Miranda Stork

Here I was thinking I was hooked on Miranda Stork's Scarlet Rain series. I still am but I am even more hooked on her Grim Alliance Series! I was literally hooked from the first paragraph. I was fascinated from the beginning in Ryder and his life choices. When he dies and is given the choice to either be reborn into a hard life that is a consequence for his life of sin or become a Grim Reaper for one hundred years as repayment I literally could not put the book down. Well, I did but only after reading 15 minutes per night (I am exhausted by 4 young children) and falling asleep with the book open. It is a new slant on the idea of Grim Reapers and Ryder's GR sidekicks were hilarious. I know I like a book when I want to know more about the characters and I care about them. Reaper's Deliverance succeeded in making me crave the next book in the series. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a bit of paranormal romance, mythology and fun reading.… (lisätietoja)

I know of Stork's work. She has her novel Conner out, but I haven't gotten to read it yet. Same thing with a paranormal erotica collection Craving. I figured the best place to start with a small amount of reading time was with this one. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the second in the series.

I was intrigued by the setting of this story. It takes place in the southern United States....deep south. It's a small town that's closed off enough from the surrounding areas to allow its history of being a Wiccan community to thrive. This was very cool. It felt like something that could actually happen in the real world (if you leave out the debate of whether or not magic and all that is real). Basically, you really never know what goes on in small communities. Everyone knows everyone so it's easy to keep a secret like this from the outside world. Because this is a novella, there wasn't a wide cast of characters. I hope that in later installments Stork will give us more glances into what the town has to offer. Small towns always have interesting people in them.

What I was also drawn to was the language. It's not really something to always mention, but I feel I need to. Miranda Stork is from the UK and she's writing a story that takes place in the US. Not really a big deal, but I found entertaining to read words that aren't used in America describe various things in the story. This also helped reflect that the main character Catherine is a native of England. The combination of a UK character living and author writing in the United States just jumped out at me. It had a very American feel to it, so it was strangely good.

Another thing to note is the character of Mr. Caden Rouquette. He's pretty much a cowboy ____....wait I can't tell you what that blank should say. You'll just have to read about it. But I really thought it was cool to have a character like that. He was a mystery like most men in the books I've been reading. And while I'm not into them myself, I can see qualities that women will probably swoon over for awhile.

The driving plot of this story, the mystery of who's out to harm Catherine and her mother, and what they want to do that for had me wondering the whole time. I was questioning my judgement of characters left and right. At the reveal I was left with more questions; left wanting more...the second novella in the series. If this was the peril already, what will happen next? I guess I'm going to have to grab Playing With Fire when it comes out.… (lisätietoja)

This is the second of MANY novellas that will be compiling The Bassinville Witches Series from Miranda Stork. It takes off right where With You In Spirit left off. I can’t tell you where that is though. You’ll need to read the first installment in order to find out.

Everything that I enjoyed from the first novella shines through again in this one. The characters are great, the pace moves right along making it hard to put the book down (my iTouch dying is the only reason I really stopped at times), and there are ever a few more characters to fall in love with.

Since it’s mentioned in the blurb, I’ll tell you that I can’t wait to see more of the fury, Pelephone. She’s a very intense no-nonsense character who immense power. Another new character Sebastian, while not being on my good side, was a great addition as well. He’s an arrogant prick really, but it works for him. I also see a lot of Barney Stinson in him…that’s always a plus.

Oh, for those wondering, there is more steamy action between the sheets…well kind of. I won’t ruin that by telling you any more. Just know that you’ll probably enjoy it if you’re into that stuff

If I were going to give a rating to various sections of this novella, I’d give the ending scene 15 out of 5 stars. Does that sound like an exaggeration? Well, it’s not. It’s an intense scene and then to put it bluntly, it bluntly ends. I wanted to yell at the author for making me want to read the next installment right away SO BADLY. I actually did “yell” at her on Facebook as soon as I read the last line. It was brilliant. I’ve read some cliffhangers in the past but this one is by far the most painful to sit through. I know August isn’t that far away for the next one, but I WANT IT NOOOOWWWWWW!!!!… (lisätietoja)