3.5. I love vampires, it's been a minute since l've read them. This one is light and sweet with a bit of heat thrown in for balance. Fated mates. ❤️3.5. I love vampires, it's been a minute since l've read them. This one is light and sweet with a bit of heat thrown in for balance. Fated mates. ❤️...more
This is a new to me author. It doesn’t appear that she has much of a public profile other than a small profile on amazon and her own website, so I’d nThis is a new to me author. It doesn’t appear that she has much of a public profile other than a small profile on amazon and her own website, so I’d not heard of her before, nor was I sure what to expect. I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised by this one. While it is the third in the series, it can be read as a standalone. I did not feel as if I was missing anything during the read, with the exception of one part, but we’ll get to that later.
The story starts with our main character, Kai, who is a vampire, and part of a law enforcement type team for vampires, in a warehouse on an investigation.
In this world, there are different levels of vampires. Kai is a good man, powerful, but not one of the elite. However, he is a Fallen. A Fallen is a special type of vampire, more primal and capable of more power than the average vampire. Figuratively and literally. The man he is after is Aleric, a cruel, heartless Fallen out to make a name for himself. When he finds a human named Owen in the warehouse, held captive by Aleric, he knows that by claiming Owen, he will drive Aleric to the extreme, drawing him out and making it easy to capture him.
Kai has made it his mission to catch him and bring him down, metaphorically or permanently, he’s not picky. His captain has warned him off the latter, that power reserved specifically by the King. Which leads us to an old friend, and our love interest, John Degarr. Degarr is the King’s head of security, and is the only one allowed to kill other vampires along with The White Guard (King’s security team.)
Degarr and Kai share a past, an unpleasant one in which they bonded over during a difficult time in their lives. (This is the only part in which I was a little confused. I didn’t understand how or why they ended up on “The Island” together. I must’ve missed it at some point in my reading.) Afterwards they went their separate ways and had not spoken in years until Kai needs his help with this case. Old feelings are dredged up with the arrival of Degarr, along with some … surprises. In this world, polyamory is a regular practice. The Fallen are not wired for monogamy. They maintain relationships with other paranormal creatures and humans alike, men and women. That said, the humans must undergo an examination so to speak, an interview of sorts to seek approval to harbor the knowledge of this paranormal world they live alongside.
Despite all this, it still throws Kai for a loop when Degarr, a man known for his solitary ways, shows up with his mates, plural. He struggles with the pain of rejection and jealousy for a while. Little does he know that there is a place for him with Degarr and his family, but it takes him a while to understand and accept that he deserves it.
These two do get their HEA but it is a very slow burn type of story. There is very little heat in this one, but somehow, I didn't mind all that much. What I did not particularly care for was that the heat there was was not with our love interest. It was with other side characters, all m/m but there was very little with Degarr. (I think there was one scene.) I liked him as a character; he was a calming presence for Kai. I would've liked to have seen more of the dynamic between them as well as the others. I guess I am not very polyamorous? I don't know. I like reading about it, but I do like to see my OTP have more interaction than a kiss, or three.
There is romance though. Kai's thoughts betray him. He's a romantic at heart. He truly loves John.
All I could think of were Degarr's arms around me, and the sound of his thundering heart loud in my ears.
Maybe it was because of the look on his face. The love and happiness I saw in him when he looked at her. I wanted that for him. I wanted him to be happy, as much I wanted his heart always to beat.
- Sigh -
Even if it that last quote's not about them, it still makes me swoon a bit. Sue me.
Incidentally, there is an author’s note in the back of the book that we do indeed get more from Degarr & Kai and Degarr & Owen. I went back and looked, so I am quite happy about that! I’ll forgive the lack of heat. For now.
Since that was my only real criticism of the book, I enjoyed everything else. Once the author laid the background in the first few chapters, it took off and I had a hard time putting it down. Then again, I love vampires and there aren’t many new stories out there that are m/m pairings that I haven’t already read. I will devour all m/m vampire stories if they are well written.
It’s really hard to discuss this one without giving away spoilers. I don’t want to give away too much. I loved the slight differences the author made for the vampires. I liked the idea of the Fallen and the very slight twist at the end. Ms. Stone includes worldbuilding that I cannot possibly cover, but it was interesting to me and I very much enjoyed learning about it.
I would read other stories by this author and I am excited to continue this story.
This title will be available on May 24, 2022 through Amazon. It is currently available for preorder.
Thank you to the author and Gay Romance Reviews for providing a copy of this book for me to review. A positive review was not promised in return.
For a novella, l enjoyed this! lt was fun. And while l typically need more with shorts, this one had a natural conclusion/HEA that didn't leave me wanFor a novella, l enjoyed this! lt was fun. And while l typically need more with shorts, this one had a natural conclusion/HEA that didn't leave me wanting. For that alone l give it 4 stars.
What is it about vampires that so many people find so alluring? They’re sexy, powerful, and mysterious, but also dangeroFull Series review 4.5 stars!
What is it about vampires that so many people find so alluring? They’re sexy, powerful, and mysterious, but also dangerous killers. And yet, we gobble up stories about them. Romanticize them. Dream about them. I gotta admit, I’m no different. I love stories about vampires – for all those reasons. They’re the ultimate bad boy.
That said, it can be difficult to find ones that are readable, let alone actually good. Especially in the m/m genre. I’ve read a ton of them, but most of them are average. I loved this one though!
Was it perfect? No. Some issues here and there, but overall very readable. A word of warning. Every book ends on a cliffhanger, but the series is complete and all are available so have no fear. It's a fated/soul mates story, so there is that note insta-attraction/love there, but it’s written in such a way that it bother me in the slightest. I often forgot it occurred in about a week's time.
Favorite quote:
“When a good man loves you, he will break any rule to protect you. When a bad man loves you, there are no rules.” ~ Lucas
There were so many quotes and scenes that I loved, but with 7 books and 900+ pages, I'd be citing forever. If you like vampires, it was well worth the read for me.
Sigh. I started this book about a month ago. It takes me day, maybe a week at most if I’m busy, to finish a book. I have been trTime of Death: 82%
Sigh. I started this book about a month ago. It takes me day, maybe a week at most if I’m busy, to finish a book. I have been trying to go back to it and finish it since there is so little left, but I just … lost interest.
Sebastian finds out that he is a changeling, learns that he is a faerie and all of the abilities that come with it. He begins to learn magic and his heritage.
During his journey, he stops at a brothel and meets Dominus, a bored purple Incubus who hates faeries because he has been cursed by one and can never leave his home. This subplot kinda gets lost in the book somewhere and isn’t picked back up until nearly the end when I stopped reading. Sebastian had been researching and thought that he might be able to break the curse with the magic that he has learned in his absence from the brothel.
Now, one can infer that he actually does break the curse and they live happily ever after, but I don’t really know because that’s beyond the point that I cared to read. However, that’s how I’m going to finish it in my head just so I can be done with this one. I had every intention of going back to it, but I just couldn’t seem to make myself finish it. And there are far too many books out there to be read for me to keep attempting to read one that no longer does it for me. I like this author. I recently began her They Bite series not too long ago and have every intention of going back to it because I enjoyed it. And given that the next book (#3) in the Outcast Mates series is about a vampire, I am absolutely checking out that one.
So, that said, if you enjoyed this one let me know. I’d actually like to know if it ends the way I envisioned. For some reason though, I just couldn’t connect with these two and decided to cut my losses and run…
It seems that Ms. Winters specializes in polarizing readers. The reviews are yes or no. Not much in between. I for one ...
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This book was4 Stars!
It seems that Ms. Winters specializes in polarizing readers. The reviews are yes or no. Not much in between. I for one ...
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This book was hilarious, in a rather OTT way, but I don't even care. So much banter and snark! Ms. Winters definitely has a gift for both. It's literally non-stop, and I thought that might've bothered me, but it didn't. I actually found it endearing. I loved both of our MCs, but Marcus was my favorite. He wanted to be such a badass vampire, and he was...mostly, but around Finn, he was such a creampuff! He really didn't stand a chance against him anyway. Boy was relentless.
Add an adorable dog named, Artemis (Artie after Finn meets him) an Irish wolfhound who tries to interrupt sexy times, and constantly disobeys Marcus after he meets Finn bc he's corrupted him with too many luvins and broken him, according to Marcus. Life will never be the same.
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Oh! And that evil, oppressive presence? Yikes!
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I can't wait to find out who it is! Seriously creepy vibes coming from that guy.
It's been rough lately, so this was just the thing to make me laugh and add some levity to my stressful week. Thank you Ms. Winters. ♥...more
I really wanted to like this one, it just didn't do it for me. It was good in theory, but I was kinda b3, maybe 3.5. My least favorite of the series.
I really wanted to like this one, it just didn't do it for me. It was good in theory, but I was kinda bored. The MCs are apart for 75-80% of the book. This does not a romance make and upsets my hopeless romantic heart. The last part where they're together is sweet, and typical CC, but it took FAR too long to get there.
Meh. That's about all I have to say for this one. [image]...more
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