Hero’s Haven (Dark Protectors #11). By Rebecca Zanetti.

Hero’s Haven (Dark Protectors #11). By Rebecca Zanetti. 2020. Lyrical Press (ARC eBook).

For centuries, vampire-demon hybrid, Quade Karys, has been in another dimension, far away from Earth and his family. As a member of The Seven, his purpose was to keep a dangerous enemy imprisoned within a pocket between worlds. But just as Quade feels his body and mind failing and succumbing to delusions of a beautiful woman that visits him, the dimension collapses. He is saved by his beautiful stranger by traveling back to Earth through a portal of her creation. Now, he and Haven Daly are being are being pursued by Ulric’s followers, who want to use Haven’s abilities to return Ulric to Earth.

Quade’s reintegration into a world he has long been parted from leads to some humorous scenes, especially his discovered fondness for eating mint toothpaste. And as the two search for the surviving members of Quade’s family, Haven discovers that she is a part of a world she never knew existed; one that has vampires, demons, shifters, fae and more. All the while, the two of them have to adjust to each other and Haven is as stubborn as Quade is overprotective.

The world Zanetti has created is full of action, romance and humor that will keep readers coming back to this series.

306 pages

Not His Werewolf (Not This #2). By Annie Nicholas.

Not His Werewolf (Not This #2). By Annie Nicholas. 2017. Annie Nicholas. ASIN: B071DNP1L9 (Kindle).

A fated mates story with a charming and earnest werewolf and his lady love who worries he might have been tranquilized by animal control one too many times. One cranky dragon included.

461 pages

Wicked Cowboy Wolf (Seven Range Shifters #3). By Kait Ballenger.

Wicked Cowboy Wolf (Seven Range Shifters #3). By Kait Ballenger. 2020. Sourcebooks Casablanca (ARC ebook).

Years ago a young Jared Black was cast from the Grey Wolf pack for a crime he took the fall for. Surviving the years that followed shaped the boy into a hardened criminal. As the leader of misfit wolves, he is known only as Rogue, and he is now offering a solution to the oncoming vampire threat to Maeve Gray, the sister of the Grey Wolf pack's alpha. All she has to do is ally herself with the mysterious wolf with as many scars on his soul as his body.

A new author and series for me, Ballenger delivers a story full of banter, misfits, secrets, chemistry and an ornery pet pig. I will be picking up more books in this series. Fans of paranormal romance and shifters will enjoy the protective alpha hero and feisty heroine in Wicked Cowboy Wolf.

While I think this romance can be read as a standalone, it is important to note that it is the third book in the series and involves an overall threat and story arc to the series’ plot.

352 pages

Wolf Rebel (SWAT #10). By Paige Tyler.

Wolf Rebel (SWAT #10). By Paige Tyler. 2019. Sourcebooks Casablanca (ARC eBook).

Police officer Rachel Bennett has had a rough go of it in the past year. Brutally injured by a crazed man while responding to a dispatch call in a graveyard in the middle of the night, she recovers only to discover that the close call triggered her transformation into a werewolf. Now she’s a member of the Dallas Police Department’s Special Wolf Alpha Team (SWAT), a division made up of werewolves, and her latest assignment is working a protection detail for an Assistant District Attorney. Plagued by nightmares, strange smells and hallucinations of her attacker, Rachel hopes work will be enough to distract her from her mental crisis, but then she learns that she’ll be working alongside Knox Lawson, and her troubles multiply.
 

This is new author and series to me. Wolf Rebel is the 10^th installment of SWAT, but can be read as a standalone well enough. While there is the standard paranormal fare of fated mates and enemies to lovers, Rachel and Knox’s story switches it up by having her, a relative novice at being a werewolf, training an even newer werewolf in Knox. Wolf Rebel delivers two people pulled together against all odds, but it is more heavy on the action than the romance, and there are some creepy moments where Rachel’s past comes back to haunt her that adds an element of suspense as well as an interesting look into Tyler’s supernatural world. Overall, an action-packed and entertaining read with a bit of steam on the side.

320 pages

Slave to Sensation (Psy/Changeling #1). By Nalini Singh, Narrator: Angela Dawe.

Slave to Sensation (Psy/Changeling #1). By Nalini Singh, Narrator: Angela Dawe. 2014. Tantor Media, Inc. ISBN: 978145622019 (Unabridged audiobook, 9 hours 38 mins).

This series is set in the future where the human race has developed into three distinct groups: Human, Psy, and Changeling. Psy have enhanced psychic abilities at the cost of erasing their emotions through the conditioning protocol Silence. The Psy Council totes Silence as being the vehicle that curtailed violence in Psy society. They dominate the political, business and economic sectors and if something untoward happens, well then, it must be the Humans or shape-shifting Changelings to blame.

When several Changeling women are brutally murdered, black panther Changeling and Alpha of the Dark River Leopard Pack, Lucas Hunter, believes the killer is Psy. With the hope of gaining access to the Psy Council’s most protected secrets he forges a business relationship with a Cardinal Psy, Sascha Duncan. Slowly, Lucas’s sensual heat melts Sascha’s icy exterior and together they begin to scratch away the placid surface of Silence and the Net Mind and find the depths more sinister than they ever imagined.

Slave to Sensation has depth and complexity in the world and characters. Singh is a strong writer and Dawe is an adept narrator.

352 pages

MOBIUS 

Visions of Heat (Psy/Changeling Series #2). By Nalini Singh, Narrator: Angela Dawe.

Visions of Heat (Psy/Changeling Series #2). By Nalini Singh, Narrator: Angela Dawe. 2014. Tantor Media, Inc. ISBN: 9781452622002 (Unabridged audiobook, 9 hours 43 mins).

Picking up where Slave to Sensation leaves off, Faith Nightstar is an F-Psy, a foreseer, and she is dreaming of murders. Troubled by her dreams, she sets out to find the only Psy she believes can help her, Sascha Duncan, who is now branded a Psy-traitor and living with the Dark River Changelings. It isn’t easy-going for Faith as F-Psys are rare and valued so highly by Psy elite that they are raised in controlled, isolated environments, in conjunction with their Silence programming. As a result, she doesn’t fare well with others who are not Psy, especially Vaughn D’Angelo. Vaughn is Dark River’s Sentinel, the Alpha’s Second-In-Command, and while his jaguar nature keeps him quiet and solitary, his deadly presence alone is overwhelming to Faith.

Silence remains an overarching plot and more is revealed about machinations within the Psy Council, as well as the other side of the Net Mind, the Dark Net. There is a Minority Report vibe from the top down concerning Psy society. The Snow Dancer Wolf Pack also makes a reappearance. Overall, solid writing and narration. That it is the heroine who has to learn to feel emotions instead of the hero puts a spin on the typical romance story; so if you liked that direction in Kresley Cole’s No Rest for the Wicked, then give Visions of Heat a read for a different take on it.

356 pages