Aubrey works security for her Cast. Her uncle, head of the Cast, has been murdered. The Coalition has been called in to investigate. The head of the Bird shifters investigators is Cody, Aubrey's former lover. He tells to butt out, but she does not listen. She finds the perp but ends up in trouble. Will Cody be able to rescue her?

I liked this couple. They are strong separately and together. They butt heads a lot but learn to work together. The world building is good. It sets up the series well. The story is weak as there are more questions than answers. How did the murderer get as far as he did? Why was no alarm raised from where he came? How did he get away with it? Why? There were a few lines about his motive and opportunity, but they felt throwaway at best. I do look forward to reading more of the series.

Bax is desperate.

Recently widowed, he takes his pups and flees his pack to avoid a new mate who wants him—but not his babies. At Mercy Hills, he finds the help he’d hoped for, but also a man who both attracts and unnerves him. He doesn’t want another alpha mate, or even any mate, though he knows that an omega has to have one. But Abel is unlike any other alpha he’s ever met, and the hope that had been crushed out of him begins to grow again in the warmth of Abel’s kindness and strength.

Bax is a dream come true for Abel—smart, loyal, strong, and loving. Everything Abel’s ever looked for in a mate. Except the independent omega has no reason to trust an alpha and Abel’s going to have to work his way through layers of hurt if he wants to convince Bax he’s safe opening his heart.

But to keep him, he’ll have to fight for him.

Review

While I long for an omegaverse romance where omega's have equity and the conflicts are based around character and relationships, this was a really well written world of shifters and omegas.

Bax is a wonderful father and hero of his own life. Able is lovely and his attention to who Bax as well as Bax's childern is awesome.

The plot drags for me as a romance because it takes a while for this element of the story to start and when it does the outside conflicts drive the plot a bit too much for me.

I love forward to reading more by this writer.

Wnat to fall in a new world? Check out these Brand New Paranormal, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Romance Series!

1. The Exile (Book of the Fae)  by C. T. Adams

Brianna Hai runs an occult shop that sells useless trinkets to tourists--and real magic supplies to witches and warlocks. The magical painting that hangs in Brianna's apartment is the last portal between the fae and human worlds.

A shocking magical assault on her home reveals to Brianna that her father, High King Liu of the Fae, is under attack. With the help of her gargoyle, Pug, her friend David, and Angelo, a police detective who doesn't believe in magic, Brianna recovers what was stolen from her and becomes an unwilling potential heir to the throne.

2.  Prudence (The Custard Protocol) by Gail Carriger

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama ("Rue" to her friends) is bequeathed an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female under similar circumstances would do -- she christens it the Spotted Custard and floats off to India. 

3. Halfway Dead (Halfway Witchy Book 1) by Terry Maggert

Carlie McEwan loves many things. 

She loves being a witch. She loves her town of Halfway, NY—a tourist destination nestled on the shores of an Adirondack lake. Carlie loves her enormous familiar, Gus, who is twenty-five pounds of judgmental Maine Coon cat, and she positively worships her Grandmother, a witch of incredible power and wisdom. Carlie spends her days cooking at the finest—and only—real diner in town, and her life is a balance between magic and the mundane, just as she likes it. 

When a blonde stranger sits at the diner counter and calls her by name, that balance is gone. Major Pickford asks Carlie to lead him into the deepest shadows of the forest to find a mythical circle of chestnut trees, thought lost to forever to mankind. There are ghosts in the forest, and one of them cries out to Carlie across the years. Come find me. 
Danger, like the shadowed pools of the forest, can run deep. The danger is real, but Carlie’s magic is born of a pure spirit. With the help of Gus, and Gran, and a rugged cop who really does want to save the world, she’ll fight to bring a ghost home, and deliver justice to a murderer who hides in the cool, mysterious green of a forest gone mad with magic. 

4. There's Something About Werewolves (Seven Brides for Seven Shifters) by Thalia Eames

Lennox Averdeen’s top three worst fears:

1. Anything remotely canine.

2. Finding out she has a secret baby.

3. Running into Garrett Anderson. Former best friend. Heartbreaker.

She pulls a trifecta when she realizes the stray canine and the tween kid hanging around her house are not only one and the same, he’s Garrett’s wolf shifter son.

When Garrett tracks down his runaway son and sees Lennox again, the widowed father’s heart begins to struggle against his self-imposed chains. Plus, just coming into town pits him against the local Alpha, and everything he hates about pack life. The death, the heartache.

Despite her fears, Lennox becomes the boy’s mother in all but DNA. But Garrett? He can hula-hoop with the nine rings of hell. Except the heat of attraction has never died, and there’s only one way to slake their sexual thirst. Make a smoking-hot deal, agree to part as friends…and try to ignore the sound of Fate howling with laughter.

5. The Last True Vampire (Last True Vampire) by Kate Baxter

SOUL SURVIVOR
He is the last of his race. The one true king of the vampires. Michael Aristov roams the nightclubs of L.A. after dark, haunted by his past and driven by his hunger. The last of the Ancient Ones, he alone has survived the destruction of his race at the hands of the slayers. Now he is forced to hunt and feed like a common vampire, a creature of lust. Nothing in this world can fulfill his needs…until he meets a woman who's everything he's ever wanted. And more.

SWEET SALVATION
Her name is Claire Thompson. Her blood is so sweet, so intoxicating--the smell alone draws Michael to her like a moth to the flame. Sly, sexy, and seductive, Claire seems to be the only mortal who can satisfy his craving and seal his fate…forever. Can she be trusted? From their very first kiss, the last true vampire sweeps Claire into a world in which darkness rules desire--and where falling in love is the greatest danger of all

6. The Terrans (First Salik War) by Jean Johnson

Born into a political family and gifted with psychic abilities, Jacaranda MacKenzie has served as a border-watcher and even spent time as a representative on the United Planets Council. Now she just wants to spend her days in peace and quiet as a translator—but the universe has other plans…

Humans have long known that they would encounter more alien species, and while those with precognitive abilities agree a terrible war is coming, they do not agree on who will save humanity—a psychic soldier or a politician.

But Jackie is both.

After she is pressured into rejoining the Space Force to forestall the impending calamity, Jackie makes an unsettling discovery. Their new enemy, the Salik, seem to be rather familiar with fighting Humans—as if their war against humanity had already begun…

7. To Mate an Assassin (The Lost Alphars Series) by Ceri Grenelle

Cymbeline Kendall’s life is quiet, solitary—until a letter appears in her P.O. box. Then she becomes an Incendiary, a human chosen at birth to be trained to strike like lightning to take out the most dangerous of the Werekind, then fade back into the shadows. 

She is a weapon only to be used by the leader of North American shifters. But when she learns the Alphar was unseated three years ago, she sets out to find who’s been pulling her trigger.

Kerrick Masterson has borne the burden of leadership for only a short time, yet he already feels the Alphar power tempting his soul toward the insanity that destroyed his predecessor. He has no time for the woman who breaks into his compound claiming to be his Incendiary, but his beast insists he make the time—for his mate. 

In one searing, soul-consuming breath, everything Cymbeline was taught to believe is ripped away. Yet the mystery of who’s been sending her orders remains…and finding the answer could lead to all-out war. 

8. The Veil (Devil's Isle) by Chloe Neill

Seven years ago, the Veil that separates humanity from what lies beyond was torn apart, and New Orleans was engulfed in a supernatural war. Now, those with paranormal powers have been confined in a walled community that humans call the District. Those who live there call it Devil's Isle.
 
Claire Connolly is a good girl with a dangerous secret: she’s a Sensitive, a human endowed with magic that seeped through the Veil. Claire knows that revealing her skills would mean being confined to Devil’s Isle. Unfortunately, hiding her power has left her untrained and unfocused.
 
Liam Quinn knows from experience that magic makes monsters of the weak, and he has no time for a Sensitive with no control of her own strength. But when he sees Claire using her powers to save a human under attack—in full view of the French Quarter—Liam decides to bring her to Devil’s Isle and the teacher she needs, even though getting her out of his way isn’t the same as keeping her out of his head.
 
As more and more Sensitives fall prey to their magic, and unleash their hunger on the city, Claire and Liam must work together to save New Orleans, or else the city will burn…

9. Flight from Death (Fly by Night) by Yasmine Galenorn

’m Shimmer, a blue dragon shifter. Thanks to a mistake, I was exiled from the Dragon Reaches and sentenced to work for Alex Radcliffe, a vampire who owns the Fly by Night Magical Investigations Agency. Now, not only do I have to adapt to Earthside culture, but every time I turn around, somebody’s trying to kill us. And worse, Alex is as gorgeous as he is exasperating. But you know what they say: All’s fair in love and bounty hunting…

When an old friend of Alex contacts him about a haunting at the High Tide Bed & Breakfast in Port Townsend, Washington, we think we’re on a simple ghost hunt. But our investigation quickly transforms into a deadly fight as we uncover an eighty-year-old murder, a cursed house, and a dark force trapping the spirits within. To stop impending disaster we must break the curse and lay the angry spirits to rest.

10. Trailer Park Fae (Gallow and Ragged) by Lilith Saintcrow

Jeremiah Gallow is just another construction worker, and that's the way he likes it. He's left his past behind, but some things cannot be erased. Like the tattoos on his arms that transform into a weapon, or that he was once closer to the Queen of Summer than any half-human should be. But now Gallow is dragged back into the world of enchantment, danger, and fickle fae by a woman who looks uncannily like his dead wife. Her name is Robin, and her secrets are more than enough to get them both killed

Do you have any great new series to recommend? Please do!

Vote for the best of the best on my Goodreads list: New Paranormal Romance Series (2015)

This was a group read for the Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group, and I'm glad it got voted for. It gave me that push to read Shelly Laurenston. I've heard from many that she's a good author, and I actually have most of her Dragon books written under G.A. Aiken, but I just hadn't gotten around to reading her books written under this name.

One thing that one needs to understand about this book is that it's very heroine and women-bonding centered. Kera is a woman who needed strong bonds with women who had her back and who accepted her no matter what, and she found that with the Crows. At the same time, it's a romance, but the romance doesn't really develop until maybe 70 or so pages into the novel. Having said that, I found this very enjoyable. It's really funny and every character is a real 'character'. There's even a dog that manages to steal some scenes.

I liked Vig, a lot. He's a dangerous hero, but in a cuddly kind of way (when he's not in battle mode and ripping people's arms off.) He's very supportive to Kera, and I'd call him the perfect boyfriend. I would say the cover is highly misleading. I tried not to be embarrassed about it when I'd have it at work and my coworkers saw it. Vig has a big beard and lots of hair. He's not a clean-shaven male model type. I guess the publishers didn't think people would go for a cover with Vig as he looks in the book. It seems to me that having big beards is very much in vogue, so I'd find that intriguing if the cover actually reflected that (not that like facial hair, because I don't). I like that Vig was comfortable with himself and thus with Kera as she was. I think that's so crucial in a relationship that people accept you as you are. They want the best for you, but they aren't constantly trying to change you. The romance worked for me because it was built on mutual like and respect, as well as passion and strong emotion.

This book is pretty violent, with descriptive action scenes. It wasn't over the top, and after reading Matt Reilly this past month, it seemed kind of mild, to be honest. The story is about a violent subculture of fighters for the Norse gods who go all out. I wasn't surprised for it to be violent with that expectation. The story itself is intriguing and makes me want to keep reading this series.

So I really liked this one. I liked Kera a lot. She was a real person and I appreciated her strengths and weaknesses. She was very caring, but tough as well. I loved the multicultural feel to this book. There are people of just about every race and ethnicity. And considering this is based on Norse mythology, it was cool that Laurenston was able to achieve this. I also loved how the Crows are all strong women but not all cut from the same mode. I love when the diversity of strong woman is presented instead of making it seem like all woman have to be the same to be strong and confident.

There was a lot to appreciate about this book. Four well earned stars.