Heather Marie Adkins

This collection of 20 dystopian urban fantasy novels is a great deal. I am reviewing Kiersten Fay's The Vampire's Masquerade. Vampire's Masquerade is the 4th book in the Creatures of Darkness series and a follow up to Keeping his Siren. Lex and Kasima meet at the Ever Nights club and it's instant attraction - what is initially meant to be a one night stand turns into a steamy affair with a bit of a surprise ending. It was nice to be reacquainted with the rest of the Ever Nights characters and I hope to see more of their stories.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.… (mais)

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

Aiden is a gateway, meaning that some dead people need to pass through him - literally - in order to move on. While I'd say this must be challenging enough for a teenager he also needs to prevent a Dark Priest's resurrection.

You get immediately thrown into the action. There very little explanation of what Gateway can or can not do precisely, or more general information on the Gateways. All information that is given to character is usually through the reading of books, even though he has a mentor kind of coaching him who could just as easily tell him these things. It's immediately clear that something is wrong and although I was interested and wanted to know what was happening it still was easy for me to put the book away.

The romance subplot was not too much, but I'd liked to see a bit more of Koren and her history. It is now all thrown in a very exposition-filled scene which, for me, came kind of out of the blue. Not that it didn't sounded interesting, I'd liked to hear more about it, but perhaps not all in the one scene.

I have an ARC also for the second book in the series, so I'll be reading that one shortly.

The Gateway Through Which They Came is the first book in the Gateway series. The second book is The Gateway of Light and Darkness… (mais)

Okay, so I read "What a Witch" by Colleen S. Myers specifically in this collection...received a copy of that portion for review.

You've heard me before, short stories are not my bag, but this one definitely starts out with a bang! Vampires are taking over the world, or pretty much HAVE, and while humans were being corralled, mages seemed off hand since they don't appeal to their particular tastes. But then, something changes, and it seems they are ALL under siege...and so begins the anticipated, yet unexpected "quest" for these two sisters, and their brother (eventually). With their powers, they're a force to contend with, but only if they can control them, and that's easier said than done...with good reason as we find out along the way. Up the ante with secrets being played close to the vest even within covens, and an unexpected yet not completely unwelcome romantic entanglement that'll take both parties by surprise, and you've got a tale that you'll enjoy, but will still leave you chomping at the bit for more.… (mais)