Review: Allure of the Wolf (The Seraphine Thomas Series Book 2) by Erin R Flynn

Allure of the Wolf by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Passion and Trauma

This book was an excellent follow up from the first in the series. Sera continues to impress me as a character. She is strong, but shows the fractures, as her past causes her to mistrust help that is offered and waits to be let down by those who profess to care for her.

Sera is under constant pressure from everyone to take over as Alpha of the Chicago pack. She’s been werewolf for under two months and though she is powerful she just doesn’t understand the supernatural politics, the rules of being a shifter, or even her own powers, let alone how to run a pack. But there is a driving pressure to get rid of the current Alpha who is hurting his pack, mainly the women.

Sera is also trying to walk a fine line in trying to keep her siren and wolf happy and also the two men she sovereigned. With so many other people relying on her for the first time in her life, she sometimes doesn’t know how to handle it.

Sera is such an admirable character that I want to know her, she’s definitely one of my favourite urban fantasy heroines of recent years.

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Review: Accidentally Wolf (The Seraphine Thomas Series Book 1) by Erin R Flynn

Accidentally Wolf by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great New Urban Fantasy Series

I only discovered this author very recently and I’m so glad I did. This first book in the series is fantastic. Seraphine Thomas is my new hero, she strong, determined, a consummate professional and takes no nonsense from anyone. She’s a Special Agent in Charge in the FBI in Chicago and is undercover when she takes a claw swipe from a werewolf. Her life is transformed overnight as she is pronounced a shifter and moved to the paranormal unit within the FBI.

Sera has always been a high achiever but doesn’t have many friends and being introduced to the supernatural community involves a bit of a learning curve, not to mention she’s not exactly the usual werewolf, as she keeps finding out.

The author has done a great job of constructing and explaining an alternate reality where supernaturals came out of the closet in the last 15 years or so. She has created a world where different types of supernaturals have different rules and customs and interact with each other differently. On top of that supernatural world the author throws in how the humans are still scrabbling with knowing how to deal with the previously hidden supernatural communities suddenly appearing in the middle of their every day lives.

There are lots of different characters, but all are well rounded and well described. No character felt like a throw away with just a few sketched outlines, used purely for plot purposes. Every one felt important to the author and the story.

On top of great characters, this book has a really good plot. It looks at crime, office politics and romance. I couldn’t put this book down. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series and see what happens to Sera next!

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Review: Drowning Studies (Artemis University Series Book 2) by Erin R Flynn

Drowning Studies by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Studies Continue

You know how in music they always talk about the difficult second album, where the musician has years to craft the songs for their first album before they get a deal, it’s a big hit and the studio pushes them to rush the second album, which means it’s weaker than the first? Well I feel a bit like that’s what happened with this book. The first book was amazing, but this book didn’t feel quite as well constructed or edited. However, it’s was still a great book that I really enjoyed.

Tamsin is still drowning in studies as she tries to get back to full time education after dropping out at age 15. She’s trying to get her High School Diploma at the same time as going to college for freshman year. Darby, the vampire scholarship student, is helping tutor her and Izzy, the witch room mate, is helping. There’s still a huge amount to learn for someone who’s been out of education for so long and the author does a great job of conveying that sense of drowning in studies.

Tamsin’s relationships are still complicated, despite none of them being ‘serious’ and I love how she still wants her lovers to be her friends and expects the kind of loyalty that friendship assumes.

In this book the supernatural community seems to up it’s activity to find out what kind of supernatural Tamsin is, and she has to watch herself constantly for the manipulation of even those she considers friends.

I like how we find out a bit more of the supernatural world in this book, especially about the shifters.

So whilst this book wasn’t the stand out the first in the series was, it was still really good and I can’t wait to see what happens next to Tamsin and her friends and lovers.

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Review: Upended Life (Artemis University Series Book 1) by Erin R Flynn

Upended Life by Erin R. Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Funny, Sassy and Challenging Fae

I would probably give this book 4.5 stars if I could.

I really enjoyed this book. It was filled with interesting characters and some fun world building. The main character, Tamsin, was left at a fire station when she was a baby and was in foster care until the age of 15, when she ran away and started living on the streets. Now, at age 19, she is out helping sex workers trapped by a ruthless pimp when her magical abilities go crazy, and she is picked up by a team of supernaturals. She wakes up at Artemis University where she is informed she is the last living fae on earth, as all the others disappeared 20 years ago into faerie and she has to be trained to stop her powers going haywire. Guess where she is going to be educated, yes, that’s right, Artemis University, the premier educational establishment for supernaturals.

Most individuals would be unsure about being thrown into an elite magical establishment, but Tamsin has a robust sense of her own worth and won’t let anyone put her down. She won’t tolerate bullies and hates systems that are unfair. She is ruthless and honest and when she promises retribution, she delivers it. She may be only 19 but her best friend has trained her to be a vicious fighter over the last 4 years and as she herself states, street years are like dog years, so she aged a lot when living there.

Along with learning how to control her magic, it seems that she has to learn to swim in the big leagues, by dealing with the rich and powerful in the supernatural world, and that includes having relationships with them as well. She isn’t just drawn to one man, but she is honest about who has her attention and it’s all above board, which I really liked.

I really am looking forward to knowing more about the world in which the university is based now the characters have been established. There is some information passed on, by way of the classes, but more of the society would be fun to learn about. I can’t wait to find out if that is the case in the next book!

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Review: Don't Tempt Me (Nora Jacobs Series Book 4) by Jackie May

Don't Tempt Me by Jackie May
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nora Goes Bad

This final story in the Nora Jacobs series is a doozy. Nora is cursed, all sirens are cursed. That’s how they came to be, so all sirens eventually go bad, though their harem helps stave off the descent into madness. It seems that Nora isn’t bonding as fast as she should with her harem. Her pesky siren side keeps trying to take over.

It also appears that there is someone who is gunning for her and her clan, and there are big monetary rewards being offered to mercenaries to capture Nora and kill her clan. Being in Nora’s clan has become a very dangerous place to be.

I love how this book rounded out the series. It wasn’t a race to fix all the romantic parts of her harem, so the book wasn’t one big sex-fest, but there was a little bit of steam. I liked that the harem included people she wasn’t interested in sleeping with because sirens need emotional bonds to stay sane, not just romantic ones.

There was an awful lot to sort out in this book and Jackie May nailed it. The authors handled the different threads and wove them together seamlessly. The characters were nuanced and the relationships complex and interesting. The slow build nature of the romance made it more believable, as did the addition of emotional connections that weren’t romantic. It made the clan feel more rounded.

I really enjoyed this series, and I hope to see more of Nora and her clan in future books from this author, even if they are only there as supporting characters.

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