Burn the Night, Dark Awakening, and Lord of Shadows reviewed

Burn the Night
Jocelynn Drake
Harper Voyager, $7.99
ISBN: 9780062087980

The Naturi have broken free of eons of incarceration to walk the earth again. Their insane Queen Aurora plans a suicide mission to avenge their race by starting a two front war with the other paranormal species and with the humans. Her sisters Nyx and Cynnia know the cost will be extinction of their race so they agree a coup d’état is needed. The rebellious princesses need the support of Aurora’s exiled consort Rowe to cement their precarious position amongst their people.

Mira the Fire Starter and her lover Danaus the vampire slayer prepare for the final battle of the great Awakening even as the mortals remain ignorant of the horror that is beginning. The winged shapeshifters flood the skies while Mira’s focus remains divided since her father the God of Chaos wants to use her and Jabari her former mentor plans to kill her. Their only hope resides with Natui traitors who swear they want peace though Mir does not trust Nyx who has tried to kill her.

The climax to the super Dark Days saga series (see Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk) is a great ending. The action-packed story line rotates viewpoint between Mira and Nyx as an emphasis that situations make strange bedfellows. Readers will relish this series due to a strong cast in which necessity is the mother of alliances and adversaries (mindful of American relationships with Hussein). Harriet Klausner

Dark Awakening
Kendra Leigh Castle
Forever, $7.99
ISBN: 9781609418373

A war between the immortals would devastate all sides yet combat seems imminent between the known bloodlines clans in the United States. Ptolemy Queen Arsinoe needs a human female seer who can lift the enemies curse and insure victory for her side. She assigns outcast Vampire cat-shifting Tynan MacGillivray to not return without the seer.

Eight futile months later, In Tipton, Massachusetts Ty meets finds Lily Quinn a psychic of sorts who assumed vampires were in books and movies only. Ty figures he will easily charm the mortal to accompany him, but changes plans when someone tries to assassinate her. He knows he brought the adversary to her. However, he has no time for guilt or for her refusal to go with him. As they flee, he realizes he is attracted to her and would give up his Immortal life to keep his Lily safe even as he notices she possesses the mark of a vampire unlike any of the clans.

The first romantic urban fantasy Dark Dynasties thriller is a superb fast-paced tale that grips the audience from the moment the lead couple meets in New England and never slows down until the final confrontation. Kendra Leigh Castle cleverly transports the Highlander historical clan disputes into a modern age vampire clan disputes. Lily is stunned with a sudden awakening while Ty is even more bewildered as he learns that love and desire are eternally more powerful than blood. Harriet Klausner

Lord of Shadows
Alix Rickloff
Pocket, $7.99
ISBN: 9781439170373

In 1815 in Ireland, Lady Sabrina Douglas leaves her feuding clan following the murder of her father to live at a cloister where the otherworldly Danu sisterhood has hidden the hybrid fae-human for seven years. Sabrina has become Sister of High Danu, studying the underworld, protecting and hiding the Others and also working as a healer.

A severely scarred male washes ashore in a near death state. She heals the body of man who suffers from amnesia, but feels a need to help him recover his memory and heal his soul. The Abbess names him Daigh MacLir who begins to recover his memories; as he does he feels an incredible out of control rage and has superhuman skills. Sabrina and her patient share past life memories as they fall in love, but fear they have done so futilely before. Yet Daigh risks all even his relationship with his beloved to defeat the evil that owns his soul because his Sabrina deserves no less from him

The second Heirs of Kilronan paranormal Regency romance (see Earl of Darkness) is an engaging tale with a mystery involving the haunting of Daigh. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the healer and the scarred male meet and never slows down as evil must be confronted. Although the use throughout the novel of a series of fragmented phrases enhance the foreboding dark atmosphere, this technique also makes the sentence structure feel off kilter; for instance the description of the rectory as seen by the lead male. Still fans will enjoy Alix Rickloff’s latest entertaining Douglas clan saga. Harriet Klausner