The Beast of Blackmoor by Milla Vane

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After reading Radiance, I was fully into Fantasy Romance for FaRoFeb. I was debating to getting back into Milla Vane's A Gathering of Dragons series or continuing on with Grace Draven. Since it was Saturday, I figured I'd go with Milla Vane so I would have more time to devote to it in one sitting. Things didn't go as planned, but I'll talk about that more in my review of A Touch of Stone and Snow. Before jumping into book 2, I decided to read the novella as a primer to get me back into the world. The Beast of Blackmoor was originally published in the anthology Night Shift, which I already had! It's also sold separately now as an ebook (with the matching cover to the series above). Can I just say though, Milla Vane, if you're reading this, please release a physical copy of this book! I would love to have the paperback copy of this cover to put with the others!

This novella focuses on The Beast of Blackmoor, Kavik and Mala. Despite being a novella, I didn't feel like anything was rushed or cut short. It was masterfully written and paced. While I would love for it to be longer, that's just because I love this world that Milla Vane's created. Mala is such a strong female and strong in the physical sense. In the first book, Yvenne is strong, but more in a mental and willpower way, so this change in our Heroine was a nice surprise. She is tasked by the goddess Vela to tame the beast of Blackmoor. What she doesn't know until after meeting Kavik, is that he is the beast. Kavik has been dreaming of Mala and knew that she was his one and only, but to find her finally coming for him and as the "woman in red" from his prophesized "end" just throws him for a loop. I loved the way that he kept trying to push her away, but at the same time he wanted to never let her go. Plus we got the fun battles and fight scenes that are so beautifully written and add more to the world. I also didn't catch on until closer to the end that Kavik was the rightful king. I do have to put a warning out there, these books are dark and gorey. I feel like in the past these wouldn't have been quite as well received by romance readers as a whole, but with Game of Thrones getting so mainstream people are a little more desensitized to this kind of violence. Me personally, I love that she goes there, but doesn't do it in a way that feels overly harmful or too much (red wedding anyone?).

I loved this novella and it was the perfect way to get back into Milla Vane's series. I immediately jumped into A Touch of Stone and Snow and can't wait for the third book A Dance of Smoke and Steel to come out later this year! I may have had it on preorder as soon as it was available to do so.

Have you read The Beast of Blackmoor?

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Beast of Blackmoor, Milla Vane, 5-stars, 0 days, paperback, 162 pages, Published 2014

Lunar New Year Readathon

Wrap Up is posted!

 Happy Lunar New Year!

I don't personally celebrate Lunar New Year but have participated in celebrations in the past, both in college and when I was studying abroad in Japan. To celebrate diversity in Romancelandia, LaceyBookLovers and remarkablylisa are hosting the short readathon. It runs from February 12th through February 14th. Since it's shorter, they have shared the prompts below instead of a bingo board.

This fits in perfectly with my current reading plans, so I'm super excited to get some more Asian diversity in my reading! For the Seasonally Booked Up - Winter of the Wallflower club (hosted by Kelly and Dana), this week's book is Courtney Milan's The Duchess War. I'll be starting this on Friday (instead of earlier) since Courtney is Asian! I've been really wanting to get into her books and this is doubly the perfect chance! 

To stick with my FaRoFeb reading (before I sink back into historical romance at the end of the month for my other clubs), I've gone through some of my fantasy romances and specifically curated a list for my weekend reads. I have a pretty big list of options (maybe too many), but since I'm a mood reader I'd figure I'd get a bigger list than waste time trying to figure out what to read next. 

I'll just give a few of the items from my list that I'm thinking of reading!
📚 Joan Swan's Phoenix Rising series
📚 Allyson James - Black Dragon (Book 2 from Dragon series)
📚 Ruby Dixon - Barbarian's Rescue (Book 14 from Ice Planet Barbarians)
📚 Michelle M Pillow - Zhang Dynasty (Part of the Qurilixen World)
📚 Alexandra Ivy's Dragons of Eternity Series
📚 Marjorie M Liu's Dirk & Steele Series
📚 Jade Lee's Romantic Fantasies Series
📚 Meljean Brook - The Iron Duke (Book 1 from The Iron Seas)

Hopefully that also gives you some great options if you're joining in the readathon and/or FaRoFeb! Also, I'd like to get to the holiday novellas by Jackie Lau (one of my favorite authors). She has one each for Lunar New Year AND Valentine's Day (books 3 and 4 of her Holidays with the Wongs series).

Are you participating in the Lunar New Year Readathon? If so, use #lnyreadathon on all the socials!

Bookishly Yours, 

Stasi🍎

Radiance by Grace Draven

 

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My third book for FaRoFeb was Radiance by Grace Draven! This is the first book in her Wraith Kings series. I have heard great things about Grace, specifically this and her Master of Crows series. I was very excited to try her for the first time and absolutely adore the cover.

I LOVED this book. 5-billion stars. This is kind of a friends to lovers trope despite Brishen and Ildiko being married in the first chapter. There are so many things that made this book for me. I guess I'll just start going down the list. Brishen is such a great hero. He's part cinnamon roll and part bad-ass. I love it when characters are strong AND nice. I also loved that even though they thought each other's race was hideous, he was constantly kissing her palm and knuckles and always found ways to touch Ildiko in little ways. Being that's a love language of mine, I was all in. It also helped build the tension between the two in a subtle way. 

I loved how Ildiko stood up to Brishen's mother and father and didn't falter despite how terrified she was on the inside. She saw Brishen as himself and I loved how attracted to his personality she was from the get go. The world building was also done subtlety and didn't feel at all like an info dump. It's always helpful when one of the main characters is learning this new world/magic system/etc along with the reader. It just feels so much more natural. I also loved the way their relationship moved from being friends to a couple in love and lovers in all sense of the word. When Brishen was kidnapped and tortured at the end, I love that Ildiko still stayed strong and was there for him despite the injuries he suffered. I'm so excited to get to book two after the craziness in the epilogue. I was surprised to see that we still have Brishen and Ildiko as the main couple in Eidolon, but it looks like we'll change couples from there.

Have you read Radiance?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Radiance, Grave Draven, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 297 pages, Published 2015

Fae King by Milly Taiden

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With some time to spare before I needed to start some book club books, I jumped whole-heartedly into FaRoFeb! The first full fantasy romance I read was Fae King by Milly Taiden. This is the first in her Crystal Kingdom series.

I have read Milly Taiden before and enjoyed her writing. This felt like a shorter read (despite still being over 300 pages). I'm torn on this book. I like it, but there were times that our heroine Kaia frustrated me. Sometimes she spoke too much in colloquialisms and modern metaphors. I feel like we do speak differently and there are a lot of things that people speaking "English" in other dimensions wouldn't understand or take differently, however sometimes it seemed too much. For example, she was complaining about the horse she was riding and how it wasn't a car. When asked what a car was, she just waved Jerrek off and changed the conversation. Why complain to him about it not being a car if you aren't going to explain what it is? I don't know. And there were mentions that she read shifter romances so she could help Jerrek with his "curse." 

I though Jerrek was fine as a fae/shifter hero. I think I just wanted more from all aspects of the book. Everything felt unfinished. I know that this is a series, but being that we're jumping to a new couple, I wanted more development between Jerrek and Kaia. Sometimes it felt like a slow burn and other times like fated mates. I wish that one trope was just followed through on. The same with the world building. It started in depth, but then just stopped. If this was longer and all the concepts focused and explored I feel like this would've been a lot better. I will probably pick up the next 2 just to finish the original three, but it's not at the top of my list.

Have you read Fae King?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Fae King, Milly Taiden, 3-stars, 1 day, eBook, 314 pages, Published 2019

His Mistress by Morning by Elizabeth Boyle

 

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Elizabeth Boyle's His Mistress by Morning is the first book in her Marlowe series. This is the 5th book in the Winter of the Wallflower read-a-long hosted by Kelly and Dana for their Seasonally Booked Up club. 

Oh this book. I struggled through most of this book. The blurb grabbed me and I waited until after February 1st to start this since it had fantasy elements (and I can use it for FaRoFeb). The basis of this book is that Charlotte is a painfully shy spinster in love with her best friend's older brother Sebastian. He doesn't even notice when she's in the room a lot and can't quite seem to remember her name. She gets a ring as inheritance from her aunt, and surprise! it grants one wish. She wishes to be the woman that Sebastian loves. 

At 41% I really wanted to DNF this book, but I pushed myself to continue (granted I started skimming and speed reading) both because it's for the club, and I loved the first little portion before the wish. I did not like anything about the "alternate reality" and had a lot of issues of how things were going to reconcile when she came back to "reality." First off, at 41% I was ready for the wish to be over and get back to normal to see how Charlotte would deal with everything she learned. Instead, we didn't get back to the normal timeline until about the 70% mark. The alternate reality portion lasted way too long for my taste. I wish that more time was spent on them becoming a couple in the real world. 

So, in this alternate reality Charlotte is not a spinster lower noblewoman, but a courtesan/mistress. When she wakes up in this new reality, she has no memories of what this other "Lottie" has gone through and experienced. I did not like this choice at all by the author. I feel like Charlotte should've had more access to her memories and that she didn't wake up the arms of Sebastian. She went from being a sheltered spinster to waking up in the arms of a man (after clearly having a very lascivious night). I also didn't like that (and I know this was not the intention and not meant at all to come across this way) she basically became a different person to get the person she loved to love her back. I understand that the point was for Charlotte to find herself and become more confident, but it felt too drastic a change. I also feel like it also felt more out of character for her when she ended the wish and starting coming on strong to Sebastian. 

Why the 3-stars instead of the two I was expecting throughout most of this book? Basically it comes down to the parts outside of the alternate reality and Elizabeth Boyle's writing. She writes really well and I enjoyed her prose. I really, really wanted there to be more of the "he finally sees her" feeling without Charlotte having to act completely wanton and out of character. As I said before, it felt like too much of a drastic change. I think if she had more internal insecurities that we the reader saw, it would've felt more natural and not as "she's magically cured of her shyness." What I wanted out of this book, especially going with the wallflower trope, was not what I got. Now I want to (re)read a historical that give me an HEA and a journey I ca

 I most likely will not read the second book in the series, and might pick up some of her other series. I think before I do though I'll check out some reviews before.

Have you read His Mistress by Morning?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: His Mistress by Morning, Elizabeth Boyle, 3-stars, 2 days, eBook, 384 pages, Published 2006