​Three years after Ayla Nightshade has inherited the throne to Darkhaven, trouble is brewing on all fronts.   Ayla is finally more confident in her ability to change into her shapeshifter form, and taking care of everyday affairs for her kingdom.  Tomas has been reinstated as the Captain of the Helm and has begun training new recruits.  However, with the beginning of training comes a threat against Ayla herself, Tomas and the other shifters alive, Ayla’s nephew and brother.  With the help of Tomas, Miles, Sorrow and some new recruits, Ayla will find a way to stop the assassin and bring some peace back to Darkhaven.

I loved jumping back into the world of Darkhaven with Ayla and Tomas. From the beginning, I could tell that Ayla has grown in confidence within herself and her changer form and I loved when she took charge using her brains and brawn.  I’m glad that Ayla got to discover more about her form with Miles.  The recruitment and Helm training was also interesting to learn about and I like that more of the Fifth ring was explored. The new recruits and the mystery assassin add danger and excitement.   Ree quickly became another favourite strong female character and I can see her and Ayla becoming quite a team.  I really hope that there will be more adventures in this fun, epic, and well-developed fantasy world of Darkhaven. 
 
This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

​Ayla Nightshade is now the Overlord of Darkhaven.  She is the only adult Changer left; she can transform into a powerful Alicorn.  Ayla has been working on honing her skills both in Changer and human form with the help of Miles, an alchemist and her husband, Tomas, the Captain of the Helm.  Ayla finally feels like life is calming down, with her three children growing well and a meeting set for a Peace Treaty with an ambassador from the neighboring land of Sol Kardis, Ayla is fulfilling her role as Overlord.  However, the meeting with Sol Kardis goes terribly wrong; after Ayla and the ambassador meet in private, the ambassador suddenly dies.  Ayla is the only suspect and Sol Kardis declares war. Now, Ayla must go to the front lines with Tomas left to run Darkhaven and watch over the children while other members of the Helm frantically try to prove Ayla's innocence and figure out who is truly behind the war.

This is the third installment in the Darkhaven series.  Windsinger provided a fast-paced, action filled and suspenseful ride in the wonderful world of Darkhaven.  I was very pleased to see Ayla grow into a confident ruler, expand her powers, be comfortable in her Changer form and have nurturing relationships with her husband and children.  The suspense and intrigue grows right from the start as Ayla meets with the Kardise ambassador.  A twisted political scheme is set forth that involves many of the characters that I have gotten to know over the course of the series.  I was glad to see Sorrow, Zander, Ree and Art have important roles.  As the war rages on, I was also impressed to see Ayla in Alicorn form use her powers. As the end approaches, the tension rose to the point that I did not want to put the book down.  I was surprised at all of the players tangled up in the scheme and how they thought everything would play out. Another awesome installment into the fantasy world of Changers and Darkhaven. 

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

Author bio:
A.F.E. Smith is an editor of academic texts by day and a fantasy writer by night. So far, she hasn’t mixed up the two. She lives with her husband and their two young children in a house that someone built to be as creaky as possible – getting to bed without waking the baby is like crossing a nightingale floor. Though she doesn’t have much spare time, she makes space for reading, mainly by not getting enough sleep (she’s powered by chocolate). Her physical bookshelves were stacked two deep long ago, so now she’s busy filling up her e-reader.
What A.F.E. stands for is a closely guarded secret, but you might get it out of her if you offer her enough snacks.
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Cameron Coelho is a doctoral student studying 1920’s America.  He has become completely enraptured by a photo of a popular social column editor from Indiana that was in a bundle of personal effects belonging to Candice Bell.  As Cameron reads through her letters, news columns and diary, he learns about Candice’s life.  He is shocked when he finds out that she was murdered at a young age and intrigued that her diary holds some strange passages about her father and a mysterious cave that allowed him to travel through time.  Cameron seeks out a professor to learn more about time travel who eventually leads him to an expert on time travel and a relative of Candice Bell.  Upon meeting Geoffery, Cameron takes the opportunity to go back to the time period that he has been studying and to meet and maybe even save the woman in the picture that he has fallen far. 
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Time travel and time travel romance can be incredibly tricky, but I loved reading another of John Heldt’s books and Indiana Belle did not disappoint.  First, there is a very creative mode of time travel with a crystal system, a code and a specially built room.  This time, Cameron was transported back to a time period he loved and studied, which helped him blend in almost seamlessly.  All aspects of the 20’s were brought to life during Cameron’s visit-the good and the bad: the ease of the era, the Jazz, women gaining ground with their rights, Prohibition, bootlegging, speakeasies, and the prominence of the Ku Klux Klan.  I felt like the true feeling of the era was revealed, which was wonderful to read and what Cameron’s character really wanted to experience.   Now, one of the issues with time travel is that you cannot change the past or you will disrupt the present; Cameron went back in time fully intent on changing Candice’s path and preventing her murder.  The suspense of knowing what Cameron wanted to do and its potential impact gripped me throughout the book.  I love how everything tied up, with some things changed and some things not.  The glimpse into the future was pretty insightful also.  Overall, a creative, imaginative and well-constructive time travel romance; I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

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

Mary Beth McIntire and her sister Piper are trying to enjoy a vacation in a California historic house, the Painted Lady in June of 2017.  Piper has just graduated high school and Mary Beth has recently graduated college and plans to go on to medical school.  However, their plans suddenly change when Mary Beth spots a strange trespasser dressed in 50's clothes on the Painted Lady's yard only to have him disappear into the basement moments later.  Mark Ryan also lives in the Painted Lady, but in 1959.  A strange letter penned by Percival Bell combined with some strange rocks leads him to a hidden door in his basement and opens up onto Mary Beth's lawn in 2017.

​Having read a previous book in the American Journey series, I was ready for a unique, fast-paced time travel experience that would completely immerse me in 1959-and that is exactly what I got.  The action started immediately as Mark decided just to dive right in and try out the time travel passage after finding a letter penned by Percival Bell.  I was really surprised about his tenacity and spontaneity with traveling through time; however, Mark did use his brain and tried out a few short trips to figure out just how everything worked.  The immediate pairing of Mark and Mary Beth and Ben and Piper is quite obvious, but awfully cute as the girls are treated to the world of dating in the ‘50s and the boys are treated to independent women of 2017.  I enjoyed reading about 1950’s California, Las Vegas and Piper’s high school experience: the friendships, the cars and the dances were amazing.  There is a little bit of tension brought into the story through a sports book that Mary Beth brought from 2017, there are hints that this will cause trouble later, but it completely changes what I thought would happen.  I am always amazed at how everything can be wrapped up without too much change to the past or present, and it seems that Mark, Marybeth, Piper and Ben all got what they wanted but in a different way than they thought.  I did want to know what happened to some of the friends that everyone had in 1959, especially because they would still be alive in 2017.  Overall, an enjoyable time travel romance with a bit of drama and a lot of heart.
 
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.  


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​Claire and Ron Rasmussen have struggled with fertility and loss for the past eight years.  Wanting nothing more than to be parents, Claire and Ron turn to adoption after their last heartbreaking loss.  However, adopting a healthy, caucasian infant in present day California is another long and sometimes painful road.  When a distant aunt and uncle, the Bells, learn of Claire and Ron's struggle, they know that they have the perfect solution hidden away in the basement of their house, The Painted Lady.  Using their time travel tunnel, the Bells prepare to send Claire, Ron and Claire's brother David back to 1945 near the end of WWII.  Adoption policies are much less strict and infants are abundant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1945. Claire, Ron and David arrive safely, move into a nice house and find a perfect bundle of joy, Hannah.  They plan to stay several months until the adoption is finalized.  They make friends with a wonderful neighbor and begin to enjoy life in a different time. Nevertheless, meddling in a different time can have issues, the Rasmussen's are being watched by the FBI and Ron is forced to enlist leaving Claire and David to wonder if they will all make it back to their own home and time.


This is the fifth installment of the American Journey series and was a little different than the previous time travel romances I've read in the series.  The love in Hannah's moon was very much focused on family life making Hannah's Moon a balance between heartwarming and dramatic.  I was very happy to see that the plot pivoted on adoption;  although, as a mother, the first chapter broke me a bit and I had to put the book down for a while.  After that though, I was transported back to 1945.  John A. Heldt always done a wonderful job of conveying the time period through the eyes of his time travelers.  This time, with the help of their neighbor, Margaret, the Rasmussen's are given a full southern welcome.  I absolutely loved the adoption of Hannah and Margaret's childhood story helped to solidify their decision. Being set at the end of WWII, I was not expecting to learn much about the actual war, although, with Ron's enlistment I was very intrigued to learn about the USS Indianapolis and the what happened to the Navy members aboard the ship.  The ending of Hannah's Moon is bittersweet, I got to revisit all of time travellers from past novels as the Bell's revealed a secret.  

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