Author: DeAnne

Blitz | Fireborne by McKenzie Hunter

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Fireborne
McKenzie Hunter
(Raven Cursed #1)
Publication date: November 1st 2019
Genres: New Adult, Urban Fantasy

My magic isn’t just a curse – it’s an addiction. I crave it the way some people crave chocolate. But, chocolate doesn’t kill – my magic does.

I’m Raven Cursed. When I borrow magic from someone, they die. That’s always been the case—until I met my client, the devilishly handsome and enigmatic Mephisto. He has his own brand of unique magic and a mysterious past he’s determined to keep to himself.

He knows that I’m the one to call anytime a curse goes wrong, a magical object is lost, or a rogue supernatural needs apprehending. So he offers a trade. He’ll give me his magic, and in return, I accept a job from him.

It seems like a simple deal until all hell breaks loose. We have to team up to stop a god from unleashing destruction upon the city. It leaves me to wonder: can I battle a god with the devil at my back?

Goodreads / Amazon

Other books in the series so far:

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EXCERPT:

“She’s not what I expected,” Ava said in French. “She’s younger and more unassuming. I expected someone more menacing. Especially after the stories you told me and what I heard in passing. I was looking forward to meeting her, but it feels anticlimactic. She’s underwhelming.”

Anticlimactic? Underwhelming? I came in with a bag of weapons and accessories; what else did she want? Me stomping into the room, a sword strapped to my back, blades sheathed on each leg, and dual wielding Glocks? Dark-blue jeans and a black long-sleeve shirt was a respectable outfit. It didn’t scream total badass the way my leathers did, but I had no plans of being dragged across gravel today. Did she want me to mug her, growl like a rabid dog, hand out lollipops and slaps to everyone as I passed them? Maybe I wasn’t her image of a retrieval specialist—I really did like that title—but I was far from anticlimactic and underwhelming.

I shrugged off her comments. I couldn’t believe I cared what she thought. If I arrived in a fluffy sweater and a tutu, what did it matter as long as I got the job done?

I kept my face neutral so they wouldn’t suspect I could understand them. Spending most of my childhood at Madison’s home ensured I spoke French, although I wasn’t as fluent as I would have liked. It became a private joke in the family, that the more French spoken, the thicker Madison’s father’s Irish brogue became. On several occasions, she would grin at her father and speak French with an Irish enunciation. That he didn’t think it was as amusing as we did only increased our enjoyment.

“She’s not a merc, she’s a woman of many talents, but retrieval is her specialty,” Mephisto said in French.

True, I did a little of everything. If it made me money, I would do it. But I couldn’t put “I’ll do anything for money” on a business card or website because the calls and responses would get lascivious pretty fast. Jack/Jane of all trades didn’t work either because it cued more strange calls. People would be surprised what some considered a trade. So I kept it simple. Technically I was a bounty hunter. Merc sounded too ignoble. I operated in the many shades of gray of the human and supernatural system, but I didn’t want to advertise it. You call yourself a merc and people assume you skated right past the gray areas and went wading in the dark. Sometimes I had to, but it was never my first choice.

“That’s the beauty of her. She’s not flashy. She’s unassuming and her abilities make her tactics unique and noteworthy. That works in her favor. I assure you she’s skilled and quite impressive. After all, at this moment she’s pretending she doesn’t understand us, when clearly she does.”

My head stayed down looking at the paper, refusing to confirm his allegation. After several more minutes of looking over the contract, I looked up and feigned confusion over Ava’s scrutiny of me. Ava’s voice softened as she said something about her statements being rude before effortlessly slipping into another language that I couldn’t place.

Once I’d finished marking up the corrections to the contract, I walked over to Ava, whose presence was pleasant, although her eyes held hints of displeasure at being underwhelmed by me.

Tough. I’m not here to entertain you with a dog and pony show.

Author Bio:

McKenzie, as a child, discovered that her life could be a whirlwind of adventures by simply opening a book. To this day, reading is still her favorite activity. She has a fondness for fantasy and mystery, which is probably why she writes urban fantasy.

When McKenzie isn’t working on her next book she is usually binge-watching paranormal and comedy shows, maintaining her title as “favorite auntie”, or trying to create a tasty low-calorie pizza. McKenzie loves to hear from her readers. Feel free to contact her via her website, Facebook, or email.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook Page / Facebook Group / Instagram / Newsletter


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Blog Tour | Jagger by Amanda McKinney | Review

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Jagger: Steele Shadows Investigations
Amanda McKinney
Publication date: June 18th 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Secrets, lies, deceit… A former Navy SEAL turned homicide detective has met his match in this new *standalone* addition to the number #1 Bestselling Steele Shadows Series…

He found her covered in blood.
She promises she’s innocent.
The question is… Can he trust her?

Feared just as much on the streets as at a crime scene, Homicide Detective Max Jagger has dedicated his life to one thing—speaking for the dead. Everyone and everything else be damned, including his own demons. During one of the most oppressive heat waves to hit the small, southern town of Berry Springs, the former Navy SEAL is called to a scene where a real estate heiress is found standing over a dead body, holding the murder weapon. The local cops immediately dub it a slam-dunk case, but if Jagg has learned anything from his days running special ops, it’s that nothing is as it seems… including this suspect.

Despite her name, Sunny Harper is as beguiling as a fallen angel. Clever, cunning, completely unwilling to cooperate, and, perhaps his least favorite quality—mind-numbingly intoxicating. When evidence from the scene suggests an accomplice, Jagg begins to believe that Sunny is both innocent and in danger, despite the towns’ uproar to lock her up. Torn between his growing feelings for his suspect, he takes Sunny to a secluded lake house where he discovers there’s much more behind those enchanting green eyes… including secrets that could take them both under.

With his career on the line and the clock ticking, Jagg must decide if he can trust Sunny… before they both get burned.

Goodreads / Amazon



This is my first experience with McKinney’s writing so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the blurb sucked me in for sure. I really enjoyed how much complexity she put into characters like Jagger and Sunny and while the romance definitely wasn’t the focus, it was enjoyable. The main focus was definitely the mystery. Still, the story was packed with tension and suspense as it unfolded. The building of Jagger and Sunny’s relationship, though it wasn’t necessarily the focus, was great. All of the characters were great and the story was full of twists and turns, it was a great read!

Author Bio:

Amanda McKinney is the #1 bestselling and multi-award-winning author of more than ten steamy romantic suspense and mystery novels. She wrote her debut novel, LETHAL LEGACY, in 2017 after walking away from her career to become a writer and stay-at-home mom. Set in small, southern towns, Amanda’s books are page-turning murder mysteries packed with steamy romance.

Her books include the HOT new bestselling series, STEELE SHADOWS SECURITY, the multi-award-winning BERRY SPRINGS series and BLACK ROSE MYSTERIES.

Text AMANDABOOKS to 66866 to receive Amanda’s newsletter and get the latest on new releases, promos, and freebies!

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Bookbub


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Review | Cat and Cat #2: Cat Out of Water

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The adventures of Catherine and her cat, Sushi, continue in more comic escapades. To get away from it all, and get some rest and relaxation, Cat, her cat, and her dad visit the great outdoors. Being a single parent is never easy, and having a daughter such as Cat, not to mention a cat that’s also very much a part of the family, may be too much for her dad to handle no matter how much they all may love each other! Rough waters are ahead for the family of three, especially after Dad drops the bombshell: they’re moving! And we all know how much cats love water…!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this one except that it would feature a playful and adventurous cat. The art style was very cute and colorful, though the chaos that was on some pages with sound/speech bubbles sometimes made it a little hard to read. I did feel that some of the pages could have benefited from traditional panels since that could provide some separation. All in all though it was full of fun adventures and scenarios that Sushi the cat and her owner Cat faced and experienced, it was heartwarming and fun.

Happy reading!

Ebook Haul | 6/29

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Hey lovely people! I haven’t been buying a ton of physical books lately. I wouldn’t say I’m on a buying ban or anything, I’ve just been way too busy, not going out much and trying to read some of the books I already have. So for today’s post I thought I would share some of the ebooks I’ve picked up recently.

First I found a number of the Tor.com original short stories available so I picked up a bunch of them!

I also picked up The Empress of Salt and Fortune since I’ve been hearing amazing things about it. The others I have picked up have been a little random as I’ve been looking for things that would make me smile or laugh, so that’s what the rest hopefully represent. I’d never heard of the other three, but I read the blurbs and was interested in all of them.

So what have you gotten in ebook form lately? Have you found any amazing new-to-you reads?

Happy reading!

Blog Tour | That Summer in Maine | Review

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A novel about mothers and daughters, about taking chances, about exploding secrets and testing the boundaries of family

Years ago, during a certain summer in Maine, two young women, unaware of each other, met a charismatic man at a craft fair and each had a brief affair with him. For Jane it was a chance to bury her recent pain in raw passion and redirect her life. For Susie it was a fling that gave her troubled marriage a way forward.

Now, sixteen years later, the family lives these women have made are suddenly upended when their teenage girls meet as strangers on social media. They concoct a plan to spend the summer in Maine with the man who is their biological father. Their determination puts them on a collision course with their mothers, who must finally meet and acknowledge their shared past and join forces as they risk losing their only daughters to a man they barely know.

Buy Links | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Books-A-Million | AppleBooks | Google Play

This was my first experience reading Brianna Wolfson’s writing and I enjoyed her style overall. It was descriptive and flowed well, while also being filled with heart. I found myself feeling for many of the characters and their individual situations, even if they weren’t something I could identify with myself, it was written that well.

I felt this was really a story about families and all the different relationships and roles that different members play and how those roles can change with life events, time and changes to the family. I really enjoyed the look at how family dynamics can shift and the different emotions that can happen with those shifts. I didn’t necessarily like all of the characters, but each of their specific situations were well examined and explained.

Brianna Wolfson is a New York native living in San Francisco. Her narrative nonfiction has been featured on Medium, Upworthy and The Moth. She buys a lottery ticket every Friday.

Social Links | Author website | Goodreads

Happy reading!

Review | Rewritten by Tara Gilboy

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After learning the truth about her own fairy tale, twelve-year-old Gracie wants nothing more than to move past the terrible things author Gertrude Winters wrote about her and begin a new chapter in the real world. If only things were going as planned. On the run from the evil Queen Cassandra, the characters from Gracie’s story have all been forced to start over, but some of them cannot forget Gracie’s checkered past.

Even worse, Gracie discovers that as long as Cassandra has her magical book, the Vademecum, Gracie’s story is still being written and none of the characters are safe, including her mom and dad. In a desperate attempt to set things right, Gracie finds herself transported into another one of Gertrude’s stories—but this one is a horror story. Can Gracie face her destiny and the wild beast roaming the night, to rewrite her own story?

After thoroughly enjoying the first book, Unwritten, I definitely wanted to pick this one up when it was available. This one pulls you right back into Gracie’s story not too long after the ending of the first book, and you quickly realize the different difficulties that the group is facing and the repercussions of the events of the first book. This book really becomes a discovery and acceptance of self for Gracie as they once again come up against Cassandra.

I really enjoyed Gracie’s journey in this installment, and while I didn’t really like some other character’s behavior, Gracie did come to internally work through the pain caused by a number of things and definitely grew up a bit in the process.

Happy reading!

Review | Crown Noble

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Crown noble, the breathtaking debut by Bianca Phipps, navigates the crossroads of familial ties and forgiveness. Phipps ruminates on the ways we are shaped as humans. Is it nature or nurture? Is it fate or a happen chance? What teaches us to love our generational inheritance, no matter how harmful? Phipps takes us to the most intimate parts of family matters in hopes of underantdatning conflict as a means of overcoming. 

This poetry collection was an interesting mix for me. A lot of it is very stream of conscious style poetry, which I often enjoy. Some of those included in this collection didn’t flow for me, which can make this style quite hard to read. The content of the poems were written beautifully and had great metaphors and imagery, but the enjoyment was dampened when they became a little clunky in flow. That being said, if you enjoy poetry that really examines difficult familial relationships and how our upbringing can shape us, this has a lot of good content surrounding that.

Happy reading!

Review | Spells on Wheels

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Kate Leth and Megan Levens team up for a magical new series! Spell on Wheels!

Three young witches head out on an east coast road trip to retrieve their stolen belongings and track down the mysterious thief before he can do any damage to–or with–their possessions.

As soon as I saw the premise for this graphic novel I wanted to pick it up. I loved Claire, Jolene and Andy as they went on an adventure to get back their belongings and figure who stole so many of their belongings. What follows is a series of escapades that are like mini episodes of shows like BtVS and Charmed. I loved their antics and personalities and overall it was a really enjoyable read.

The art style was full of rich color palettes and I loved the different settings that were created. Also each of the girls had a very clear and unique style, but they fit together and worked wonderfully together. You could tell that their friendship was solid and that they would help each other in turn.

Happy reading!

Sale Alert! | Harlequin Series ebook Sale

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Today I’m excited to share a sale with you from Harlequin! From today, June 24th through June 30th they are offering 250 ebooks for the sale price of just $1.99!

The savings on these titles ranges from 40-70% off! It includes titles that were published between October 2010 and April 2020, so it’s a huge selection of books. You can buy books in this sale at Harlequin.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google Play Books and Kobo.

Make sure to take this opportunity to check out some great books at an even greater price!

Writing Update | 6/23

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Here we are almost to the end of June and my writing this year is not going the way I expected and I’ve found myself in a writing slump.

I think all of us are feeling certain effects from the events going on in the world, and have been. I’ve been dealing with my own issues and trying to maintain, but my writing and reading have definitely suffered as a result.

Still, while I haven’t written much in the last two months, I am going to do the Camp NaNoWriMo round in July, but I’m not going to set any huge goal. I’m going to simply aim to write, not do a large amount. As long as I make progress I’m going to be happy. I’ll probably do a good amount of editing and mat not even concentrate on new writing. I’m just going to gauge what feels right when the time comes.

How is everyone else’s writing going? Have you also had creativity blocks?