Flora's Musings...: Jennifer Lyon

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

A Challenge To Read More... PNR-UF Group November 2015 Challenge

A challenge to read more…

Since joining Goodreads I have found many “new to me” authors and series.

I took the site’s general “2014 Reading Challenge” and have signed up again this year. In addition to that I decided to sign up for a few reading challenges that the groups I belong to set.

“Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy” Group is for the discussion and recommendation of paranormal romances and paranormal erotic romance, along with urban fantasy, science fiction, futuristic, and fantasy romance. If you love vampires, werewolves, and hot faery men, this is the group for you. Join up and discuss your favourite books!

If you have questions or concerns, please contact a mod other than Pamela. She unfortunately doesn't have a lot of goodreads time at the moment, and you'll get a quicker response from another mod. Thanks!

We recommend members be over 18, since we do discuss books with adult content, but this is not strictly enforced. Please be aware that there will be adult discussion in this group!

So, this post is all about the monthly reading challenge that the “Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy” group have set for November 2015.

PNR & UF Group – November 2015 Challenge

It's a couple of days early, but, well, Halloween is a biggie around my house, and I'm getting ready to ramp up the costume race, so thought I'd get this posted now.

November
Have I Read This One Before?
Have you noticed that a lot of PNR and UF books have similar titles? Read a book that has one of the words in each list in it's title.

You can pluralise the word, but it has to be a separate word, e.g. Angel or Angels could be used but not Archangel.

1 – Dark or Darkness or Darker – Dark and Stormy Knight (Knights of Avalon #2) by Nina Mason
2 – Heat or Hot or Fire – Dragons Don’t Cry (Fire Chronicles #1) by D’Elen McClain
3 – Passion or Kiss or Desire – Passion Bites (Biting Love #9) by Mary Hughes
4 – Magic or Spell or Witch – The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston
5 – Night or Midnight or Wolf – Wolves (I Bring The Fire # 1) by C Gockel (Read as part of the “The Paranormal 13” box set)
6 – Vampire or Blood or Bite – Blood Magic (Wing Slayer Hunters #1) by Jennifer Lyon
7 – Shadow or Deadly or Hunger – The Company of Shadows by Lisa Olsen
8 – Seduction or Lover or Mate – Marked by an Assassin (Eternal Mates series #8) by Felicity Heaton
9 – Hunter or Eternal or Heart - The Witch Hunter by Nicole R Taylor (Read as part of the “The Paranormal 13” box set)
10 – Angel or Demon or Dragon – Angel of Mercy by Lisa Olsen

PNR-UF Group November 2015 Challenge Book Montage

*flora*'s favorite books »

So have you read any of the above books? Recognise any of the authors? As usual you can click on the authors’ names to be whisked away to their own websites….

As my regular followers will know, I love these reading challenges – just search my site for reading challenges and see how many results you get!! Lol! Reading challenges are a fun way to “force” us to look further than our noses, to look past those tried and trusted authors and genres that we always read and step into the world of the unknown… we may experience disappointment but we could discover a new “favourite” author and a myriad of new worlds, characters and tales to sink our teeth into! Isn’t it worth the risk?

Funnily enough I found this challenge harder than I expected. My TBR (To Be Read) shelf was lacking in titles containing these words, I really had to scour, however, looking back over the past couple of years, yes I agree PNR and UF book titles frequently contain these words in their titles! Lol!

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

FloraReviews... Blood Magic (Wing Slayer Hunters #1) by Jennifer Lyon

Blood Magic (Wing Slayer Hunters #1)

by Jennifer Lyon

Read: 2^nd – 3^rd November 2015

Format: Kindle

My Goodreads Rating: 4 Stars

...So what’s this book about?

This is a dark (and erotic) paranormal romance novel of about 386 pages.

Blood Magic is the first book in a new series but as Ms Lyon states “Blood Magic does not have a cliffhanger ending and is a standalone read” and as I write this it’s free to download for Kindle on Amazon UK – what a bargain!!

The blurb says;

A dangerous curse…

Axel Locke is the sinfully sexy leader of the Wing Slayer Hunters–a group of supernatural witch hunters who have vowed to never give into the curse driving them to slaughter innocent witches. But when his little sister is death-cursed by a demon witch, Axel will stop at nothing to save her. He rescues a beautiful witch from a killer, intending to force her to magically cure his sister. The only problem? She has no idea what she is.

A deadly passion…

Darcy McAllister grew up knowing she was different, but she never imagined she’s a witch. With the life of a child at stake, she agrees to work with the hot, compelling hunter to gain control over her newfound powers. But an irresistible attraction crackles between them, creating a dangerous dilemma—can Darcy trust the man hexed to crave her blood to satisfy her aching desire?

Will their forbidden love destroy them?

As Darcy and Axel race against the clock, their explosive passion deepens to a fiery love. But when Darcy attempts to heal his sister makes her a target for a demon’s revenge, Axel will sacrifice anything, including his immortal soul, to save her.

I was lucky enough to be given this book for free from the author via Netgally.com in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you, Ms Lyon. :-)

...So, what did I like about it?

I haven’t read any of Ms Lyon’s books before and I found her writing style engaging, energetic and erotic (oh! What’s with all the “e” adjectives! Lol!). She has built a complex world of gods, demons, witches (earth base and demon bound) and witch hunters (some of who are rogue but all of who are cursed) with an interesting history and I’m intrigued to see where she’ll take us.

I must confess to needing a tissue while reading some of the scenes in this story (get your minds out of the gutter!), it gets quite emotional at times and I cried like a baby.

I love stories that highlight the fact that we all have choices and that the choices we make not only affect us but those around us too. Sometimes, the hardest thing is to take personal responsibility for those choices we make.

I’m a romantic soul and at the end of the day this is a romance novel. Two people meet, lust after each other, try to fight their feelings and don’t think they are worthy of love… (no spoilers in my reviews)

...So, ummm, was there anything I disliked about it?

Well, disliked is too strong a word but if I’m honest, the only things that I struggled with were the sex and the number of pivotal main characters.

We are given a lot of information and introduced to a lot of characters in this book and most of the characters appear at the beginning! It took me quite a while to get them all straight in my head and what each of their story was. I know this is the first book in a series and realise that these characters (and their stories) will appear in the subsequent Wing Slayer Hunter tales so I’m not completely put off by this.

Now onto the sex. ;-) We all know the difference between the story line of a porno film and a film that happens to have great sex scenes in it. I just thought that the sex scenes between our main characters, Axel & Darcy, although passionate and emotional, came about in a less than smooth or subtle way. But, hey, I’ve still given the book a 4 star rating so I’ve not been completely put of by this either. ;-)

...So, basically what I’m saying is...

I really enjoyed this fast paced, emotional, passionate and sometimes dark paranormal romance novel.

If you like your hunky heroes with a dark edge and enjoy seeing your female MCs really grow and come into their own or if you have read and enjoyed Stephanie Rowe’s Order of the Blade series try this one, it could be right up your street.