Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Review: Dark Secrets Series by Shea Berkley

Stone Cold Dead 
by Shea Berkley
Series:  Dark Secrets #1
Pub Date:  Jan. 31, 2015
Publisher:  Thursday Publishing
Pages:  161
Format:  eARC
Source:  Xpresso Book Tours
   

My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:


Death stalks the dark streets of Boston, but even death has enemies… 

Being a hero is Ryan di Taro’s job. Eradicating the city of vampires and other monsters that hide in the dark is how he got the title. When an unknown woman appears and saves his life and then disappears, he’s not sure if he’s made a friend or enemy. Should he accept her help in hunting down the undead, or is she part of an elaborate plan the creatures of darkness have created to end his quest to see evil eliminated for good.
This novella was okay, but it really needed to be longer and more detailed so the reader could connect with the story and characters.

Anara, our main character, is a gargoyle (or something similar). So by day, Anara is perched on the top of a church watching the world go by. And by night, she hunts vampires. I like Anara, but I want to know more about her. She has lived for centuries - but we don't know anything other than she was cursed to turn to stone in the sun, she is lonely, and she fights vampires like a viking warrior princess. When two young girls are orphaned after a vampire attack, Anara approaches Ryan, a human vampire hunter. Anara and Ryan fall in major insta-love. Seriously, the L-word is being whipped out within a day or two. I liked Ryan - but I want to know more about him. We know more about his brother (Beau) than we do about Ryan, and Beau is only a small secondary character. I would have liked to learn more of the back story as to why Ryan and Beau are hunting vampires. The other two secondary characters, Sage and Baby, are very cute and angelic children characters. They were sweet enough - but I want to know why the vampires are hunting them. So they are innocent? How does that help the vampers? I got a little aggravated because I was only getting the surface of the story when I really wanted those deep waters.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It was an okay start, but I am hoping for more out of the rest of the series.

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Edge of Evil
by Shea Berkley
Series:  Dark Secrets #2
Pub Date:  March 3, 2015
Publisher:  Thursday Publishing
Pages:  368
Format:  eARC
Source:  Xpresso Book Tours
   

My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

What if nightmares, best kept in the dark, refuse to stay hidden? 

Dr. Maya Kelbeck believes no matter how unusual her patients’ delusions, she can help. When billionaire Alden Caldwell seeks her counsel to escape a controlling relationship, she’s intrigued by his unusual diagnosis, lycanthropy-her patient actually believes he’s a werewolf.


Alden Caldwell’s life is not his own and hasn’t been since the middle ages. Not since he was transformed into a werewolf. The once noble knight now finds himself no more than a slave to a female vampire who is without morals, without conscious, without a soul.

Maya promises Alden she can help him, and at first it looks like she can, until the supernatural world in which he lives wants him back. Can Alden convince Maya his delusions are real in time to save her, or has he just sentenced a woman who cares for him despite his past transgressions to a fate worse than death?


It has taken me forever to write this review because I just don't have much to say about the book.  I hate when that happens.  This was an okay read, but it was nothing special for me.  I actually thought this was a serial as the first book was very short, so I was surprised that this book was more than double the length of the first.

We met our main character, Alden Caldwell, in Stone Cold Dead where he was a mysterious character that helped out the vampire hunters in secret.  We learn in this book that Alden is a werewolf who has been enslaved by a horrible vampire queen (Juliana) for centuries. I really liked Alden, he had that mysterious, damaged, filthy rich aspect going for him.  However it was a little unbelievable that he would seek a psychologist in an attempt to break his supernatural compulsion to obey his master vampire.  Anywho, he does and in comes Dr. Maya, who has no idea the supernatural world exists and doesn't believe that Alden is a werewolf (naturally).  She learns that the boogie exists pretty quickly though, and then her and Alden are in a fight for their lives.  This causes them to pair up with Beau and his gang of vamp-fighting kids, whom we met in Stone Cold Dead. Unfortunately I just hate hate hate Beau, like detest him. I don't think I would be able to read a book where he was the main character. So all of the parts of the story where he was featured, I didn't really care for.  I also did not care for how the romance turned out, but I can't say more w/o giving away spoilers.

In sum, it was okay but I didn't really connect with the characters and I was hoping for a little more.  I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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