Showing posts with label Triggers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Triggers. Show all posts

Friday, July 19, 2019

Random Review: Death's Angel by Michael Mandrake #Review #Giveaway





Title: Death's Angel
Author: Michael Mandrake
Publisher: Triad Literary 
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Publication Date: July 5, 2019
Length: 159 pages

Reviewed by Truus

Synopsis

Death’s plan for revenge is derailed by his lust for one of the Creator’s angels.

Being second to Michael has never sat well with Allerio. Feeling slighted, he travels beyond the heavens, meeting a creature who informs him of his Father’s secrets. With curiosities niggling him, he challenges his god, seeking freedom from stringent rules. Though the prize might look wonderful on the surface, it comes with a heavy price the angel will bear for eternity.

Death’s banishment was only the beginning of his descent. Since then, he’s concocted a scheme to overthrow the highest being, proving him to be a liar. Although confident his plot will succeed, he convinces one of High’s top helpers to assist him. However, Death never intended for feelings of affection to consume him. Suddenly wrecking God’s perfection isn’t as important anymore.

Two gods join forces and become bonded in more ways than one. Can they overcome their emotions to achieve their ultimate goal?

Death’s Angel is the prequel story to Immortals, chronicling the very beginning of Lucifer’s ascent as the god of the third and fourth planes. This story involves male pregnancy and mating.

Warning: On page violence, extreme torture, and death. Look inside for further triggers.






Review


Maybe take note of the warnings, this isn’t a story for the faint of heart!
Personally, I love dark, ravaging stories. The darker the better. This one didn’t disappoint!!

Allerio is a beautiful Angel with high self-esteem. He is convinced about the fact he is the equivalent to High.
High is the creator of goodness, light, and nature. Allerio knows there is more behind the horizon, and hates that High keeps it secret.

After Allerio meets Death, who tells him he should be his own God with worshipers and all the secrets should be revealed, Allerio openly revolts against High. High throws him out of his heaven.

Death and Allerio will create an army of followers, to stand up against High.
It looks like Death is the ideal ruler and both of them together means intimate dark power.
Allerio’s mate Caprios who followed him into the dark side, wants his mate to be the god of the underworld and not one with a shared title with Death.
Allerio has one longing, a family, a child of his own. Caprios refuses to give him this.
When Death feels the hurt of Allerio, his black ‘heart’ does strange things.
With Caprios mocking Death, Allerio is conflicted.

This story is told from Death and Allerio’s point of view. Through their eyes, we meet the dark side. We see how they feed, how they can destroy and have great power. Death can materialize into something tangible and that is stunning!
The contrast of High and Death is visual and palpable from every angle.
The line between good and evil is thin.

A fabulously written fantasy, with the most extraordinary creatures. The way everything was described gave an excellent view of every aspect. I loved the vulnerability of both dark and light characters.
Death’s Angel was one of a kind. Together they were almost invincible. The sexuality was extreme, reaching both the dark hardcore and sweet endearing levels. It had a strong sharpness and passion, very enjoyable to watch!
The many opposites were tremendously written, we meet the creative and destructive side of the powerful creatures. We meet the intriguing, the manipulator, the pacificator, hate and love, chaos and order, the dark and blue skies.
A reassurance:  you can find love and compassion on both sides.
This was quite a challenge for me. To read and try to get rid of all biased ideas and knowledge.




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Monday, April 22, 2019

Review Tour: Devil Next Door by Alex Jane #Review #Giveaway



Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Universal Link - Exclusive to Amazon and Available to Borrow with Kindle Unlimited

Length: 40,000 words approx.

Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Blurb

All Remy Harker wants is a fresh start.

Well, maybe that’s what he tells himself as he rolls up to his nice new house, in the nice little neighborhood, in a town where nobody knows his name.
He’s surrounded by friendly neighbors and a white picket fence. The ugly pink carpet might drive him to insanity, and he can’t stop wondering where the old lady who lived there before him died—but it’s nice.
And if he puts his mind to it, he can be anything—or anyone—he wants to be. He can be nice too.
At least, he thinks he can until he lays eyes on his next-door neighbor.

Luke Boucher is nice.
And quiet.
And perfect.

It doesn’t take long for Remy to insinuate himself into Luke’s life. A camera here, a break-in there.
– It’s not really stalking if you love someone, is it? –

But when Remy’s plan to make a good impression goes to hell, he ends up over his head in more ways than one. Then things aren’t quite so nice anymore.
– It’s not really murder if you love someone, is it? –

Loving your neighbor isn’t so easy when you’re the devil next door.

*****

This book is part of CRIMINAL DELIGHTS. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark M/M romance.

Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.

Trigger warnings/enticements - http://alexjane.info/love-but-darker/
Criminal Delights Collection info - http://criminaldelights.com/

Review

*Warning this is a dark romance* Alex Jane's Devil Next Door, is phenomenal, it has just enough wicked twists and tantalizing horrors with the right amount of sexual heat that borderlines between steamy hot and justifiably wrong!

As a big fan of the Investigation Discover Channel, I was super excited when the story started off with the surrendering of a serial killer. However, that is just the beginning of this creepy but intriguing story. I loved how the main character was written, not much is known about him, his identity is forever changing! His new identity is Remy and he is moving to Pittsburgh into a house that he bought from a family that recently lost a loved one. Remy's character is extremely calculated, a person that is able to go unseen and his stalker abilities are highly impressive and at the same time actually had the hair on my arms stand up. At first it appeared to me the reason he was moving was to try to leave his old life and live a life as a normal man; that is until he sees his next door neighbor Luke. 

That’s when the true form of Remy’s stalker tendencies comes out! 

But nothing could have prepared me for what truly was to come.

This was one twisted and dark read and absolutely everything I hoped it would be. Just be prepared that there is no “fairy tale happy ending", but there is a beautiful twisted ending.







After spending far too long creating stories in her head, Alex finally plucked up the courage to write them down and realized it was quite fun seeing them on the page after all.

Free from aspirations of literary greatness, Alex simply hopes to entertain by spinning a good yarn of love and life, wrapped up with a happy ending. Although, if her characters have to go through Hell to get there, she’s a-okay with that.

With only a dysfunctional taste in music and a one-eyed dog to otherwise fill her days, Alex writes and walks on the South Coast of England—even when her heart and spellcheck are in New York.

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Friday, April 19, 2019

Review Tour: Wrong Way Home by K.A. Merikan #Review #Giveaway



Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Universal Link - Exclusive to Amazon and Available to Borrow with Kindle Unlimited

Length: 70,000 words approx.

Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Blurb

— ONE WRONG TURN. ONE RIGHT MAN. —

Colin. Rule-follower. Future doctor. Witness to murder. Captive.
Taron. Survivalist. Mute. Murderer. Captor.

Like every other weekend, Colin is on his way home from university, but he’s taunted by the notion that he never takes risks in life and always follows the beaten path. On impulse, he decides to take a different route. Just this one time. What he doesn’t realize is that it’s the last time he has a choice.
He ends up taking a detour into the darkest pit of horror, abducted by a silent, imposing man with a blood-stained axe. But what seems like his worst nightmare might just prove to be a path to the kind of freedom Colin never knew existed.

Taron has lived alone for years. His land, his rules. He’d given up on company long ago. After all, attachment is a liability. He deals with his problems on his own, but the night he needs to dispose of an enemy, he ends up with a witness to his crime.

The last thing Taron needs is a nuisance of a captive. Colin doesn’t deserve death for setting foot on Taron’s land, but keeping him isn’t optimal either. It’s only when he finds out the city boy is gay that an altogether different option arises. One that isn’t right, yet tempts him every time Colin’s pretty eyes glare at him from the cage.

Review

First a word to those who may need it—heed every possible trigger warning these authors put at the end of their written blurb—this novel does NOT fool around. Having said that Wrong Way Home is so incredibly well written that this story grabbed me by the throat and never let up. I read it in one sitting and considering I am not always a fan of reading about some of the acts done to Colin by Taron that says a whole lot about how compelling a novel this is. K. A. Merikan does not mince words but neither do they create violent and morally ambiguous stories merely to titillate or spark a reaction. Wrong Way Home was in many ways a love story--just one that took a rather twisted and circuitous route to get there.



The set up for Colin and Taron to move beyond captor and prisoner to something more was carefully hinted at from the very beginning. One gets a real sense that Colin is very unhappy with his life and not much of a people person. From there it is a bit horrifying how Taron justifies essentially kidnapping and imprisoning Colin—yes there is a locked cage—by sloughing off any sense of guilt or wrong doing in the name of end times preparedness. Taron is a survivalist—one that doesn’t like people and only interacts with them when he needs supplies or to scratch the proverbial itch. Being mute means he can often also fool others into believing he is deaf which gets Taron out of many situations where authority or strangers might question him too closely. Essentially he just wants to be left alone as he prepares for the great epidemic or catastrophe that will see the government collapse and lawlessness ensue.



Colin is trapped in a life he never really wanted with parents who continually remind him of how he never quite measures up to their standard. On the cusp of graduating and applying for med school, Colin just wants to break free—do something, anything that is outside the confines of the rigid norm that his life has become. When he takes a different route home he never ever suspects his life is about to be forfeit to a murderer who thinks nothing of locking him in a cage and using him for sex.



Two opposites come together just to discover how very alike they really are. Does their final living situation at novel’s end smack of Stockholm Syndrome where the captive comes to need and have feelings for the captor? Yes, in a certain way one could see that but I think the authors laid sufficient groundwork to actually make the case that Colin needed a radical event to free him from a life he hated and Taron provides the catalyst for him to do just that.



Wrong Way Home is not going to be a novel that appeals to everyone but there is no denying that it is very well written, fascinating to read and challenges everything one might think of when it comes to the ideas of romance. I enjoyed this novel and how it made me squirm just a bit. It certainly will prompt me to check out their other work in the future.


*

“When Taron looped the heavy metal collar around the slender neck and closed the padlock, his body throbbed with the excitement of knowing he owned this boy.
Was it wrong? Yes, yes it was.
Was it so, so good? Definitely.”


Themes: prepping, alternative lifestyles, disability, crime, loneliness, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, fish out of water, opposites attract, abduction, Stockholm syndrome, family issues
Genre: Dark, thriller M/M romance
Heat level: Scorching hot, emotional, explicit scenes

This book is part of CRIMINAL DELIGHTS. Each novel can be read as a standalone and contains a dark M/M romance.
Warning: These books are for adult readers who enjoy stories where lines between right and wrong get blurry. High heat, twisted and tantalizing, these are not for the fainthearted.




K.A. Merikan are a team of writers who try not to suck at adulting, with some success. Always eager to explore the murky waters of the weird and wonderful, K.A. Merikan don’t follow fixed formulas and want each of their books to be a surprise for those who choose to hop on for the ride.

K.A. Merikan have a few sweeter M/M romances as well, but they specialize in the dark, dirty, and dangerous side of M/M, full of bikers, bad boys, mafiosi, and scorching hot romance.

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