2022 Reviews – Page 19 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Voodoo Academy

Being possessed has its advantages…

Annabelle Mulledy survived a voodoo attack on her family as a child — but it left her possessed by the spirit of a nearly 200-year-old girl. This girl, however, came with strange abilities bestowed upon her in the afterlife. When Kalfu, an evil Loa, discovers Annabelle, he hopes to use her abilities to his advantage — to escape the spiritual realm and take a corporeal form. When Ogoun, the Loa of War, intervenes, he recruits Annabelle to join him as a student at the Voodoo Academy. Will Annabelle master the arts and fend off Kalfu’s spiritual assaults? Or is she ultimately a puppet in a battle between voodoo demigods?

Voodoo Academy is the first book in the Gates of Eden: The Voodoo Legacy series. Theophilus Monroe’s Annabelle Mulledy is a snarky, badass heroine with attitude. Monroe draws on the legend and myth of voodoo lore in a way that neither caricatures the arts as “demonic” nor glosses over the dark side of the voodoo tradition. With dark magic, dragons, vampires, and a slow-burn academy romance, the Gates of Eden: The Voodoo Legacy series has something for everybody.

Review: Diviner’s Prophecy

The prophecy foretells the rise of evil intent on ruling all the kingdoms. For generations, Maea’s family has met this foe and destroyed it before it could be unleashed. But now the power that her ancestors used to stop it in the past is lost. A sorcerer’s spell has wiped Maea of all her memories, including the prophecy that can save her kingdom.

Maea is trapped at court, controlled by her foster mother who wants to use Maea’s power to see into the future for her own gain. At court, secrets and betrayal are common fare and Maea’s powers give anyone who controls her the advantage. With no one to trust, she can only rely on herself to break the curse. When she meets the charming prince Adair, she thinks he is just another courtier intent on using her. His reputation as a rogue proceeds him, and she has no intention of being his next conquest. But his offer to help her break the curse is too good to be passed up.

Together they uncover a plot that stretches back centuries and centers on Maea’s family. Her quest has thrust Maea into the middle of a struggle for thrones. If she chooses the wrong side, she just may lose her head. With lives on the line, Maea must use her powers to find who to trust before it is too late.

Review: Yuki: A Snow White Retelling

Hotaru is in need of a wife. Yuki has no intention of marrying, ever.

To get the alliance he desperately needs, Hotaru must make Yuki fall in love with him. It’s not going to be easy.

Hotaru was never meant to inherit the role of clan leader. Unprepared for his new role and on the brink of war, Hotaru is desperate to find strong allies to help him protect his clan. Yuki’s clan is his last hope for an alliance.

Yuki has never been like other girls. She’s more at home in the forest than in silk and satin. Everyone thinks she’s strange. After her father’s sudden death, her brother is all she has left in the world. Though he would do anything to please her, his chronic illness means he doesn’t have much time left.

Desperate to see her settled before it’s too late, her brother pushes the two together. Yuki isn’t interested. At least, she thought she wasn’t.

She swore she’d never fall in love, but Hotaru might be able to get through all her defenses.

Review: Pricked by Thorns

All wealthy men are in want of a wife. And a mad woman is in need of an escape.

Catherine swore she wouldn’t go back to the asylum. Her parents locked her away for seeing ghosts and fae, but years of treatment couldn’t cure her. Spirits still haunt her, and the fae continue to taunt her. Her treatment might have failed, but if Elk Grove taught her one thing, it was how to impersonate a sane person. Finally free of the institution, she will do anything to remain so, even if she has to trick a man into marrying her. With the family’s debt hanging over her head, Catherine’s mother is insistent she marry.

Lord Thornton is the perfect candidate: a rich bachelor as charming as he is generous. But Catherine has learned the hard way that appearances can be deceiving and a charismatic mask can hide nefarious intentions. However, with creditors knocking down their doors and time running out, Catherine doesn’t have time to be particular. Either she marries or she will be sent back to the asylum.

When a ghost makes an ominous prediction regarding Lord Thornton, it brings into question not only Catherine’s sanity but her plans to wed. Elk Grove told her ghosts weren’t real, but can she ignore the warning when it’s her life at stake? Now she must make a choice: Defy her parents’ order and be locked away for good, or risk her life and marry Lord Thornton instead.

This romantic gothic fantasy tale, a prequel to the Thornwood Fae, is sure to delight fans of Carnival Row and Jane Eyre.

Review: Passion to Seduce

Viv, a lesbian MILF-next-door, meets Jennifer, a virgin lesbian who never kissed a woman, let alone anyone else. Jennifer is shy and overweight, full of self-confidence issues until the day she stepped off her steps across the street, took a deep breath, and approached the person who was in the garden, gardening with her ass high.

Jennifer learns more than how to kiss as Viv takes her time and shows her a whole new side to life. Jennifer’s first orgasm with Viv takes her breath away. A virgin she may be…but just like everything else in life…if you unleash the inner lioness, you will be surprised when they dominate you like a tigress.

Review: The God of Peace

Tor finds itself on the brink of turmoil as a god, who spends his days in the bottom of a pit, has decided that he would be better off wreaking havoc on the surface above, and is willing to use any means necessary to accomplish his goal.

Gloric, the God of Peace, knows that the only people who can stop this angry deity is a rag-tag group of heroes, consisting of a certain Hunter, a Mythical Theoremist prodigy, a robot that speaks only in word salad, a professional cult murderer, a sarcastic Ice Archer, and an ex-Messenger.

The Bearer of Bad News returns with answers to lingering questions, twice the satire, twice the fun, and, for some reason, a profuse amount of references to fish.

Review: Bloody Mad

A vampire in an asylum? That is not going to end well. What in bloody hell were they thinking when they locked me up in the Vilokan Asylum for the Magically and Mentally Deranged? They had to be crazy. I mean, it was just a few mutilated bodies in the French Quarter. And it wasn’t like I was in control of myself. It was him – my damned brother, who possessed me, who took over.

Not like the quacks here would ever believe me. I mean, how exactly does a girl go about explaining that the voice inside her head made her do it without coming across as certifiably insane? It was something I contracted when I fed. That’s what gave him the chance to take over. Something demonic, infecting humans and making us vulnerable to possession. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s more going on in this asylum than I thought. Something connected to the Order of the Morning Dawn and a demonic scheme to infect humans, possess vampires, and dominate the world. There’s more at stake here then my sanity. I have to get the hell out of here before it’s too late. I have to stop them.

Review: Bloody Hell

They tried to cut out my heart. But, before I was a vampire, I was a witch. They couldn’t get rid of me that easily.

My name’s Mercy Brown, but don’t let my name fool you; I’m merciless. It had been almost a century and a half since I last encountered anyone from the Order of the Morning Dawn. They were religious fundamentalists with the dual goal of eliminating vampires and witches. Being both a vampire and a witch, I was the embodiment of everything the Order hates. Their first attempt to eliminate me failed. Thanks to the fact that my mentor in the Craft was also a necromancer. When they burned my heart, they didn’t kill me. They unwittingly completed a spell that tied my existence to the soul of one who took my place in hell.

Now, I’m heartless, literally. Not having a heart has some advantages. It means I’m pretty resilient, especially when it comes to wooden stakes. So long as the soul bound to my existence remained in hell, I was virtually invincible. But, the Order figured it out. They hope to redeem the soul who was damned in my stead. If they do that, I’ll meet the true death for sure.

I have to capture the one damned in my place before the Order manages to liberate him from perdition. If they free him, I will die. I have to go to bloody hell.

Review: Whetstones of the Will

Dunewell, seeking the path that embodies both his oaths and his conscience, is pursued by honest and just men across the wilds of Stratvs. Moving as both predator and prey, he and Jonas track the legendary vampire Lord Slythorne. Will their uneasy alliance hold long enough to destroy the monster before it’s too late?

Slythorne has enthralled many, honest and devious alike. Can Dunewell evade his pursuers without spilling innocent blood? Wearing the mark of an outlaw, what other allies will the Lord of Order be forced to trust?

Silas, meanwhile, secures his position by way of treaties and pacts under the astute tutelage of the drow and his mistress, Lady Dru. Now understanding the threat Slythorne poses, will Silas manipulate Dunewell, wielding his brother’s devotion as a shield against this master vampire? Can there be reconciliation between Dunewell and Silas, or will their pride doom their fate and perhaps the fate of the world?

The Original Betrayer, the Warlock of the Marshes, walks the shores of Tarborat. What could bring the terrible and mighty Lynneare forth from his cursed fortress? The Warlord Verkial must betray someone, but who?

Join us for another tale of high adventure in the world of Stratvs, as the Bloodlines Reforged Saga continues in Whetstones of the Will.

Review: A City in Blue

Danger, action, and magic come together to bring an epic conclusion to the Forgemaster cycle.

The unthinkable has happened. Everything that William Reis had worked so hard for, undone by one of his closest friends. Amder was gone, Duncan was gone, and even Regin was gone. Thrust into a strange city where magic and machinery come together in wonders undreamed of, Will soon finds himself once again doing the one thing he hates: being important.

Myriam is torn. She made a choice, and now finds her life in tatters because of it. Regin is dead, and William hates her. Betrayed, she ends up in the hands of those of a less than savory reputation, and must join them or die.

But evil lives in this city, an evil that Will and Myriam know well. The evil of those in love with power, and what they will do to keep it. But out there, beyond the walls that everyone things can never fall, something else stirs. The Unnamed God is coming and will never stop until he gets what he wants: the utter destruction of the City in Blue.