Random Review: Leopard's Spots Part One: Box Set by Bailey Bradford #Review #Giveaway

Title: Leopard's Spot Part One 
Author: Bailey Bradford 
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Publication date: March 17, 2020
Length: 578 pages

Reviewed by Nikki

Synopsis

Leopard’s Spots: Part One - a box set
1 – Levi A run through the woods turned anything but typical when Levi found the one thing he never expected to find-his mate.
2 – Oscar One sexy wolf is determined to show a grouchy kitty just how perfect they are for each other.
3 – Timothy Tim Trujillo is about to learn a whole lot more than a few facts about his heritage as a snow leopard shifter.
4 – Isaiah Snow leopard shifter Isaiah Trujillo isn't a doctor like his brother Tim, but he's a good guy and when he meets Bae Allen Warren, he knows he's found the one man to make his life complete.
Snow leopards in Holton, Colorado-who'd have thought it? Yet on the large, sprawling acreage nestled between mountains, a family of snow leopard shifters not only lives but thrives. With little to no information about their past, how they came to be or what they are capable of, these shifters struggle to understand who and what they are.
Held together by the tough and loving matriarch, Grandma Marybeth, Levi and his siblings, along with their cousins, must find their way in the world.
Forgotten truths and familial ties are discovered as the snow leopard men find their mates.

Buy Links

Pride Publishing 

Amazon

Review

Shifter romances with fated mates is totally my kryptonite. I love ‘em and Bailey Bradford does a fantastic job of dishing out the goods.

Part One of this series contains books one through four: Levi, Oscar, Timothy, and Isaiah. They’re all part of the same family of leopard shifters, and each book builds on the knowledge the family learns about themselves and other shifters. It’s a very clever way to world build—the characters don’t know that much so as they learn, the reader learns.

Each couple has the emotional intensity that comes with fated mates, but Bradford also pairs it with nice building of the relationships as well. It isn’t just instalove—BAM! —story over. There’s actual focus on the romantic elements and their development.

Each of the stories could stand on its own, but they really build on each other so it’s best to read them in order.

Levi and Lyndon’s relationship really sets the bar with how intense their connection is as they deal with the trouble following Lyndon’s every step. Timothy and Otto’s book does a great job of setting an ominous tone and forcing the two of them to fight some outside forces. And Isaiah and Bae have great character growth.

But Oscar and Josiah were my favorites. I loved that Oscar was a bit of a grouch and had this chip on his shoulder—plus, he doesn’t immediately jump on board the whole mate thing. Josiah is his perfect match though.

This box set doesn’t appear to have any additional or bonus content.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this series and I’m looking forward to Part Two. If you’re a fan of fated mates and shifters with some evil forces thrown in, then I definitely recommend these books.

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Random Review: Anhaga by Lisa Henry #Review #Giveaway

Title: Anhaga
Author: Lisa Henry
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Tiferet Design
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
Length: 220 pages

Reviewed by Sammy

Synopsis

Aramin Decourcey—Min to his few friends—might be the best thief in Amberwich, and he might have a secret that helps him survive the cutthroat world of aristocratic families and their powerful magic users, but he does have one weakness: his affection for his adopted nephew, Harry.

When the formidable Sabadine family curses Harry, Min must accept a suicide mission to save his life: retrieve Kazimir Stone, a low-level Sabadine hedgewitch who refuses to come home after completing his apprenticeship… and who is in Anhaga, a seaside village under the control of the terrifying Hidden Lord of the fae. If that wasn’t enough, Kaz is far from the simple hedgewitch he seems.

With the Sabadines on one side and the fae on the other, Min doesn’t have time to deal with a crisis of conscience—or the growing attraction between him and Kaz. He needs to get Kaz back to Amberwich and get Harry’s curse lifted before it kills him. Saving Harry means handing Kaz over to his ruthless family. Saving Kaz means letting Harry die. Min might pride himself on his cleverness, but he can’t see his way out of this one.

The Hidden Lord might see that he never gets the choice.

Purchase Links

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Review

Aramin Decourcey (Min) may be many things but a gentleman he is definitely not. He is a thief, the son of a whore and, unbeknownst to any, a bit tenderhearted, but he ides it all under a sarcastic wit and a  slightly fatalistic attitude. So when the boy he rescued many years before, Harry,  gets caught with the daughter of a wealthy man, Edward Sabadine, Min must rescue him. Unfortunately Harry has already been cursed by Sabadine’s sorcerer and the price for lifting the deadly curse is the retrieval of his grandson, Kazamir. It will not an easy task as there is a deadline they must beat in order to keep Harry from dying of the curse but one that Min takes on willingly—until he hears where the boy is kept—Anhaga. A cursed land, supposedly in the thrall of the Hidden Lord who is the King of the bloodthirsty Fae, Min must travel there to retrieve Kazamir and return him to his rightful home.

Kazamir had been sent there as a young boy to apprentice under a hedgewitch and become the same. This type of witch was known for helping the farmer have abundant crops and for their healing ways. Kaz should have been brought home after a few years but it seems the witch who was teaching him refused to allow him to go. But not all is as it seems for Kaz is not some simple hedgewitch nor are the intentions of his grandfather at all good. There is a dark secret Min is about to discover and attempting to figure out who he can trust while trying to save Harry’s life is just the beginning of his worries.

Please forgive my incredibly simplistic rehash of the brilliant novel Anhaga by Lisa Henry. Set in an incredibly imaginative world of the author’s making, the amazing setting, cast of characters and thrilling storyline combine to give the fantasy/paranormal world an amazing new addition to its library. I loved this novel—finished it in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. My heart bled for poor Kaz—wanted by no one, hunted by many and trapped in a life that he didn’t even realize was no life at all until Min burst into it and set it upside down.

While Kaz tried to accept his fate—one that would probably leave him chained in iron to subdue his powers and married to an uncle he had never met and who despised him, the young man just wanted to be left in the humble home he had virtually been raised in. But while Min tried not to feel bad that he would be consigning this naïve man to a certain torturous existence, he also knew that he must save Harry—that must be his priority—even though Kaz did something to his heart that no one had ever managed to do before. Kaz made Min care—dare I say—love.

Anhaga is a fantastic story—I just don’t have enough superlatives to really describe how much I was affected by this romance/adventure/fantasy novel. With fae, sorcerers, witches and more, the amazing world Lisa Henry creates is absolutely enthralling. There is nonstop action, humor, a tiny bit of very satisfying romance and an ending that will have you holding your breath until it’s all over. Anhaga deserves all the stars and I highly recommend it to you

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Random Review: Mixed Signals by Cooper West #Review #Giveaway

Author: Cooper West
Title: Mixed Signals 2nd edition
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Tiferet Design
Publication date: February 26, 2019
Length: 234 pages 

Reviewed by Sammy

Synopsis

Devastatingly handsome pilot Frank Sheldon is doing his best to avoid his inheritance of money, charm, and good looks by rebuilding his life on his own terms after being discharged from the Air Force just before the repeal of DADT. When he unexpectedly meets the eccentric geek Benjamin Kaplan, sparks don’t quite fly, despite Benjamin’s obvious interest. Frank is not one to back down from a challenge, but what does any of that have to do with his sister’s campaign for governor, or the muckraking political website attacking her opponent, who just happens to be Frank’s unlamented, very closeted, ex-boyfriend? It’s hard to fall in love when all you are getting is mixed signals.

Buy Links

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

Review

It seems cliché and yet the idea of a rich boy having everything but the courage to face his life and make decisions rather than allowing others to plot his course becomes very real in Cooper West’s ’s newest release, Mixed Signals. Frank has always wanted to fly—it and the air force have been his passion since he was a young boy but when that is taken away after being discovered with another man in the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) he watches his dream float away. Now he flies a chopper for medical emergencies and lives a life that, while not the one he wanted, keeps him feeling useful and in the air. Then he meets a gruff, grumpy man at the hair salon and his world turns upside down. For the first time his model good looks don’t seem to have any effect on the man who has captured his interest. Little does he know that Dr. Benjamin Kaplan has a few secrets in his closet that will ultimately spell near disaster for Frank’s sister and her hopes for the governor’s seat she is campaigning for and has roped Frank into supporting.

I have to admit that the trope featuring the poor rich boy is usually one that rarely breaks any new ground for me and that rarely captures my interest completely. Having said that, I am now going to eat my words when it comes to Frank and his world that is so nicely created by author Cooper West. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Benjamin didn’t fall for Frank immediately and held his own with his acerbic wit and curmudgeonly ways. Or maybe it was the healthy dislike I felt for the way in which both his sister and his father treated Frank like a pawn in their political and monetary endeavors while wrapping it up in the guise of love. Either way all I know is that Frank captured my interest and a little bit of my heart.

The sharp dialogue and repartee between Frank and Benjamin kept this novel from falling into just being a sappy romance and the way in which Benjamin retained his own intelligence and sense of self-preservation around the devastatingly rich and handsome Frank leant an air of believability to the novel that I really appreciated. But I think it was Frank’s refusal to feel sorry for himself while acknowledging that his wealth did indeed give him every physical thing he could want but not the most important thing that was missing from his life-someone to love and trust with is heart that hooked me in. Poor Frank had been emotionally burned and used terribly by a childhood first love and that painful encounter shaped much of his adult life. Escaping it often meant giving in to which ever person tried to control his life choices be it either his sister or his father. I really found myself hating how they manipulated him into things that ultimately were good for him but still meant he had to deal with doing things he’d rather not and confront past memories he’d rather see on his own terms—choices that he sometimes so desperately had been avoiding. Instead of that putting pressure on Frank, it gave him freedom and Benjamin became the one true constant in Frank’s life that didn’t want anything from him but rather just wanted to be with him. That made their love story all the richer and beautiful.

Cooper West’s Mixed Signals was a lovely romance that saw a tired old trope revitalized and an unusual pairing of two polar opposite men believably work out. I really enjoyed this novel and will check out the author’s other work in the future.

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