Jem's review of From Burning Ashes by Stacey Marie Brown

This war is not being played on a battlefield. 

Killed by the man she loves, not even death is kind to Zoey. 
Neither life nor her fae powers will let her go in peace. 

In this final installment, Zoey’s strength, determination, and trust are put to the ultimate test. In the fight to protect the people she loves and stop DMG from experimenting on fae, humans, and animals to create soldiers, she learns the reality of how far Dr. Rapava will go to achieve his ultimate mission. 

Of course, Rapava is not the only one willing to go to extremes. Vadik is hunting Ryker, and there is nothing he won’t do to get back the property he feels is his: both Ryker and the Stone of Destiny. 

To end one evil, Zoey might have to make a deal with another. One she won't be able to get out of. And it could be the worst decision she ever made. 

I've been waiting for what has felt like forever for the last book in the Collector Series, especially after the way Stacey Marie Brown ended the third book in the series, Across The Divide. What an epic, teetering on the edge, hanging on by your fingernails cliffhanger that was!

Needless to say I was super excited when I heard that From Burning Ashes was just around the corner and as soon as it was released was straight on Amazon downloading it to my kindle.
I loved this book and it lived up to my expectations, much like the others in the series. We jumped straight back into where ATD left off and the book immediately had me on the edge of my seat and that lasted through the whole thing.

All of my favourite characters were back and had major parts to play, my favourite has to be Sprig, the honey loving sprite monkey. He brings some light heartedness to what is actually quite a dark story line. But apart from the humour that he brings to the story, what I love about Sprig is that he has the biggest heart for such a tiny monkey and is as loyal as they come. He cares about Zoey, Ryker and the rest of the Collector family, even Cryogen (well just a bit but I'm sure he wouldn't admit that)

“Suuupperrspprriittee,” Sprig sang. “I’m so badass. Like a honey-crunch, double-dipped-doughnut, rolled-in-sugar, fried-in-honey badass. Bees will be my pollen posse.”

Zoey is one of my favourite female leads, she is tough, which she has to be with all that she's gone through, but she has the biggest space in her heart to accept people and trust them too. I love how she has grown and developed so much through the series and in the culmination of her story she has really shone through, for me, as a true heroine. Stacey has really written a character that deserves respect and is someone we could look up to. The things that Zoey has experienced and gone through in her life would be enough to make anyone crumble and close in on themselves, but Zoey has the strength and the people around her, to fight through it all and still have a decent sense of humanity about her.

Sometimes life came out of nowhere and clobbered you, tearing down your preconceived ideas and prejudices, till all you could see was the truth behind the labels.

Now to Ryker, the yummy, super hot, fierce Viking that I find myself fantasizing about. Wow, Stacey has written one of the hottest characters ever. In the first book of the series, I'll admit that I wasn't his biggest fan but I fell for him, BIG time, in the second book and by the third he'd wormed his way into my heart. In FBA, I just want to run off with him (though I think I'd have to actually be Zoey to get him to do that) He is the perfect partner for Zoey in all ways and he really comes through for her in this book.

And from burning ashes, I rose again.

This book rounded off the series perfectly, it closed down pretty much all the threads of the story that were open and there was even a surprise visit from a character from The Darkness Series, Stacey's other series which runs parallel to this series and is also set in Seattle.

I'm hoping though that this is not the last of Zoey, Ryker, Sprig & Cryogen that we'll see. There was some unfinished business left with the stone which had me hoping that maybe, just maybe, Stacey will write another series somewhere down the line that includes them and hopefully Ember, Eli and the rest of The Darkness Series crew. Now that would be an epic story which I would love to read. In the meantime I know that she is working on West's story (from The Darkness Series and if you haven't read those yet then now's the time) to be released in Fall 2016 so I will be impatiently awaiting that.

I think Stacey ended this series perfectly and its definitely one on my list that I'll go back to and reread. Now I'm off to go fantasize about Ryker, me and a Chevy Chevelle car..........

Jem's review of Hunted By Magic by Jasmine Walt

With the sudden disappearance of Iannis, the Chief Mage, Solantha has erupted into pandemonium. Citizens are rioting in the streets, the Mages Guild is on a misguided warpath, and shifters and humans are fleeing the city in droves. Ridden with guilt, Sunaya defies the Mages Guild and goes off in search of Iannis, trekking into dangerous, uncivilized territory to try and make things right. But Sunaya's relationship with Iannis isn't the only thing at stake -- if she doesn't find him soon, the Resistance might just succeed in plunging the Northia Federation into a devastating and bloody civil war.

I'm in love with the series again. Let's just say that this book has found it's way back and is running with the story again as the first book did. It didn't drag at all and kept me entertained through the book, in fact I had to tell my other half to shut up several times as he kept trying to talk to me whilst reading. Note to all non book nerds everywhere, do not talk to someone who is deeply into a book as the reply may not be pretty! I promise I've made it up to him though ;)

I think that Naya has started to grow and mature in this book, I have to admit that I was starting to get a bit irritated with her in Bound by Magic, she was running off on her own, not really working as a team and forgetting some pretty important things. She has redeemed herself in my eyes though & I'm loving her again just as I did in the first book. I also loved that Fenris had a bigger role to play in this book and that learnt his secret, or at least one of them as I think he may have a few more in the Dark cupboard.

Annia also had a much bigger role in this book and I do like her, but my only criticism would be that I'm not loving her yet as I feel that I'm not connecting with her completely. I am hoping though that she still has a big part to play in the next book, and hopefully some of that will be kicking her sisters butt as that really needs to be done.

We're also starting to get somewhere with the feelings between Naya and Iannis, although not completely there yet. There was one very hot scene in this book, which I'm hoping we may see more of in future books. They language also got more colourful in this book, but that doesn't bother me at all, I don't really have the sweetest of tongues myself.

I'm so glad that this series has got its pizzazz back, and will just take the second book as hopefully a very small blip in what is looking to be a great series. I'm looking forward to the next book, I'm just hoping it comes soon, and hopefully it'll be a longer book too.

Jem's review of Bound By Magic by Jasmine Walt

With the silver murders solved and her training as a mage underway, Sunaya figured her life would get easier. But between the Chief Mage's packed schedule and the grunt work demanded of her as an apprentice mage, magic lessons are few and far between. Worse, her apprenticeship leaves little time for her job as an Enforcer, and without bounties Sunaya’s money pouch is drying up -- fast. 

Even so, when Shiftertown Inspector Boon Lakin asks for Sunaya’s help digging deeper into the murder of a fellow Enforcer, Sunaya has no trouble making room in her life to help him. The trail leads them to a series of crimes victimizing shifters for the entertainment of vicious humans. Sunaya and her friends race to identify the perpetrators and free the survivors, and the stakes are heightened when she discovers one of the victims has a connection to her. But if Sunaya is not careful, she may end up a very dead shifter herself... 

This is the second book in The Baine chronicles by Jasmine Walt and yes, I did read this in only a few hours, but it is a shorter book than the first one and looking at the third book which is currently out that's even shorter, only 82 pages!!! Now that makes me feel a bit cheated as it seems that we're getting into novella books rather than full books with them.

Anyway, I've digressed from my review. Whilst I still enjoyed this book, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I felt that it dragged a bit in places and wasn't as action packed, even though the book was shorter than the first the story just felt that it was missing something to keep me entertained. There also weren't as many scenes between Naya & Iannis, which I missed or as much of Fenris, who I definitely think is a great character and has a great story to tell. I did enjoy though that Boon Lakin had a presence in this book and even though I'm shipping Naya & Iannis as a couple, liked the flirtation between Boon & Naya.

I'm giving this book 4 stars as even though I'm still enjoying the series, I felt that this story was rushed and didn't hold the same capture for me as the first one did. There was not as much interaction between any of the characters and some of the characters who played important & entertaining parts in the first book only had very small appearances in this one. I feel that Jasmine has lost a bit of the pizzazz that was evident in the first book and I'm not sure if she decided to cut back or was made to cut back and cut scenes out but I do hope that she comes back in the rest of the series as it has a great story line and some interesting character potential. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.

Jem's review of Burned By Magic by Jasmine Walt

In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution. 

Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last twenty-four years. But while chasing down a shifter-hunting serial killer, she loses control of her magic in front of witnesses, drawing the attention of the dangerous and enigmatic Chief Mage. 

Locked up in the Chief Mage’s castle and reduced to little more than a lab rat, Sunaya resists his attempts to analyze and control her at every turn. But she soon realizes that to regain her freedom and catch the killer, she must overcome her hatred of mages and win the most powerful mage in the city to her side. 

Let me start of this review by saying how difficult I can find it to write a review when I've really enjoyed a book and just want to jump into the next one in the series and forget everything else. This is one of those books and as soon as I've finished writing this I am diving straight into the next and everything else will have to go do one until I've finished that!

I really enjoyed this book. It contains all my favourite things, shifters, magic, a steampunk feel to the setting, a spunky, kick ass female lead and a hot, mystery male where you can just feel the sexual tension between the two characters sparking off the page.

This book was recommended to me on Amazon as it's similar to other books I've read. The great news is that it's also available on Kindle Unlimited, which I think is a great lending service that Amazon runs (and also helps to curb my terrible buying habit when it comes to books)

The main character in this book is a shifter called Sunaya, or Naya which is the nickname she goes by. She is a hybrid, not a full blooded shifter and her form is a Jaguar, or a Panther as she prefers to be called. She's working as an enforcer in a world where humans, shifters & mages coexist, albeit not necessarily happily. The action and the mystery, which is the main theme running through the series, kicks of straight away and dragged me straight into the story that I didn't want to put it down. The side characters in the book, be they friend or for, also have substance to them and help to drive this story in a direction which keeps you engaged throughout.

The enter the hot, powerful but brooding male lead, and possible love interest, Iannis. What I loved about the book is that love is not the main theme of the story, but we are getting a slow build up of sexual tension between the two characters. It contains those kind of scenes between the two where you feel your own cheeks staring to warm up with the intense attraction between them but just when you think something might happen they get interrupted. I actually love that kind of romance where theyre not immediately jumping on each other and are both fighting the attraction between them, but it's so strong that they keep finding themselves in situations where they're drawn to each other. So far nothing has happened between the two, but for me that makes the anticipation of something you feel for sure will happen so much sweeter, I just hope it's not drawn out too long over the series as that can start to get boring.

For me this first book in the series contained just the right amount of intrigue, mystery and romance. The female lead epitomises my favourite type of heroine in a book in that she is capable of defending herself and has a sometimes too snarky tongue (this is my favourite kind of character as I can't stand a simpering female who doesn't stand up for herself).

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it gets the full five stars from me. If you also love these types of books then I recommend picking it up. If you've never read a book like this before then I recommend this as the first one for you to pick up and try as I can guarantee you'll love it. Now I'm off to read the next book in the series be sure to look out for my review on that next.