happens instantly and it’s hot. There is a push and pull between them, she doesn’t like when he’s being an alpha-hole but she can’t stay away from him either. At least Vivi knows herself and knows she’s always falling for the bad boys – poor girl, I feel her pain. Haha! I do like that when we are in The Netherworld, we get to know more about Killian and his motivations. He is the alpha, he is the heir but Killian loves his mama, his siblings and his people so I look forward to learning more about him in book two!

The ending is awesome – what a way for Vivi to access her powers!

Content Warnings: parental abuse, violence, death

We are in Vivi’s thoughts a lot and for me it got a bit too much in the beginning because it felt like info dumping and emotional dumping. I love that she is someone who expresses herself fully, whether it be happiness with her friend Marlow, confusion with Linc, lust with Killian and rage at Lilia. it’s what makes her amazing, but I think in the beginning as we get to know her background it was just us with Vivi trying to sort her feelings about a lot of things. Once the action starts happening this is a quick read.

The ending was an emotional roller coaster, I was raging and heartbroken with Vivi – I loved it and makes me eager for book two.

The author even puts a note before the story begins of content warnings. Read it! I love that she puts a warning.

Why you should read it:

the romance – it’s hot, sexy and angsty and about to get worse before they can be together
Vivi, Killian and all the other characters make this a fun story
good story about Vivi’s secret past and family
the Netherworld is dark, dangerous and magical

Why you might not want to read it:

Vivi curses, so if you don’t like dirty language, this is not for you
Killian is referred to Vivi as an alpha-hole, but honestly…I’ve read worst, I thought he was a pretty nice guy! lol
death of an animal

My Thoughts:

I’m so glad I downloaded this book. I’m a fan! It’s a quick read full of heat, magic, danger, friendship, secrets, love, rage, destruction, grief, and angst. It’s got a little bit of everything. The ending was unexpected, heartbreaking and so many things need to be resolved. I need book two asap.

📚~ Yolanda

The Infinity Courts by. Akemi Dawn Bowman | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

Title: The Infinity Courts

Author: Akemi Dawn Bowman

Format: Hardcover (borrowed)

Pages: 465

Publication Date: 4/6/21

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

Categories: Sci-fi, Young Adult, Romance, Court Intrigue, AI

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto is certain her life is just beginning. She has a great family, just graduated high school, and is on her way to a party where her entire class is waiting for her—including, most importantly, the boy she’s been in love with for years.

The only problem? She’s murdered before she gets there.

When Nami wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Even worse, Ophelia is inching closer and closer to accomplishing her grand plans of eradicating human existence once and for all.

As Nami works with a team of rebels to bring down Ophelia and save the humans under her imprisonment, she is forced to reckon with her past, her future, and what it is that truly makes us human.

Well this was very unexpected – I went into this having read good and bad reviews of this book. I debated reading it but when I saw it at the library, I picked it up. I read it in one sitting and was not disappointed.

Let me start off by saying sci-fi is not my favorite genre, I can get a little stuck trying to understand things about AI and such. I didn’t feel that stuck reading this one and I think the author did a good job laying out this world of the “afterlife” that isn’t quite heaven and hell like we are taught with religion. It is a place called Infinity that has now been hacked by Ophelia (think Alexa or Siri) and AI has taken over the afterlife. Why? To exact revenge on humans who controlled her/them on Earth. Nami is caught up in a war between humans and AI. Ophelia is Queen of Infinity and she has her own court and four sons, Princes of Victory, Death, Famine and War (reminds me of a version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse). Basically when you “die” your consciousness gets sorted into one of these places. I enjoyed the world building, even though some parts were vague – but that was okay because I would think in an AI version of the afterlife, anything goes with how much you can control your consciousness.

We don’t know much about Nami when she was alive on Earth because she dies quick in the story. We know she’s a teenager, in love with her best friend, who seemed like her only true friend – she loved her family of course, but then she dies and is thrown into a scary new world of the afterlife. It’s not what she expects. She doesn’t want to be thrown into a war – she’s scared, and I would be to. If I died and was thrown into a war? I’d be livid…a livid ghost! Haha! Nami questions everything, a lot…and I didn’t think that was a bad thing. It got repetitive with the questions at times, yes, but not enough to deter me or skip pages because I was questioning it too. Nami is trying to make sense of a very traumatic experience. I liked that Nami tried to figure out another way besides war and killing. I appreciated that she’s softer than the others, her heart isn’t hardened yet and she made mistakes and learned hard lessons.

I loved the twist at the end, I was like..😳🤯 and look forward to reading book two.

Triggers: Death, Violence, Grief

There is an enemies to lovers romance and I do not know how things will end. It kind of broke my heart though.

Because it is sci-fi and AI and the afterlife…there are a lot of questions in this book. Like, do we still feel love and emotions in the afterlife? Obviously no one really knows what happens in the afterlife, but it’s interesting to speculate and wonder.

For me who doesn’t necessarily read sci-fi, I love this story. I love the creativity, the world building, the possibilities, the high-stakes, the fight between AI and humans, the many questions and Nami’s never-ending hope which seems so naive in an afterworld that is heartless and cruel. I felt her grief for her parents and her old life and I myself hoped she would survive Infinity. The ending was a plot twist I wasn’t expecting and I will be waiting, not-so-patiently, to read book two as soon as it is published (or beforehand if it shows up on NetGalley. I HOPE)! Glad I picked this one up.

📚 ~ Yolanda

Quotes from The Infinity Courts

“But I don’t know what’s worse: not having power at all or being someday made to wield it.”
– the infinity courts by. akemi dawn bowman

“You have countless human stories that discuss variations of heaven and hell. You are the ones who created the idea that not every human is entitled to an after-life. You believe that good and evil should be separated. I am merely following the rules you’ve set.”
– The infinity courts by. akemi dawn bowman

Humans have always had a habit of caging things they don’t understand.
-the infinity courts by, akemi dawn bowman

A Court of Honey and Ash by. Shannon Mayer and Kelly St. Clare | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: A Court of Honey and Ash (Honey and Ice, #1)

Author: Shannon Mayer and Kelly St. Clare

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 420

Publication Date: 7/6/21

Publisher: Hijinks Ink Publishing

Categories: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Fae, New Adult

Orphaned. Trained to fight. Raised to fear the power of Underhill. Secretly in love with a man who doesn’t want me.

I’m still just Alli, aka the half-human orphan fae, but my life is looking up for the first time. It only took me my whole 24 years.

But when Underhill—the ancestral home of the fae—shatters, making it impossible for any fae to enter, I’m the only one who knows who did it.

A secret that will be the death of me if I do nothing.

A brutal madness spreads through the fae as they lose their connection to Underhill, and to save my people, my only choice is to leave all I have fought for and go on the run.

Unless I figure out how the hell magic that has existed since the dawn of time was destroyed with a single touch, well, an entire life spent fighting to prove myself isn’t going to mean anything at all.

I must find the answer to the riddle of Underhill’s shattering.

Hunted by the very man I loved once upon a time.

Kelly St. Clare is one of my favorite authors that I found through Kindle Unlimited and I’ve read one of Shannon Mayer’s series Shadowspell Academy. The two authors combining makes for a good first book to a new series about the Fae.

This book is action packed from the get go, I think that’s a Shannon Mayer signature (even if I only read one of her series), action seems to be her thing and it keeps the story moving quickly. We meet Kallik in a competition that will decide her future. We also learn she’s half human and half fae, the bastard daughter to the Seelie King who put her in an orphanage when her mother died. Kallik is strong, can kick butt and hold her own around the guys.

And of course there is a hot Fae who Kallik has a crush on, or had past crush on, named Faolan. He seems to be everywhere Kallik is since her return from the trials. When something major happens involving Kallik, Faolan is sent to investigate. Kallik and Faolan definitely have chemistry and I hope there is more of it in book two.

The side characters are great – I love Cinth, Kallik’s besti-friend and rolling pin wielder. And Ruby, the giant Fae outcast is a sage with wise advice, a leader trying to protect the outcast and Kallik is building a friendship with him which Kallik definitely needed since she only has Cinth in her life.

Triggers: violence

The setting of Alaska is an interesting choice for the Fae but remote enough that they can have their own island to inhabit. I kept trying to picture what this Underhill would look like though.

Kallick is twenty-four years old, so I’m assuming this is new adult? Or just adult fiction though there was only some kisses taking place in the story.

It’s one of those series with cliffhangers but thank goodness the wait is only a few months and not a whole year!

I can tell it’s already one of those series I’m going to be addicted to and I can’t help myself, I love the Fae. This one is a quick read with lots of action, good chemistry between Kallik and Faolan, an awesome best friend in Cinth and a new world to explore. It’s a great start to the series and I look forward to book two.

📚~ Yolanda