The Deception Dance
A paranormal thriller and romance with plenty of handsome demons and demon-hunters. 

Eighteen year old Raven Smith wants to take a nice sight-seeing vacation to Europe and spend some time with her older sister, Linnie before she sets off to college in the fall.  However, right from the start things are not going so well for Raven.  Linnie's cute, charismatic and rich roommate Chauncey butts in on the sister's trip and even insists on sitting next to Raven on the plane ride over instead of the seat that she purchased for herself.  From the time the three ladies land in Rome, Italian men are all over them.  This is right up Chauncey's alley, but not at all what Raven wants. 

Before she knows it Raven is involved in a love triangle with beautiful and mysterious Andras, who she is inexplicably drawn to with a deep passion even though he seems dangerous and an equally beautiful Sweede, Nicholas who feels drawn to protect her.  As secrets unravel, Raven's world is turned upside down and she will have to die, be reborn and fight a demon in order to find out who she really is.

This book took off a little slow for me once past the prologue.  However, once Raven is knee deep in demons and demon-hunters, I couldn't put it down.  I don't usually like all the romance aspects, but this love triangle between Raven, Andras and Nicholas was well done and I really didn't know who to root for.  I wish there was a little more insight into Raven's past life, that was really interesting to me.  I also want to know more about the beautiful demon-hunting Swedish men and their pasts.  We'll see what happens in the next book, The Lie Spinners.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.

The Lie Spinners
Book two of The Deception Dance Series
Picking up a year after The Deception Dance ends, Raven is now safely attending school and receiving training along with an army of bodyguards.  However, Raven knows that the demon Andras will soon be coming back for her.  Before Raven can worry about Andras, however, the earth witch Madeline calls in Raven's life debt for bringing Raven back to life a year ago.  If Raven does not carry out Madeline's wishes, Raven will slowly rot.  Madeline wants Raven to travel to Thailand and bring back Stephen who was tracking down a mysterious magician called the Spider.. Everyone else that Madeline has sent there has vanished. 

I am glad to see Raven grow in personal strength in this book.  She has received some training and has gained confidence.  I don't like that she is still being used as a pawn and isn't filled in on very important information pertaining to her, but still told she is making stupid mistakes. Really, she  is doing what any nineteen year old woman would do and it is easy to emphasize with her.   The Deception Dance is filled with a lot more action throughout the entire story and we get to meet more exciting demons, witches and magicians.  Thailand is a great setting with it's rich folklore and fun party scene with the Full Moon Parties of Koh Phangan, all of it is described vividly.  There are definitely loose ends to tie up here and much more that I would like to know, so I'll be looking forward to the next book in the series.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review by the author.

Part One
This is the first installment of The Covington Witches, a story in six parts.  In the first book we meet the Covington Family and the character we follow, Imara. Imara is a strong-willed businesswoman who runs her own catering company in Philadelphia with the help of her family.  In fact, all of the businesses her family owns only employ other family members.  Just as her catering business begins to boom, she and her cousins are called to North Carolina to attend the funeral of her Great-Uncle. While in North Carolina all of the Covington's stay at her Great Aunt's sprawling estate on the water. While staying at the house, Imara notices a few strange things and when they bury her uncle in the family cemetery, she is pulled into the secrets of her family.

Since this is the first book in the installment, there is not a lot of action, but there is a lot of slow build of suspense and character development.  It does read more like the few first chapters of a longer work...which I guess it is.  I like the different setting of this story for a book about witches, also that this is an African American family.  The story does leave us in limbo at the end, so right now I am anxious for the second installment.

This book was received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Denial is a Romantic Young Adult Fantasy, but with goblins!

Emma knows that she is different, something not quite human. Apart from being adopted she has intense blue eyes that seem to glow and when she gets angry she can do things, like make things explode. RIght now Emma would just like to get through her senior year of high school, but with the arrival of gorgeous and cocky Ames Cahn, Emma just can't help but feeling drawn to him and repulsed by him at the same time. Ames has the same kind of glowing eyes as her, as seems to have some sort of impact on her emotional state. He also has some dark secrets and knows a lot more about her than about herself.



Denial is a different kind of fantasy, although in the same vein as Twilight. The point of view switches between Emma's and Ames' point of view. In the very beginning this is a little annoying since Emma and Ames recount the exact same scene, but with their own emotions. After the first few chapters, this aspect improves greatly and each point of view actually moves the story along and is needed to see things from different places. Emma and Ames relationship is a little frustrating, but it is supposed to be that way; the entire book they are denying each other their true feelings and continuously pissing each other off even though they are drawn to each other with intense passion. I really did like the idea of goblins in a book and the way that they were portrayed. We started to learn a little bit of the goblin history in Denial and I hope to learn more in the subsequant books.