That’s only because we’re down to the weak everlass leaves. As soon as the spring comes it’ll be better, Hannon, you’ll see. I’ll find a cure for him. He won’t join Nana and Mommy in the beyond. He won’t. I will find a cure. It must exist.” I threw myself down and rolled onto the floor. It might be able to see in the dark, but it shouldn’t be able to see much detail through our shades, even as worn and flimsy as they were. It was a bit confusing at first, and eventually some things really bothered me. For example, the main character sometimes talks to the reader as if they are a viewer. Its kind of like the chorus in Romeo and Juliet or the grandfather narrating in The Princess Bride. The concept was great, however I found it unnecessary as it expressed the characters inner dialogue which is basically what we were already reading.

Finley harvested the plants at night and had a close call with the Beast when she was 14. She is now in her 20s and trying to keep her father alive, and is captured by the Beast while hunting the plant. Of course, he takes her to his castle for stealing from the forest, and this is where it gets weird. He appeared at the edge of the field with blood streaming down the new hole in his pec, dipping into the groove between his stomach muscles and lats. I eyed the grass ahead while listening. The birch finally settled down, leaving a gaping absence of sound in its wake. No movement caught my ear. No screeches. Bah.” She swatted the air. “That’s what happens when you mate a woman who is too supportive. You make a fool of yourself.”

Customer reviews

It’s fine, Hannon. I took the smell-masking elixir. That usually works when I’m hunting. It’ll help.” The secondary characters were good, from Finley's family to those in the castle. My particular favourite was Hadriel, the mediocre servant. Demons abound due to the demon king's curse and his desire to take over Lyfain's kingdom. There are violent, gross demons and smexy-time ones who are there to debauch the castle inhabitants and make them hate themselves and life in general. I'm assuming (and hoping) this is built on more in the next book as while they complemented the story arc, the sexual ones didn't really offer this book that much apart from, once again, opportunities for some readers to pearl clutch. That being said, the book certainly had a flavour of originality for me and I look forward to more world building in the next ones.

Letting my mind wander, I glanced at the brilliant sapphire sky above. Only two puffy white clouds puttered across the wide expanse. The leaves are the most potent when harvested at night,” I said, “and we are on borrowed time, like you said. No time like the present.” Dash was the youngest, a boy of eleven who moved more than he listened…except when he was listening to me mutter to myself, it seemed. I hadn’t realized he’d overheard me. I could see his cheek and ear turn bright crimson. He was very easy to embarrass. I made it my goal to do it at least once a day.

It wasn’t as bad for people like me, since I’d never known my animal and didn’t remember much from the old days. I’d never known the primal power and strength and extra abilities that came with shifting. Someone older and more experienced was supposed to guide a young shifter through the change on the first full moon after their sixteenth birthday, but our powers had been suppressed long before my coming of age. I didn’t know what I was missing. I wasn’t the only one who showered these plants with love. Not surprising, but still, it warmed my heart. I hoped the other villages were at least faring as well as we were. Was it the beast? Something else? Maybe it didn’t matter. The sound had come from a larger animal, and anything that large in this wood was a predator of some kind.

I turned slowly toward home, carefully lowering my feet one at a time. I didn’t want my feet to slide on the crusty dirt. Breathing slowly helped, too. I needed air to fuel my brain and my muscles. I needed to think or run, or both simultaneously. Blind terror never helped anyone. If not him, then I guess you’ll be happy to hear that a certain someone has decided to finally take a wife…” But seriously, why in the goddess’s secret cupboard was the tree shivering? That hadn’t happened before. I’d passed this tree every time I came to this field, and it had never moved because of anything but the wind. I burst out across the Forbidden Wood’s boundary and raced around the village the long way to my house. It would be faster if I didn’t have to worry about jumping fences.You just think that because I’m your sister. Boys aren’t supposed to cook and look after their families, and yet you excel at that better than most women. Maybe she’s your true mate.” Join her mailing list to receive BONUS CONTENT, free stories, and hear about the crazy goings-on of her life. Sign up here ➜ http://bit.ly/KFBContent Well, yeah. There is one person in all of the magical world meant for us? And they have to be the same type of shifter, same overall power level, and same general age… Lots of ‘ands.’ But it is doable, or else we wouldn’t have a name for it. Besides, Daphne is very pretty and very willing. I know how you like them curves, too.”

Her smile was cunning. “Not at all. I hear he was looking for you earlier. Very handsome, that Jedrek, isn’t he? And quite the hunter. He owns his own home, and his wife will want for nothing.” This is a dark and sexy Beauty and the Beast retelling, featuring a strong heroine, a dangerous anti-hero, and a humorous supporting cast. It is a full-length novel and suitable for 18+. This is the beginning of a trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger. For our elders, it was such a grievous loss that they wouldn’t talk about it anymore. At all. I didn’t know who used to turn into what animal. I didn’t know details of a shifter’s life, or what it felt like to change. I didn’t know much of anything about what I was supposed to be. Hannon pulled the pot off the hook hanging over the fire and tilted it. A tiny bit of life-saving draught filled my mug. There were other kingdoms, of course, near and far. A few faerie kingdoms with their court politics and intrigues. Hideous goblins with their heaps of stolen treasure. The land of night, ruled by the vampires. And, of course, the cunning demon king who was slowly cutting down all of his competition. Within each kingdom, various villages and towns housed the hardworking people, usually all the same magical type—shifters lived in a shifter kingdom, faeries in a faerie kingdom—but occasionally a star-crossed lover would move in for a little magical diversity, sacrificing sameness for their love. That, or they’d escape beyond the veil to the human realm, disguising themselves within the mundane, often never to return.

I was having a hard time processing this. To risk the children at all. Children! They were all we had. They were the most important resource in this village. It was why Dash and Sable were pampered more than they probably should be. Overprotected. Watched more than was probably healthy. We needed the kids to keep up our numbers, or we were in danger of fading away. Books lined the shelf in the tiny room, not much more than a glorified closet. I didn’t care. This was a place of refuge for me. A place of information. After a tough day, or a boring day, or really any day, I could come here and escape into another world and live a different life.