#FreeReads - Getting Wilde

Read if you like: kickass female characters, awesome treasure hunts, and the best of urban fantasy.

Getting Wilde | Jenn Bennett

Series: Immortal Vegas

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Released: August 18th 2015
Pages: 292
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased

Using her well-worn Tarot deck, magical-artifacts hunter Sara Wilde can find anything—for a price. And the price had better be right, since she needs to finance her own personal mission to rescue several young psychics recently sold on the paranormal black market.

Enter Sara’s most mysterious client and occasional lover, the wickedly sexy Magician, with a job that could yield the ultimate payday. All she’ll have to do is get behind Vatican walls… and steal the Devil himself.

But play with the Devil and you’re bound to get burned.

Pressure mounts for Sara to join the Magician’s ancient and mysterious Arcana Council, as militant forces unleashed by even darker powers seek to destroy all magic—including the young psychics Sara is desperate to keep safe. The Council may be their only hope. . . but it could also expose Sara’s own dark past.

From the twisting catacombs of Rome to the neon streets of Vegas, Sara confronts ancient enemies, powerful demigods, a roiling magical underworld about to explode… and immortal passions that might require the ultimate sacrifice. But oh, what a way to go.

No matter how the cards play out, things are about to get Wilde.

This is honestly my favourite urban fantasy series. I remember reading the prequel short ages ago and liking it but when I read this book I fell SO HARD for the characters. It doesn't hurt that there's some sizzling slow-burn romance, awesome perilous quests, and a story that keeps getting better and better. I love everything about this book, and even more about this series.

5 stars

#FreeInKU - Queen Takes Knights

Read if you like: women who can hold their own, alpha males in HEALTHY relationships, and hot-as-hell romance.

Queen Takes Knights | Joely Sue Bukhart

Series: Their Vampire Queen

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance, Reverse Harem
Released: October 17th 2017
Pages: 190
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited

A lost virgin vampire queen. Two vampire knights sworn to protect her.
It’s about to get very hot… and bloody…

Ever since her mother was murdered by monsters five years ago, Shara Isador has been on the run. Alone, scared, and exhausted, she’s finally cornered in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Out of hope with nowhere else to turn, she’s ready to end it all when two men come to her rescue.

They say she’s a lost queen descended from Isis, and they’re her Blood, vampire knights sworn to protect her. It all seems like a crazy nightmare, until the alpha offers his blood. Then she realizes she’s never wanted anything more. Except maybe his body… and his friend’s, too.

But they’re not the only ones searching for a lost queen. Shara must learn how to wield her new powers quickly and conquer her fears if she intends to keep them all alive.

Paranormal romance with not one but TWO alphas who aren't domineering, controlling, or problematic. This book is awesome. Steamy, awesomely dangerous, and a story that is genuinely interesting with a plot twist. And consent is SO important in this. I love it so much and need the next book!

5 stars

#FreeReads - Hex Appeal

Read if you like: steamy urban fantasy, paranormal dangers, and snarky female characters

Hex Appeal | Tricia Owens

Series: Moonlight Dragon

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: Ebook
Source: Free on Instafreebie

BLURB FROM DESCENDED FROM DRAGONS:

To save Sin City, she must battle Hell. Too bad the odds are against her.

Beneath the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas lies another city. A secret city in plain sight, full of warlocks and demons, shapeshifters and golems. A city that feeds off the chance magick that is generated by gamblers and which is ruled by mysterious beings called the Oddsmakers.

It is in this strange underbelly of the occult that Anne Moody runs a cursed pawn shop for the desperate, the curious, and the magickally inclined. Though the job is boring, it keeps her under the radar. None of her customers have any inkling that she is a dragon sorceress with a power that's been feared throughout history. One day, a visitor to her shop pawns a stone statue that is more than it appears. The statue is a gargoyle named Vale, who is shrouded in mystery and secrets. When she learns that Vale is possessed, and that the person responsible for cursing him plans to take over Las Vegas with a horde of demons from Hell, Anne realizes it is up to her to defy the Oddsmakers and save the city, and possibly the world.

I love this series and this short was awesome. I got a bit annoyed by a few comments but I was able to ignore them in order of enjoying the story, the paranormal trouble, and the totally epic characters. I love Anne, and Melly, and Vale, and I would read any story with them to be honest. This one was awesome, and really creative.

#FreeReads - Born Of Faerie

Read if you like: fast paced urban fantasy, badass female characters, and supernatural creatures

Born of Faerie | WB McKay

Series: Stolen Magic

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format: Ebook
Source: Free on Instafreebie

Prequel to Stolen Magic series available from author website.

Sophie Morrigan knows she needs to set the tone for her new life. Being drowned by a dragon certainly sets a tone.

A newly minted agent for the Faerie Affairs Bureau, Sophie is excited to retrieve her first magical object. Unfortunately, her boss ruins it by assigning her a partner she doesn’t need. When her first day sends her limping home with water in her lungs, she has to consider that she might be in over her head.

Can Sophie quash her loner tendencies and learn to work with an annoying selkie partner? Or will she wind up another piece of junk in a dragon’s hoard?

A great addition to the Stolen Magic series. I loved seeing the start of Sophie's and Art's partnership, and how the main threat was a water dragon instead of the usual fire-breathing kind. Fast paced and awesome and a great entry into the series if you haven't started it yet.

#FreeReads - Stag's Run

Read if you like: queer romance, sweeping fantasy worlds, political tension, assassinations

Stag's Run | Zaya Feli

Series: Iron Breakers

Published by: Zaya Feli, November 18th 2016
Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+
Pages: 237
Format: Ebook
Source: Free on Kindle

Ren Frayne is the bastard son of the Queen of Frayne, a title he’s more than comfortable with when it brings him limited responsibilities and all the luxuries of life he could ever want. But when the king and Ren’s half-brother, Crown Prince Hellic are brutally murdered, Ren is accused. Now, he is forced to flee the city together with the mysterious prisoner Anik who may know how to survive in the wild, but who seems to have an agenda of his own, one that may spell danger for Ren.

Ren’s accuser now sits on his family’s throne, and things are about to get much, much worse. It may be time to seek help in unexpected places. 

There's a lot I could talk about with this book - the great characterisation, the growth, the well written world, the tense and exciting politics, the fast pace that kept me reading - but I just want to dwell on one particular plot point, and that's the fact that cows basically save the day. Cow soldiers. Cattle as secret weapons. This book is great - read it!

#FreeReadsWeek Day 7 - A Mini Review

It's the final day in my reading challenge! I've got through a lot of books I wanted to read so I'm very happy! Tomorrow I'll have a round up of my reading and another review. Here's my thoughts on Maggie For Hire, an urban fantasy novel.

This had everything I was looking for - and bonus elves! Fun, packed full of paranormal creatures, and with a heroine I can admire and empathise with. I loved that the story revolved around vampires, and how cunning they were (and that they had a legit motive for doing bad things, not just Evil.) The portals between the Other Side was also pretty cool. Fun, vampy urban fantasy (if you'll pardon the pub) with the perfect hint of slow burning romance and snarky teasing. This is one series I'll read the entire of!

Did you join in this week? Leave a comment with which free books you read!
~Saruuh

#FreeReadsWeek Day 1 - Two Mini Reviews

Ayyyyyyyy, its the first day in my reading challenge! I've done pretty decent (except for those couple times I hashtagged #ReadFreeWeek. Oops.) I read two novellas today, and tomorrow I'll be reading a novel!

Tense, funny, and sexy all rolled into one novella. I love Sara already and the Magician is crazy enticing. I know already the series is going to be epic and I can't wait to dive in!

I wasn't really hooked by anything. Day-to-day school life doesn't interest me, and I didn't get attached to the characters, so this short story wasn't for me!

#FreeReadsWeek reading challenge!

If you're anything like me, you've been downloading free books onto your ereader for years and acquired a pretty hefty stack of unread books. I wanted to dedicate a week to reading as many of these free books as possible in a week, and thought you guys might like to join me.

The challenge takes place 15th July - 21 July

Begin reading whenever it's 00:00 in your time zone. For me it runs from 00:00 GMT on 15th July to 11:59 GMT on 21st July.

The rules are simple:

Read as many free books as you're capable of

This includes books you got during a free promotion and permafree books

Post as many reviews as you can! If you don't have a blog, twitter reviews, Goodreads, and Instagram are all awesome!

(Reviews are massively important to indie authors and help readers find these books, even when they're as short as one line, but if you're not able to write a review please at least rate the book on the retailer you purchased from.)

Use the hashtag #FreeReadsWeek whenever possible

And feel free to save the above banner and share it

Let me know if you're joining me!

~Saruuh

The Lux Guardians

So this post is all about that banner up there. The one above this post. The free book one. Yeah, that's the one.

You may or may not know (if you read the header ... you probably will) that I write young adult books. I write fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction. My debut, the first book in the Lux Guardians series, THE FORGOTTEN, is a young adult dystopian.

I'll put the blurb at the end of this post, but I wanted to talk about the other important thing about The Lux Guardians. The fact that it's free. I've always wanted to release a book for free. Reading is a form of escape, and a very common one. So many people turn to books to get away from their problems, to escape from real life, to immerse themselves in a world where they do not need to face or acknowledge anything from the 'real world'. 

I am one of those people, and though I have always been surrounded by books and the worlds tucked away inside their pages, sometimes I need a new world to run to. Sometimes, though familiarity is comforting, books you know by heart are not enough. Sometimes you need to read something unknown, to be caught up in the mystery, in not knowing what will happen next, and in a completely new setting with new characters.

But new books cost money. And young adults don't always have money. Hell - even adults don't always have money. But then there is no new book to turn to, no sanctuary to fall into. And that is why The Lux Guardians is free.

Also it's kind of going back to how stories were passed on through word of mouth, through family member after family member after family member. Stories were free then. My stories are free now. I'm sure eventually I'll need to publish my books through a publisher, that I'll need money to support and sustain myself, but for now my words are free. That being said, I do accept donations. So if you want to support me ... that's how!

Anyway, enough of that, here's the summary of The Forgotten:

Good and goodness will prevail.

Honour and Horatia Frie are twins living in a world of wreck and ruin. Forgotten London is a dismal place of containment, rationing, and a four-family-per-house regulation. 

Twenty five years ago the world was set ablaze when solar flares obliterated three quarters of the Earth’s population and wiped out whole continents in one blow. The flares brought with them The Sixteen Strains: agonizing and fatal diseases that plague each of the forty one zones of Forgotten London and the rest of the world. The only places that escaped fatal damage were two countries now known as The Cities – States and Bharat. The rest of the world – The Forgotten Lands – is contained within borders for the people’s protection against even deadlier Strains outside the barrier. But fifteen year old Honour thinks differently. He thinks that they’re kept inside the fence for other, more menacing reasons. He thinks that States are planning to kill them. 

Branwell and Bennet Ravel are twins living in a world of danger and secrecy.

In Victorian London, years before the solar flares hit, the Ravels’ world has just been turned upside down. Their father, poisoned by something even genius Branwell can’t determine, has passed away. His dying words were unnerving orders to keep each other safe no matter the cost, and to hide everything he has ever invented. When one of his creations goes missing – a device named The Lux that can generate unlimited energy – the twins are shocked to discover that their very own government has stolen it and, according to their father’s journals, are planning to use it to create unfathomable explosions to destroy their world.

The Ravel twins will have to find and reclaim The Lux if they are to stop their world’s planned destruction, but when they’re transported to an unfamiliar, derelict world, the search for the device will become harder than ever. Honour and Horatia, against all odds, will have to find a way to stop States before the remainder of Earth is eradicated and their world is lost for good, or somehow get every single citizen of Forgotten London outside of the fence.

The Forgotten will be released 20.06.13 in eBook, and 30.07.13 in paperback. For a paperback copy sign up to the waiting list.

If you made it to the end of this post, and read the entire thing, you should be knighted. Thank you.