[ 414 ]

[katara]

Title: Charming

Author: Jade Linwood

Genre: Fantasy, Fairytales, Retellings, Netgalley, Science Fiction Fantasy

Date Started: February 16th, 2023

Date Finished: February 16th, 2023

Status: Finished

Rating: 4.8/5

Sypnosis: 9 to 5 with fairy tale princesses in a delightful comic fantasy revenge/heist!

Brave, Resourceful, Deceitful, Double-Crossing... Charming.

Prince Jean-Marc Charming Arundel, known to friends and enemies alike as "Prince Charming," is handsome, well-mannered, brave, a peerless swordsman, a cunning tactician – and a liar, a con man and a fraud. For years he has been travelling from one kingdom to the next, rescuing endangered princesses and maidens, securing their troths and his place in their fathers' palaces, then looting their treasuries and having it away before dawn.

Until a chance meeting of three of his victims – raven-haired Marie Blanche de Neige, the sorceress Doctor Emilia Rapunzel and the long-slumbering Bella Lucia dei’ Sogni – suggests a course of revenge...

Review: A Con-artist prince.

Three princesses out for revenge.

Holy Moley this was a fun-tastic read!

I absolutely loved how this story did some fantastic retellings of our favorite princesses - Aurora, Snow White, and Rapunzel. I even love how they gather together to prepare to dish out some justice for the prince who thought he could come into their lives, pretend to love them while robbing the families' vaults, and then run away. Yeah, that is not how you make a name for yourself. xD Seriously, I could not help but cheer on those girls.

Our Prince Charming, well he is anything but Charming. He is a con artist, a swindler, and so full of himself that he won't be caught. Yeah, sorry hun, but you played your hand wayyyy too many times and those girls - they are not playing whatever game you got.

This book was fun and engaging. The storyline is lush and original and the characters are so well-written that I loved them. I am glad to see some bad ass girls from fairytales. You don't often see those. Most are just pansy damsels-in-distress. These girls break the mold and that is wonderful to see. You have the naive girl, the girl locked up in the tower, and the princess forced to take over a kingdom because her father would not do so. I got he was mourning but I am glad to see the princess step up.

This story is not your average story. These girls are great and you will come to love each and every one of them.


Thank you Netgalley, author, and Solaris for giving me a chance to give an honest opinion of this book.

[ 415 ]

[katara]

Title: Willing

Series: The Un series

Author: Izzy Sweet, Sean Moriarty

Genre: Romance, Vampires, Paranormal, Fantasy, Dark, Fated Mates, Erotica, Folklore, Supernatural, Contemporary, Monsters, Smut, Adult

Date Started: February 17th, 2023

Date Finished: February 17th, 2023

Status: Finished

Rating: 4.8/5

Sypnosis: All my life I’ve been running from a monster.

Afraid he’ll catch me and doom me to eternal damnation.

Born with a mark declaring I’m one of the few women in the world that can be turned into a vampire, I’ve lived in fear and isolation.

Protected and sheltered by the only humans willing to stand up to vampires, the Order of Saint Benedict.

But when the monster starts hunting me in my dreams, the truth of the mark I bear is revealed.

We’re connected. Two halves of a soul that have been separated.

Now there’s nowhere to hide.

He can feel me wherever I am.

And he’s determined to show me he’s not only my destiny…

He is completion.

Review: I have a question for the authors - by chance was this book inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade? The reason I asked is that the characters feel quite like the Ventrue, Malkavian, Toreador, Gangrel, etc.

I used to play it and the characters for this book just felt like it had been written with this game in mind. Maybe I am just reading into the characters too much. xD

Anyway, moving forward...

Imagine the moment when your fated/soul marked has been born but an Order is doing everything possible to keep the vampire and his fated from each other. This is a death sentence for the vampire. Much like cancer that if the two do not find each other, the vampire can possibly die from it. Asher and Chloe are one fated pair that the Order is doing to stop from being completed. Dominic, the Father of the Order, hates the fated humans so he even goes further by doing everything possible to kill Chloe. He forces her out of the church late at night and even goes much further by telling her to kill herself.

And when she comes home, she finds her roommate with a vampire. She tries to escape but the vampire takes her to his place. He has no idea that she is fated and that her vampire is not happy.

The world-building, the characters, and the fated mates are really nicely fleshed out. I would love to learn more about the fated mates because I think this would be an interesting tale. How did it come about? What if their fated mate does not find each other? How does this affect both? And what happens if the female/male human cannot find theirs? Do they feel like they are dying?

I know I am problem asking too much right now. LOL. But Asher and Chloe - I love both of them. I loved how Asher really loves Chloe and he goes far beyond to find her. Chloe is scared. She has been raised by the Order and they have drilled it into her that she needs to stay away from her fated vampire. They even have a hunter become friends with her.

This makes Chloe fearful of Asher and she tries everything to avoid him but in the end, the links between them are far too strong and the two of them come together.

This book is just the beginning of this series and I am looking forward to seeing how this entire series plays out.