Ever Afters are enticing novellas
designed to satisfy readers’ cravings for paranormal, sci-fi, and horror. They
contain all the romance you’ve come to love from Entangled, but without the
time commitment required to invest in a full-length novel. Priced between $0.99-$1.99
there’s a little something for everyone. So dive in and enjoy a happy ending
and the promise of love! Take a chance and find your way to a happily ever
after by liking their Facebook Page and following them on Twitter.
*Books source ~ Many thanks to Entangled Publishing for providing review copies in exchange for honest reviews.
Title ~ Ghosts of the Falls
Author ~ Sarah Gilman
Published ~ 28 October 2013
Genre ~ Paranormal/Romance
Pages ~ 100
My Rating ~ 4 bites and a nibble out of 5
Jade
Clarence is an exorcist, but she doesn’t like the way the family business
handles exorcisms. Her great-grandfather started the business after his wife
was killed by a spirit and his incantations destroy the soul of the spirit
causing extreme pain to the ghost. Jade feels that she can find an incantation
to send a spirit on without destroying the soul or causing pain. She also feels
that a good spirit should have the right to stay if it wants. However, after
allowing the spirit of a teen hoodwink her into believing he is benign, he
kills the property owner where he is hanging out. A tragedy that falls on
Jade’s shoulders since she refused to perform the exorcism. Her older brother
is giving her a chance to redeem herself with an exorcism at Hutchinson
This
is a great short story with interesting aspects of exorcism and great
characters. It could use a bit more character development because I couldn’t
get a really good feel for Jade or Dutch, but for a short it is pretty good.
I’m a little fuzzy about what Jade did there at the end and how that’s going to
work for the long term, but I’ll suspend belief and just go with it. I don’t
think I’ve ever read a story involving exorcists, so that aspect of the story
was fascinating to me. I look forward to reading more stories by Sarah Gilman.
Title ~ Banshee Charmer
Author ~ Tiffany Allee
Published ~ 24 January 2012
Genre ~ Paranormal/Romance
Pages ~ 159
My Rating ~ 5 bites out of 5
Kiera
‘Mac’ McLoughlin is a Detective with the paranormal unit of the local Chicago
Police Dept. As a half-banshee she’s an OW (Otherworlder) and considering the
fear people have of banshees, she doesn’t have a lot of close friends. When she
and her witch partner Amanda pull a case involving a murdered woman with no
apparent COD Amanda decides to use a little witchcraft to try and track down
the killer. While Amanda is off doing witchy things Mac goes home to find her
house has been invaded by a hunky man named Aidan Byrne with a badge showing
he’s from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency (OWEA). He says he believes her
case is connected to his and they should combine forces. But is he who he says
he is and is this case what it appears to be? When Amanda is murdered and Mac
is pulled off the case, she decides to find out on her own.
Oh,
yeah! Another series for me to dive into. This story had everything I enjoy in
a paranormal book: an alternate world to our mundane one where paranormal and
mundane live side-by-side, many and varied paranormal entities, murder,
villains, mystery, humor and hotness. Banshee
Charmer is a great start to what looks like a very interesting series.
The
characters are wonderful though I didn’t really get a good sense of Aidan. He’s
almost a secondary character and that does bug me a bit. I’m hoping there will be
more about him, at least in passing, in upcoming books. Several people are
mentioned as working for the paranormal unit and I did get to meet a few of
them. I look forward to their stories as well as meeting the others. Well-written
with a decent plot, if you like
paranormal with suspense and a cop for a heroine then this one should do the
trick.
Title ~ One Thousand and One Nights
Author ~ Ruth Browne
Published ~ 30 September 2013
Genre ~ Paranormal/Post-Apocalyptic/Romance
Pages ~ 68
My Rating ~ 4 bites and a nibble out of 5
Sheri
and Dani have been in the foster care system since their parents were killed.
Sheri is a bit of a rebel who loves stories and she’ll do anything to protect
her little sister. When the zombie apocalypse begins Sheri packs up supplies
and a shotgun, steals her foster brother’s motorcycle and takes off with Dani.
For five years they survive until one day Aleksy comes across the mountain
cabin they’re living in while he’s out scouting for supplies and offers to take
them back to his Midwestern mountain range fortress where he and some others
are protected from the infected. Sheri agrees for Dani’s sake, but once inside
the fortress the others discover Sheri has a zombie bite. She’s bitten, yet she
hasn’t turned. Aleksy always kills the infected. What is he going to do about
Sheri?
This
is a retelling of Arabians Nights set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with
zombies. I love stories about unusual characters and this story delivers. Sheri
is a rebel yet she loves stories. She reads whatever she can get her hands on,
but her real talent is in the telling. When Aleksy reluctantly decides he must
kill her he’s on his way to her cage when he hears her telling Dani a story of
the Beauty and the Beast with Aleksy as the Beast and Sheri as the Beauty. He’s
hooked. For four months Sheri tells him stories while chained to his bedroom
wall and he occasionally lets her out of the fortress to search for books in
libraries and supplies they can use.
Despite
having been bitten multiple times, Sheri has not turned. She’s pale as death,
doesn’t menstruate, is strong and fast with excellent sight and hearing and yet
she’s still a living breathing human, not a zombie. I would have liked to know
more about why she hadn’t turned, though I’m sure the characters are just as confused
as I am. What has kept her human? The way she treated her bites? Her genetic
make up? Her very active brain? A combination of many things? We don’t know.
Aleksy’s treatment of her is cruel, but he doesn’t want to be. Conflicted much?
This is a great short story that would have been awesome as a longer version
with more detail.
Title ~ From Here to Eternity
Author ~ Paige Cuccaro
Published ~ 17 February 2013
Genre ~ Sci-Fi/Romance
Pages ~ 79
My Rating ~ 5 bites out of 5
Rachel
Burns sees her obituary in the paper and immediately calls her husband, Nate.
Getting his voicemail, she starts to leave a message only to get an incoming
call from her husband’s phone. However, when she answers she doesn’t recognize
his voice. This day is getting weirder and scarier as things don’t add up for
Rachel. The man on the phone promises everything will be ok and he’ll be right
home, but when he shows up Rachel doesn’t know who he is. She has gaps in her
memory, the date is wrong, the home security doesn’t acknowledge her voice, she
can’t open the front door to leave, the house is a mess and the man who says he
is Dr. Nathaniel Burns is not familiar to her. Is Rachel losing her mind? Or
has something else happened?
Wow.
This is an excellent sci-fi short. Even though it is a short story it feels a
lot longer. It’s very well-written, the characters of Rachel and Nate are well-fleshed out, the moral situation they are in is a slippery slope and
extremely tricky, not to mention dangerous. I could feel Rachel’s confusion and fear as
she tried to logically work through what Nate tells her. Then there’s Nate. Oh,
boy. Nate’s dilemma is one that makes you think really hard, what would you do
if you were in his shoes? And the twist? Didn’t see that coming and though it’s
a bit far-fetched and quite the stretch, I let it go. If you like sci-fi I
recommend picking this one up.
Quite a few of these sound pretty good - I'm definitely going to have to check out Banshee Charmer, I love the sounds of it and hopefully things will get a bit more fleshed out in the next book. Thanks so much for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteI completely enjoyed each one and devoured them all in one day. LOL I'm definitely eyeing the rest of the Files of the OWEA series. :D
Delete