Review: Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz

Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz
Series: The Lost Night Files, Book 3
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense 

ISBN: ‎ 9780593639917
Release Date: January 7, 2025
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

Amelia Rivers, a member of the Lost Night Files podcast team, hires private investigator Gideon Sweetwater to catch the stalker who has been watching her. Amelia suspects the stalker may be connected to the shadowy organization responsible for the night that she and her two friends lost to amnesia—a night that upended their lives and left them with paranormal talents.

Gideon suspects that Amelia is either paranoid or an outright con artist, but he can’t resist the chemistry between them. He takes the case despite his skepticism. For her part, Amelia has second thoughts about the wisdom of employing the mysterious Mr. Sweetwater. She is wary of the powerful attraction between them, and deeply uneasy about the nightmarish paintings on the walls of his home. She senses they were inspired by his own dreamscapes.

Amelia knows she doesn’t have time to find another investigator, and Gideon is forced to reckon with the truth when he disrupts what was intended to be Amelia’s kidnapping. Now the pair is on the run, with no choice but to return to the haunting ruins of the old hotel where Amelia’s lost night occurred. They are desperate to stop a killer and the people who are conducting illegal experiments with a dangerous drug that is designed to enhance psychic abilities. If they are to survive, they will have to trust each other and the passion that bonds them.

The final book in the Lost Night Files trilogy brings the answers Amelia, Pallas, and Talia have been looking for. Shattering Dawn is an entertaining, action-packed read that brought the trilogy to a mostly-satisfying close.

As with the previous two couples, Amelia and Gideon’s supernatural abilities match each other like lock and key. Amelia is a photographer whose paranormal skills work best in the dark and Gideon is an injured private investigator who is skeptical but interested in the tale Amelia brings him. His own skills are lethal and keep him from wanting to get close to anyone, but he and Amelia are of course, well suited. Their romance is easy to enjoy and they have a good rhythm that makes the pages of the book fly by.

At the heart of the story, however, is the search for answers. What happened to Amelia and her friends during their “lost night”? Who is responsible and what are they up to? To find answers, Amelia and Gideon are going to have to use all their skills and dodge supernatural-powered assassins. Jayne Ann Krentz keeps the action going for the whole story which made it an entertaining read. However, the resolution wasn’t completely satisfying for me. I won’t spoil the story, but at times it felt like Krentz was more interested in connecting and expanding her “Jayneverse” (connecting her Krentz, Jayne Castle, and Amanda Quick books together) than bringing the particular series she was in to a satisfying close. Even with that caveat, I still liked the book overall. Shattering Dawn has entertaining characters, a fast-moving plot, and is typical of Krentz’s style, which I do enjoy.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More

Review: How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein
Series: The Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures, Book 1
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre: Paranormal Romance 

ISBN: 9781250352330
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible

When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again.

Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. But Cassie just isn’t sure if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal.

Totally doable. Until they get hit with a do-or-die mating bond. And now the heat is rising, in between fights with formers bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in. Unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted.

It has been over a decade since Cassie Camberwell has seen former best friend Seth Brubaker – not since he embarrassed her in front of everyone in town and sided with the bullies that had always tormented them. Now Cassie is back in Hollow Brook to handle her late grandmother’s home and who should appear but Seth. Seth who is in worse shape than Cassie had expected to ever see him in…and that’s before he transforms into a werewolf. A world of magic opens up before Cassie and she discovers she’s a witch…which is only the beginning of the possibilities and problems that lay ahead of her.

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is billed as What We Do in the Shadows meets the feeling of Gilmore Girls and it’s neither of those. Charlotte Stein’s first Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures book had a lot of potential but was an absolute miss for me.

Let’s start with our protagonists: Cassie and Seth. They are over a decade out of high school and honestly, this book would have been better if it was written as a young adult book because they still act like teenagers. They’re both immature and I think what was supposed to be humorous banter was just cringy and awkward. The romance was painfully awkward and full of so much back and forth that I put the book down numerous times. I’m not going keep going on about it, so suffice it to say I didn’t enjoy any aspect of the characters and their semi-development, nor did I enjoy the romance.

The supernatural world of How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is where the story had the most potential. The sentient appliances and Pod, Cassie’s raccoon familiar, were the highlight of the book. However, what should have been a wonderful world of magic and discovery felt inorganic and flat. There’s a way to write a main character who discovers they have innate abilities, to show that things come naturally to them in a way that feels organic. How Cassie’s magical abilities were described felt like lazy writing. It took me three months to read this book because I kept getting annoyed by the writing. Overall, I just could not bring myself to like anything about Cassie and Seth’s story (except, perhaps, Pod). The intended humor missed me by a mile, but your mileage may vary. How to Help a Hungry Werewolf simply isn’t the book for me and I won’t be continuing the series.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More

Review: No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt

No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt
Series: Greycourt, Book 3
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Historical Romance 

ISBN: 9781538763582
Release Date: December 10, 2024
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Audible
Elizabeth Hoyt Reading Order

Cold and brooding, Julian Greycourt, the heir to the Windemere dukedom, has always known that his uncle the duke was responsible for his mother’s death. Now he’s determined to exact revenge against his uncle—if he can find the proof. But Julian hides a secret so explosive it will destroy him if it’s ever revealed, and the duke is watching. The last thing he needs is a distractingly sensual woman whose very presence threatens to destroy his plans.

Sunny and cheerful, Lady Elspeth de Moray doesn’t know why her brother and Julian fell out all those years ago, but she can’t let the autocratic man get in the way of her mission: to retrieve an ancient family text that she believes is in one of the Windemere libraries. Locating the tome, however, proves trickier than she anticipated, and at each turn, she’s thrown together with the maddingly mysterious Julian. And the temptation to give in to her family’s greatest enemy grows stronger with each intriguing encounter…

It has been quite some time since I’ve had the chance to dive into an Elizabeth Hoyt novel, so from the first page with the fairytale beginning it was like greeting an old friend. No Ordinary Duchess is an engaging story that isn’t perfect but is entertaining nonetheless.

Julian Greycourt holds himself apart from everyone, even his siblings. Then Elspeth de Moray bursts into his life, making his walls crumble and his knees weak. Julian is searching for proof that will save his siblings from the machinations of his evil uncle. Elspeth is searching for an ancient diary she believes will help bring the Wise Women she grew up among back together. The diary is supposed to be at one of the Greycourt family libraries and getting to it may be harder than she first thought.

Julian and Elspeth are a grumpy/sunshine duo who are utterly charming. Julian is a secret submissive in the bedroom and is terrified of what would happen if knowledge got out. Elspeth cares not a whit for society’s opinion and she’s a perfect fit for Julian. Their romance is sensual and sweet and I enjoyed watching them fall in love.

Putting a rating on No Ordinary Duchess is hard for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the characters, and Hoyt’s writing swept me away. That being said, this book is not without its flaws. The threats against Julian, Elspeth, and their loved ones are many but all dispatched with very little consequence, the climax of the story feeling weak in comparison to the setup. As with the first Greycourt book, the Wise Women plotlines feel underdeveloped. The ongoing mystery of who murdered Julian’s sister years ago continues to slowly unfold, though that’s to be expected as there are many Greycourt and de Moray siblings yet to find love.

No Ordinary Duchess is a flawed story, but for me, the characters and Hoyt’s writing make up for it. I absolutely enjoyed seeing Julian and Elspeth come into their own, claim what they wanted, and fall in love. I cannot wait to see where Elizabeth Hoyt takes the Greycourts and de Morays next!



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More

Review: Fortune’s Holiday Surprise by Jennifer Wilck

Fortune’s Holiday Surprise by Jennifer Wilck
Series: The Fortunes of Texas: Fortune’s Secret Children, Book 5
Publisher: Harlequin
Genre: Contemporary Romance 

ISBN: 9781335996763
Source: Publisher
Buy it here: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Harlequin

He’d lost the holiday spirit…

Until she brought light back into his life.

Rancher Arlo Fortune is devastated when he loses his best friend in a tragic accident. The only thing that heals him is opening his heart to his friend’s adorable daughter, Aviva…and his friend’s grieving sister-in-law, the brand-new guardian to the orphaned child. Carrie Kaplan has one mission: to lavish her niece with love in a Jewish home like her sister always wanted. Her stop in Chatelaine is only temporary. Right? But as she teaches Aviva about the miracle of Hanukkah, holiday magic might just beckon from Arlo’s ranch around the bend…

Fortune’s Holiday Surprise is a story of finding love after loss. Carrie and Arlo’s worlds have both been turned upside down. Carrie lost her sister and brother-in-law and now finds herself in a small Texas town, guardian to her niece. Her brother-in-law was Arlo’s best friend and he’s grieving for the man and still coming to terms with the death of his father and the secrets that man may have left behind. It sounds like a lot – and it is – but author Jennifer Wilck balances the sadness with sweetness and light.

Carrie is learning to be a mother and to find her footing in a world without her sister. Randi wanted Carrie to teach her daughter, Aviva, their traditions and the Jewish representation in Fortune’s Holiday Surprise is wonderful. Carrie’s family are Sephardic Jews and it was a delight to see the Sephardic-specific Hanukkah traditions and treats featured here. Carrie and Aviva also help Arlo re-find the spirit of Christmas and the family traditions the Fortunes enjoy, which was charming.

Arlo and Carrie’s romance is sweet, low on drama, and just plain charming. Grief and love for Aviva bring them together but the friendship then love story that develops out of it is lovely. Fortune’s Holiday Surprise is a delightful holiday treat celebrating love, family, and traditions old and new.



FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Read More