By My Choice by Christine Blackthorn

I was asked to review this book, but the following review contains my own opinions and thoughts.

Sometimes the path of life seems inevitable — what does it mean to choose?



Jennifer Ashton has spent her whole life in one Supernatural court or the other but the realities of what this means are only brought home to her when her best friend is forced to sell her to a vampire, and not any vampire, but one she knows well. Caught in the double betrayal of friendship and love she needs to decide what her life is going to be.

Jennifer is a financial manager, her control over every aspect of her own life complete. She does not allow anything to upset her rationality, no emotion, no sensation, no desire. The only weakness she has accepted is her unlimited loyalty to her best friend, the friend who betrays her by selling her to a competitor. She joins her new master in Paris where she begins to realise that he has as little choice as she does. Can she accept that by giving up everything, by giving him everything, they might both regain their lives?

Click to view on Amazon: By My Choice

When I was first asked to review this book, I made a little woops and didn't read the description before I opened the book, so by the cover I knew it must be a romance of some sort but that's about all I knew. So when vampires started popping up I was totally surprised. But I am glad I read the book.

I liked the book. I liked it a lot. I thought that the descriptions of the courts were interesting. At first I was really curious as to what was wrong with Jen, I thought she was going to be some kind of supernatural with a unique talent, I did not expect what she turned out to be. Adrian was a really interesting character. When the author brought up the picture of him and his sons it really made me want to read more. I also was really curious as to why Jen had to give up all of her belongings before going to Adrian's court. So there were a couple of missing pieces that weren't essential to the story, but that I was very curious about.

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was that at times it was a little rape-y. It made me a little uncomfortable at first, but then Adrian was like, I feel rape-y doing this, and that made it a bit better. That being said, I really liked the way that the scenes were written, it was really easy to picture what was written. I really wanted to see where the characters went, but then the book ended, maybe there is another one on the way.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. Give it a try!

The Prince's Angel by Shayne Carmichael and Mychael Black

         Sorry about not posting on Wednesday, but my brother kicked the router and unplugged it, and none of us noticed for two days that that was the reason our internet wasn't working. Silly Charlie, kicking the router like that. I was so panicked but we just figured out what caused it and so now I am back in service! This book was a quick read that I read one night when I was worried about a serial killer hiding under my bed (I spend more nights fearing this than I probably should).

         In present day London, vampires live side-by-side with mortals living under two sets of laws.

          The Romanorum make the vampire rules, helping the Princes who rule the cities. Not all vampires are thrilled with the system. A rash of rogue vampires--vampires who have killed mortals--has descended upon London, and it is up to London's vampire prince, Mael Black, to bring them under control. When he learns who is truly behind the rogues, however, Mael's task becomes more complicated than he would like. His only choice is to turn to a sorcerer of questionable reputation--Cian Carmichael.

         But Cian is more than he seems to be, and despite the dangers inherent in becoming involved with him, Mael finds he is unable to resist. Cian is an angel, sent to bring the rogue vampires under control. Acquiring a reputation as a vampire hunter, Cian becomes notorious in the city Mael rules. The last thing he expects is to fall in love with the prince of the London vampires himself.

Can these two deal with their growing attachment, and save London from the threat it faces?

Click to view on Amazon: The Prince's Angel

         I read this book late one night because I was terrified and needed something to stay awake so I didn't have to think about the possibility of someone waiting under my bed to kill me. It actually turned out to be a rather interesting book. I thought it was a really cool concept, though it was a little difficult for me to understand. It could have been because I was tired but I didn't understand the different tiers of vampires and how a First Formula vampire had more power... I thought Mael was very old, and pretty powerful and so since he was older than Selena I thought he could take her, and I was really frustrated that it didn't work that way because of what formula they were. And I didn't understand how the rogue vampires were spreading vampirism, was it with those formula things that were being sent in the mail, or was it through more traditional methods.

Spoilers Ahead!

         The relationship between Mael and Cian was interesting. It was very quick, which I liked, but it was a little inconsistent. They were so drawn to each other, to the point that they were secretly spying on each other, and they couldn't stay away from each other. then they get together and they are pretty exclusive, but then Cian catches the assassin with Mael and gets extremely jealous, but then at the end he tells Mael to go off with Seth if he needs to. WHAAAAT? I felt they were so attached to each other, and given how possessive they were, it totally blew my mind that Cian would consider letting Mael sleep with someone else.

         Then there was the fact that Cian was so worried about falling for Mael and so worried about drinking his blood, but nobody got mad at him. He didn't get into any trouble, and Michael even approved of the relationship, which made all the angst at the beginning seem a little unnecessary, but at the same time I liked it because part of me wanted Cian to be a fretful character... he seemed to waver on that point, going from fretful to very sure of himself and the events that were unfolding.

I liked the book, and it definitely distracted me. I would give it 3 Stars.

Thank you so much for reading!

Obsidian Souls by Donna Augustine

         I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Phew, For some reason writing that part always stresses me out, haha. I know I have been absent for a while and I am getting back into the swing of things and I couldn't pass on the opportunity to review Obsidian Souls. First off, I really like the name, it caught my attention right away, and I was so glad, because I was starting to get tired of my kindle library being filled with embarrassingly corny romance titles. Secondly, I haven't had much interaction with the Donna Augustine, just a short email conversation, but she seems really sweet, which just made me even more excited to read this book.

         When innocent botanist Alexandria is attacked on a cold winter night, she believes it is nothing more than bad luck. She never suspects that her attacker is not human, and that Caden, her white knight, would be more of the dark and brooding variety and as scary as the thug he’s saving her from.

         Now strange beings are stalking her every move and she does not know why. The cops are turning a blind eye, and she has nowhere left to turn but to Caden. He’s willing to help, but he is short on answers and his motivations are not the purest. If she does not find answers soon, her life as she knows it is over. But is she prepared for the truth she finds?

Click to view the book on Amazon: Obsidian Souls

         I was really excited to read this book, because I wanted to know what sort of paranormal being Alexandria would find herself up against. I probably should have guessed something demonic based of the cover, but that totally went over my head, haha.  And I really do love a brooding hero. On that note, I am going to go pretty in depth in this review so...

Go read the book (do it!) then come back and read the rest of this, or if you don't mind spoilers, carry on.

         Caden is hot, all broody and bossy. But he stuck so true to that I wanted to see more of him, I wanted something to really get under his skin. Alexandria, or Lex, got under my skin a couple of times. I am not saying that is a bad thing. I think it is a good thing because it shows that she isn't a perfect character. But sometimes I just wanted to smack the girl and tell her to swallow her pride.

         Now, I really like the idea of this story. And how the Demons can corrupt unborn children and create this new race called Drauths, but I started getting a bit confused about Lex. She was not a corrupted fetus, her biological father was a Demon, so she should have been some half breed thing, but then you find out that there is something more than that in her blood line. And Jack, her father who is also known as Lucifer, says there has never been a creature like her, that she is the first. But earlier in the book the leprechaun they met up with told them that he had met someone like her before. That whole string in the plot confused me a bit, but I want to know more so I hope it gets explained a little more in the next book (which comes out this year! yay, I won't have to wait too long, haha).

         Something else I really wanted to see more of was the romance between Caden and Lex. I could definitely see the chemistry and I could obviously see that Lex was attracted to him, but I wanted to see more of the romance forming. It kinda felt like they went from being attracted and barely able to tolerate each other to right away in love. I do understand that life and death situations can shock you into admitting things about yourself that you wouldn't other wise want to look at, but I just wanted to see more of it. I didn't see many personal conversations between them that didn't have to do with the battle they were fighting. And then Tamara was there and she totally pissed me off. Which was good, I always love a good rival. Though, I wish she had been more of a rival, while at the same time I was glad it was obvious she had no chance. I think a lot of my issues could have been cleared up if there were more chapters from Caden's point of view. I always wanted to know what he was thinking and I thought it was a little weird that in the beginning we could read from his side of the story but then we only read from Lex's as the story went on.

         Something else I was curious about was why Rufus was so worked up about hating Caden. I wanted to know why they all had been fighting for so long, what had caused it? Why did some of the Drauths become crazy violent killers and rapists like Carl, while others were honorable like Mike.

         I think that Donna (ah! I hope she is okay with me calling her that) did a really amazing job though with the details in this story. I think it took a lot of creativity to come up with a new spin on the paranormal and I definitely enjoyed the splashes of humor throughout the story. Especially the fact that God was an paranoid guy with OCD named Frank. I really enjoyed the book :) I hope that the next book in the series continues the love story between Lex and Caden (I kind of want her to have his demon babies) but I would be totally okay with reading about Mike too. I give this book a 3 out of 5 just because I wanted to many details that I felt weren't there. Maybe I am being impatient and jumping the gun, maybe it will all be explained in book 2. Good job Donna :)

Bleeding Hearts by Ash Krafton

        I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. (Is that what I'm supposed to say?)

         Sophie Galen is an advice columnist who is saving the world - one damned person at a time. Shy and sensitive Sophie has all but given up on love until she meets Marek, a mysterious stranger who seduces her with his striking good looks and his take-charge attitude. Yet the darkness she senses within him may be more than she is prepared to handle when Marek draws her into a world of vampires, werewolves, and treachery. Forced to leave behind the comfortable routines and certainties of her past, Sophie makes unbearable sacrifices and uncovers hidden truths about herself and the world around her.

Click to view the book on Amazon: Bleeding Hearts

         This book ended up being a lot different than I thought it would be. I read the synopsis and was like, hmm vampires, hmm dark side, cool. But I thought it would be just cool. I thought it would be just another vampire book in a long line of vampire books (not that I have anything against them, because I actually truly love vampire books.) But this book was nothing like that.

         First off, when Ash Krafton first described the vampire that Marek and Sophie saw on the roof I was totally grossed out, Ick. Usually vampires are sexy, right? Well here is the thing with Bleeding Hearts. It is the Demi Vamps that are sexy, because the full bloodlust Vampires are creepy monsters with teeth like Jaws (at least that is how I pictured them, especially when Sophie gets bitten).

         Something else that surprised me about this book was the emotional levels it made me reach, I kinda figured I would skim the surface of emotions in this book, but by the end I was crying. Like when Sophie went to see Marek after he attacked her. He basically told her that he was done with her, I cried. They had developed this beautiful relationship where they could depend on each others strengths, and it was ripped apart by some douche who smelled like rabbits and wore white leather pants... just to be clear I did say white leather pants (black leather = hot! take me now... white leather = where is the disco.) Now, I read some of the other reviews on this book and people were saying how it bothered them how quickly Sophie and Marek fell in love. I didn't have a problem with that at all, I fell in love with my boyfriend so quickly it left my head spinning. I actually thought it was cute how quickly it happened.

         That being said, when he told her what he was and she thought he had been stalking her like prey, my heart dropped. I was on a roller coaster. I am kind of a sucker for (temporary) unrequited love and for a second I thought this might be that, but it wasn't. And then throughout the whole book Marek never drinks from her, so I thought, who is he drinking from? All he would ever say about it was that he has "handled" it. Does that mean that he had been tempting other women to give him blood? I know that any woman he drank from wouldn't mean anything but, I don't know. It seems like that would be an intimate act. I know it is just Marek eating, but in order to get a woman to comply he would have to compel her somehow and the easiest way would be through desire, and that just made my skin crawl. And then when he drank from Sophie at the end and she said it was so painful, then I was thinking, is that because he is crazy with blood lust? Or because it just hurts a lot anyway? THEN! There was the part where Donna was always pale and sickly at work and for a while I was like, HELL NO. I was getting really pissed, because I thought that maybe Marek was using her as a blood donor.

         Something that bothered me about Sophie was her need to always be nice. We get to hear her thoughts, so we know that she can't stand certain things, but she was (almost) always nice. That drove me crazy, why couldn't she just tell people no? I understand that could be because she was the Sophia, but still. Speaking of Sophia, at the beginning Marek told her (in her head) that he wasn't going to let go of her now that he found her, and so that made me a little leery later in the book because I felt that he was only with her because she was the Sophia.

         I really did like this book though and Ash Krafton left off at a point where I really want to know more. Sophie was about to reach out to Marek even in the tiniest way, but they are still apart even though he follows and watches her. And she was thinking about moving, what would Marek do if she moved away??? So many things to look forward to! Because I am trying to start a rating system I would give this book a 4 out of 5 because I wanted them to stay together forever.

Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

         I loved Angel's Blood, and I super love this book. I'll just jump right in. So excited!

         Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan's power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena...

Click to view on Amazon: Archangel's Kiss

         First things first.... ELENA IS AN ANGEL! That made me so so so happy :) I always felt this sadness about Elena and Raphael falling in love because she would age and die and he would stay young and beautiful forever. But now they can be together forever. I thought it was so sweet that Raphael waited for her and then throughout the year that she slept he would constantly talk to her and check on her mind.

         There were two things that I really loved about this book: we get to see Elena and Raphael's relationship develop and we get some real insight into how angel society works.
Elena and Raphael really begin to trust each other in this book. Elena's nightmares about her past are becoming more frequent and more vivid and she turns to Raphael to help her and he begins to open up about his own child hood. You can really see the love start to bloom between them.

         Now that Elena has become the first angel made the recent memory things have been stirred up in Refuge. Michaela wants to kill her even more because Elena is now the center of attention (and she is wayyyy better than Michaela). There is an open spot for a new Archangel and someone thinks that by killing Elena they will get a free ticket onto the Cadre of 10. And (!) we get to meet little kid angels. So So So So cute. Sam is so cute and I was beyond pissed off that he was attacked. What kind of sick person pulverizes a child? (well, you will find out who in the book). And Lijuan is freaky, you find out all sorts of crazy (true) rumors about her and the dead. She also makes zombies.

         I think my favorite scene in the book is when they are in China and Raphael gives Elena her new knife and she gives him an amber ring. It is the best. You see him feel truly happy and how much he loves her and how he is slowly becoming conscious of how important it is to make other people happy. I also like the scene where Elena gives Sam the dagger that is made out of the dragon eye. It was so heart breaking when Sam got hurt, so to see him to happy about the dagger really got to me.

         I love that we get to meet the rest of the Seven in this book. My favorite is Aodhan, but I have always loved the damaged male characters, and I just picture his as so beyond beautiful in my head, and that moment when Elena asked him to kneel so she could use his sword. Gave me chills. We also meet Galen and Naasir who is a naughty boy and drinks blood from angels. I love this book :) and I am rushing so I can reread the next book in the series.

Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh

         I have always had a thing for angels. They are such interesting creature... kinda like centaurs, but I like angels better. They wing! I think that is so amazing, I am scared of heights but if I had wings I would fly everywhere. It would be so amazing and wonderful. And I have always pictured angels and powerful, cruel, inhuman begins... which actually just made me (In my imagination) want to find one and tame it.

         Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux is hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael. But this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.
         The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other—and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break.

Click to view on Amazon: Angels' Blood

          I don't know how well I can explain how much I like this book (I feel like I say that with every book). I really loved the idea of basically everything in this book.

         I love Elena, which is saying a lot because in books like this with a super strong heroine, I usually am a bit wary. I have nothing against strong female characters, I like them a lot, well I like the idea of them, but a lot of the time they are arrogant, and think they don't need any help from anyone. That drives me crazy. But that wasn't the case with Elena. She wasn't afraid to admit when she was out of her depth. She was willing to acknowledge that there was no way she could take Raphael on. She was brave, and strong, and she got her opinion out there without being annoying about it. I also loves the way she looked. Most of the time I kinda forget what the heroine (I mostly end up focused on the male lead) but Elena was so cool.

         Elena though has a lot of dark secrets buried in her past and that freaked me out. One of my biggest fear is serial killer (I know that it is totally irrational) but in this book a lot of the bad characters seem to be like serial killers. Elena and her family were the last victims of one of the best known vampire serial killers of their time and so when she is asked to help Raphael out and to look at the bodies she kinda starts falling into her worst memories.

         Raphael. Omg, so hot. But so scary. I have always had a thing for guys who are crazy powerful (not just magic powers, but powerful presence or strength works for me too) and Raphael has all those things. He is a bastard in the beginning and he really doesn't care too much about humans. But that is not really how he is. You can see how much he actually does care when he sees the victims of the crime and the longer he is around Elena the more he seems to care. That is what one of the other Archangels told him, that if he stays with Elena it will make him a little bit mortal. I really liked the idea of that. These angels have been alive so long that nothing seems new to them, nothing seems exciting or dangerous, and it would become easy to stop caring. But that is dangerous, because the people they rule over expect the angels to keep them safe, and all too often the humans and vampires get caught up in the pointless battles of the angels. But by becoming a little human, a little mortal, Raphael can see the cost of his every action, he can understand the pain that certain things would cause. Sure he can still be a cold hearted bastard, and he is at times, but even as he knows that that is a part of himself, so is this new human heart of his, and that makes him stronger and more dangerous than the other angels, because now he has compassion.

         I loved them together, I could have read about every aspect of their lives together forever and never have gotten bored. they were just so perfect for each other, they challenged each other and it was just so fun to read. And at the end ah! I was so scared that Raphael would lose her. I wanted to cry when she asked him for the secret of the angels. And when you see her lying in the bed at the end, AHHH it's just all so exciting!!

         I liked the idea of the toxin that creates the vampires and how the angels have to be careful to get it out of their blood stream. It seemed to me almost like a checks and balances system. Because humans are so fragile, and vampires have weaknesses too, but as far as anyone knew angels were pretty indestructable (which they pretty much are, their wings are fragile but they heal really fast) but this toxin is dangerous to the angels and if they let it build up it drives them crazy. I liked that.

         Ok, Bitchy Female time. Michaela... I don't give a fuck is she is an archangel, I hate her I want her gone and I want her and her over used girly parts to stay far away from Raphael. When she dusted him with her angel dust I was livid (yeah, I get pretty into books) ugh, how dare she. She is so horrible. And the fact that she wants Elena killed because Raphael wants her more... I mean how childish and petty can you be? And I hate those situations where the guy is forced to be around the bitchy rival. Because Raphael is required to see her on a regular basis and there is nothing He or Elena can do about it. And we all know that Michaela loves that. Hate her.

         And the angel dust thing. I think it is so beautiful. I love that Raphael made a special blend for her, and I love that he lost control of it the first time they had sex. It made me want to squeal. About the sex, I mean I liked it, but I wish it was a bit more detailed. I mean maybe I have read too many erotic novels, but idk, I wished there was more of it. That could have been because I loved all the interactions between Elena and Raphael.

         Now, supporting cast: ahh! I loved them and can't wait to read more about them and am so hoping that all of them get their own books. Dmitri has his own and Jason's is coming out in a couple of weeks. But Illium deserves to fall in love and have an adventure so badly. And Venom... I have read all the books in the series so far, and I still am not sure how I feel about Venom.

         But I love Love LOVED this book, and you should too.