Category: Paranormal / Fantasy

When a Princess Proposes by Kerrelyn Sparks

On By TracyIn Historical Paranormal/Fantasy, Paranormal / Fantasy, Part of a Series, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

When a Princess Proposes (Embraced by Magic #6)When a Princess Proposes by Kerrelyn Sparks

Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Embraced by Magic, #3 (Embraced, #6)

Release Date: April 26, 2022

Since the fall of the Circle of Five peace has reigned on Aerthlan, but now twenty years later, the Seer, Queen Maeve has been having haunting dreams and visions that foretell trouble brewing, especially for the Embraced and King Leo of Eberon. So she sends the royal messenger, an eagle shifter named Quentin to warn King Leo of Maeve’s dreams.

Quentin is both excited and dreads his trip to Eberon because it will bring him in the proximity of the one and only woman who owns his heart – Princess Eviana. Someone who could never be his as he a nobody, an illegitimate sone of servants, but that doesn’t stop his heart from longing for her. He arrives at the castle during King Leo’s birthday celebration and sees Eviana dancing with one of her many suitors. Quen is jealous, but stays in the shadows just watching her – until his friend and fellow Embraced, Lady Olana finds him. Olana’s gift is to make people confess their secrets with just a touch and is the only person who knows Quen is in love with Eviana. She urges him to dance with Eviana, but instead, Quen decides to show Eviana that none of her suitors are worthy of her and convinces Olana to help him, they dance and she “accidentally” touches the would-be suitors and they confess their secrets in front of the entire gathering. But things don’t go as planned when Eviana rushes out of the room.

Eviana has led a very sheltered life and feels trapped. When her suitors begin confessing their secrets, she uses the commotion to run to her sanctuary and escape the pressure to find a husband. When Quentin comes looking for her to apologize, she is drawn to him and asks him to be her friend, a request he immediately rejects and takes off. Later her parents decide after the fiasco at the ball, that it might be best for Eviana to leave for a bit and send her off to visit Norveshka. But when her barge is attacked and she uses her Embraced gift, it is Quen who comes to her rescue.
Quen has learned some disturbing news, someone is killing the Embraced and he is going to inform King Leo when he sees the royal barge under attack. When he finds Eviana, it is clear someone was trying to capture her and he is sure it is the same people killing the Embraced. Despite his misgivings, he and the princess must work together to find out who is targeting the Embraced and stop them. He just hopes he can work closely with her without revealing his secret love. For her part, Eviana is excited to use this time with Quen to convince him they are perfect for each other and protect her family from this new threat.

This is yet another well-written, fabulous installment of the Embraced/Embraced by Magic saga, filled with familiar faces and lots of new ones. The story is filled with intrigue, magic, dragons, shifters, great secondary characters, as well as a secondary romance, a great setup for future books, some extremely nasty villains, and finally a very sweet HEA. I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to more installments featuring the next generation of Embraced. This book is the Third (or Sixth, depending on your POV) but it is more like the beginning of a new series and can easily be read as a standalone title. If you enjoy the Fantasy/Paranormal Historical sub-genre, I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*

Death of A Duchess by Nellie H. Steele

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Gothic Historical, Historical Mystery, Paranormal / Fantasy2 Comments

Death of a DuchessDeath of a Duchess by Nellie H. Steele
Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #1
Publication Date: 5/1/21
Period: ?? Not Apparent – Sometime before trains and cars
Number of Pages: 290

Since I don’t read the paranormal genre, I certainly surprised myself when I decided to purchase – and then enjoyed – this book. The mystery is well-plotted and well presented, with just enough obscure clues to cause you frustration, yet keep you reading. This is a new-to-me author and I enjoyed her writing style which captures the more formal speaking style of earlier historical periods. There wasn’t enough information within the story to get a grasp of the period in which the story takes place, and that always annoys me – couldn’t somebody just put a date at the beginning of the first chapter or something?

Lenora Hastings has a gift – or a curse – depending on your point of view. She sees and communicates with dead people and has done so her entire life. While it all seems perfectly normal to Lenora, the adults in her life can’t deal with it – when she was six, her father left and her mother turned her over to a nunnery soon after. When the nuns couldn’t deal with it, they turned her over to Headmistress Williamson at St. Mary’s Orphanage for Girls, where she lived for the next ten years. The headmistress didn’t care for Lenora nor her abilities, so she never recommended Lenora for placement into any of the employment opportunities that came to the orphanage’s occupants. Lenora was totally shocked when she was told to pack her things at once as she was leaving immediately. Lenora was excited to be going to the Highlands even though she had no idea what position her employment required. Maybe she would be a governess, or a companion, or – scullery maid, she didn’t care, she was out of the orphanage. When she finally learned what position was being offered, her jaw dropped.

Robert Fletcher, Duke of Blackmoore, has been a widower for three years. He has suffered greatly for those years because he loved his wife and cannot imagine what could possibly have caused her to take her own life. When he hears rumors of a young woman at an orphanage – one who can communicate with the dead – he immediately has her tracked down and investigated to see if she is the real article. He then has her summoned to Blackmoore Castle where he offers her marriage and a life of luxury in exchange for her ‘special’ skills. He needs her to communicate with Annie, the former Duchess of Blackmoore, to find out why she took her own life.

Annie is one very angry and confused ghost. She’s hard to communicate with because she doesn’t speak to Lenora in any way. She projects feelings and does other things and Lenora has to guess at their meanings. That communication process is very slow, dangerous, and vexing. Will Lenora be able to figure it all out before it is too late?

I enjoyed the other tangents of the story aside from the main mystery. It was lovely to see the duke come to care for Lenora and to demonstrate that caring by his actions in regard to her friend Tillie and also in regard to Headmistress Williamson.

I could have easily rated this at five stars, but there were just too many historical inaccuracies that I just couldn’t get past them. Proper forms of address were all over the place – sometimes they were correct, but mostly they weren’t. Then there was the ‘adoption’ when formal legal adoptions didn’t happen until sometime in the 1900s. Before then, there were guardianships or wardships, etc. An ‘adopted’ child could not have become the duke’s heir – the title would have gone to the duke’s brother, etc. anyway – lots of historical errors in an otherwise great mystery.

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