Concubine by Jill Knowles

         This is another one of those books that I always passed over... Maybe it was because for a while I wasn't into the whole M/M thing, and sometimes I get tired of the BDSM thing too. But I was, once again, an idiot for skipping over this book. I really liked it! Which is surprising because dubious consent romance usually makes me a bit uncomfortable. Though I ended up looking upon this book as more of an arranged marriage kind of thing.

         Scholar, captain...war prize. Prince Kael of Korai is stunned when his father gives him to an enemy warlord in a desperate attempt to salvage Korai's reputation. With his country's honor at stake, Kael resolves to submit to Warlord Taren's every debauched whim.

         But life in Zandria isn't anything like what Kael imagined. Instead of pain and cruelty, Warlord Taren seduces Kael until the bewildered prince craves his Master's every intimate caress. As he sinks into the decadent, sensual life of a concubine, Kael makes a powerful enemy, one who wants him removed from Zandria by any means necessary. Betrayed by his body, trapped by his honor, Kael must learn to trust his Master or get them both killed.

Click to View on Amazon: Concubine

         The first thing that I want to say about this book is that I thought that Taren was really sexy. Not only did he have cool scales, but they were purple, which is my absolute favorite color, so I was inclined to like him right off the bat. I thought Kael was a little whiney and at first I was annoyed but then I reminded myself of the situation he was in and decided he deserved to be  whiney. It wasn't his choice to be a concubine, especially to another male. He deserved to be upset.

         I think that Knowles showcased a very interesting psychological struggle within Kael. He had to struggle with not wanting to submit to another man, his disgust with himself  for being interested in Taren, his fear of what was to come, and his need to preserve the honor of his country by giving in. I do think it is endearing how he likes being with Taren, and I think that Taren is amazing at handling the situation and doing his best to make Kael comfortable about adjusting into his new role in life.

Spoilers ahead! Beware! Go read the book then come back!

         I like how they ended up mating, but I didn't understand why the whole guild was dying to Taren as a customer. From what he said he never was interested in using the guild and he never enjoyed it, so I don't understand why they claimed that they were losing such a great customer. I also didn't like that Taren's past lover worked so close with him and that he tried to pursue a relationship with Taren even after he was obviously interested in Kael.

         I thought that the mastermind behind everything was a pretty good twist. I did not expect Mendon to be the killer. I didn't like him at first but then when he obviously disliked Taren's past lover as much as I did he began to grow on me, and he seemed to warm up to Kael so it really came as a surprise to me when he turned out to be the one behind everything. Or maybe I was just so wrapped up in the relationship between Taren and Kael that I might have missed some clues that Mendon was behind it all.

         I love how the beast within Taren recognized  Kael right away and that in giving into the beast and the man, Kael was freed from his own doubts and he was able to fully embrace the relationship. It was really steamy too, some very very sexual scenes, so it is not a book for the faint of heart. i give it a 4 out of 5 stars!

When Angels Fall by Stephanie Jackson

         I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. When I saw this book I knew that I had to read it. I have thing for angels and This book seemed to really fit the bill.

          Danielle Coulter had never believed in anything except her mother, hard work and heartache. She never had time for religious fairy tales. But when her mother died, Dani was forced to believe…or die. Not only was she forced to accept that God and Lucifer are real, but also that she is the last living descent of God on Earth. An undeniable fact when the Archangel Gabriel fell to Earth to protect her.

         Archangel Gabriel; banished from Heaven over four million years ago for refusing to kill his brother, Lucifer, was about to get a second chance to re-enter Heaven. He was sent to Earth on a mission from his Father to protect the last Daughter of God; the last woman to carry the Blood of God on Earth, and kill his brother, once and for all. Gabriel had never expected to feel anything for Dani, but he soon found himself willing to fight Heaven and Hell to keep her safe, even if it meant his own destruction.

Click to view the book on Amazon: When Angels Fall

         I think one of my favorite aspects of this story was how sassy Dani was. It was so funny at times that I was literally laughing out loud, which drove my boyfriend crazy. She always had something to say about everything, and Gabriel never knew how to take it and it was just great.

         Something else that I liked was the relationship between Michael and Gabriel. I know they are brothers, but sometimes when I think of archangels it is hard for me to imagine them being close. We, or maybe this is something only I do, always think of archangels as very stoic and very much above human emotion. That was not how they were in this book and I really loved it. I love how there is this horrible sibling rivalry between Gabriel and Raphael, and I actually wish that I got to see more interaction between the two of them. And something that I really liked was when Michael and Gabriel had that talk about how Michael had loved a human woman before and how it came down to a choice between the human and heaven. I thought that was a really touching conversation, because it showed me a side to angels that I had never known, and that angels can be just as selfish as humans.

Okay, there might be some spoilers ahead, so go read it! Or if you don't mind, read on!

         Something I wasn't sure about was the speed of the romance. I do love insta-love, but this was not instant love but it happened pretty fast. It was a weird length, if it wasn't going to be insta-love then I wanted a bit more of a "getting to know each other romance" faze. But besides that I thought their relationship was pretty good for falling so fast. I also loved how Gabriel defied God in order to be with Dani. It was really perfect.

         And all the bad ass fighting, I loved that. I also loved how we got to see all these different kinds of angels. I have always been a bit confused the the hierarchy of angels, but it was definitely nice to see more angels than just the powerful archangels. I also liked it that even the archangels had a hierarchy of their own. One thing with the angels that I was confused about though was the fact that God didn't kill Lucifer because he didn't to kill one of his sons. But he sent Gabriel to kill Satan, meaning he was sending one of his sons to their death, so he was basically killing his son. Dani pointed this out too, and I wish that was somehow addressed or at least explained to Dani.

         I am really hoping that Michael will have a book. And I have to say I always love a book where the couple has a baby at the end. I know this might sound dumb to say it, but I feel like when that happens in a book it is showing the ultimate love between the couple.

         It was a great book :) I really liked it I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. Now I want to read Stephanie Jackson's other books :)

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 :)