Blind Man's Wolf by Amelia Faulkner

Title: Blind Man’s Wolf
Author: Amelia Faulkner
Cover artist: Scarlet Cox
Genre: paranormal
Buy at Amazon
Length: 70k est, 239 pages
Formats available: Mobi
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A night-blind vampire. A werewolf with lousy self-confidence. And a whole hell of a lot of danger…

Tooth & Claw, Book 1.

Ellis O’Neill is an art dealer with too many problems: his eyesight has deteriorated to the point of night-blindness; he’s estranged from his family, to whom he owes a considerable sum of money; and his guide dog went right off him the night Ellis died. Without his dog, Ellis is trapped in a life bouncing between home and work, dependent on his personal assistant.

Werewolf Randall Carter has problems of his own. He loves his pack, he really does, but as their Omega he’s always the one to bear the brunt of their rage. It’s a role he can’t avoid, and Randall isn't sure he can take it for much longer, so he buries himself in his day job. Randall’s the best dog trainer in the city, and when he’s offered a client who needs him to work evenings he’d be a fool to turn it down.

Soon Randall is falling for someone he should despise. Everything about the undead is anathema to his kind, but Ellis is exactly the kind of guy Randall would want to ask out on a date – if he were still breathing. Worse, they may not have too long to figure their feelings out. Someone or something is gunning for Ellis and anyone else who gets in the way; they won’t rest until the vampire is destroyed.

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I loved this take on the vampire and werewolf pairing, because both characters had the weaknesses of their kind, and were having a hard time getting to their strengths. In Amelia Faulkner’s hands, this means storytelling with terrific character arcs, and since it’s book one of a series, I expect it’s going to take a while to get to the kick ass and take names stage. Which is fine: good stuff to read!

Between blindness and being a vampire, Ellis has a lot to contend with. He manages fine with his guide dog, but when the dog becomes erratic, he needs to fix that right away. And Randall has the perfect qualifications for being a good trainer: gentleness, firmness, and being a wolf.

Poor Randall’s stuck in a pack that has some really awful ideas about how to be a pack. Seems they don’t understand being werewolves any more than Ellis understands being a vampire. It made me want someone to take them in hand and teach them manners.

Between figuring out what each the other is, and how to work together while identifying and dealing with the danger to Ellis, these guys have a lot on their plates. I loved how they learned to work with each other’s abilities, and if you ever wondered how a werewolf would do as a guide dog with all that intelligence, here’s how.

Sensory issues are front and center: Ellis isn’t completely blind, but very low vision when conditions are completely right, which isn’t often. He depends on all his other senses, which are well developed and portrayed. The reader isn’t bonked over the head with blindblindblind, but is invited to live in Ellis’s world and depend on other senses. Randall is a creature of scent on four feet.

Dealing with Ellis’s malevolent stalker leaves more problems behind, so I’m off to read more! The author has very thoughtfully priced this book at 99 cents, and it’ll be the best buck you spend all day. 5 marbles

Favorites from 2016

I've been fortunate to read some great books this year. Each of these books had a something special to make it stay on my mind. Thank you, authors.

The Knight of Flames by Amelia Faulkner

Title: The Knight of Flames
Author: Amelia Faulkner
Purchase at Amazon
Cover Artist: Satyr Designs
Genre: paranormal
Length: 460 pages
Formats Mobi, Print

Headstrong. Telekinetic. Pariah.

On the run from his family, Quentin d’Arcy has settled in San Diego with dwindling funds and the growing suspicion that his gifts might not be limited to telekinesis. When he meets a psychic who can control people’s actions with a few words, his comfortable life starts to unravel.

Demigod. Oracle. Hunter.

Laurence Riley almost died killing one god only to discover that he’s descended from another. Before he can come to terms with that revelation, Quentin’s twin brother walks into his life, and there’s no way to know what his motives may be.

With great power comes great danger.

Kane Wilson wants to make a better world: a world in which psychics are open about who and what they are without fear of reprisal or hatred. With the power to control others he might be able to pull it off, but there’s going to be collateral damage.

If Quentin and Laurence can’t get to the bottom of Wilson’s plan, Kane will out the existence of psychics not only to San Diego but to the world, and all hell will break loose.

Knight of Flames is the second book in the Inheritance series and contains mature themes and events which may be distressing to some readers. It has a mild heat rating and an HFN ending.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series. Getting another look at the adventures and the very slow burn between Quentin and Laurence just made my day.

Both of them have been working very hard to gain more mastery over their powers. Neither of them have considered if there are others with this kind of gift. When Quentin meets another high-level psychic, they have to reevaluate everything they’ve been doing, because what if they don’t all want the same things?

We found in book one that Quentin wants to be as far away from his father as possible, and he’s terrified of being forced to go home. So the appearance of his twin brother Frederick is definitely not the most welcome surprise. Worldly in a way Quentin is not, Freddy’s both a huge help and an unknown quantity, and essential to getting out of this mess with life and limb. He’s an interesting guy, with layers, and a slight whiff of Peter Wimsey.

There’s something of an “X-Men on crack” situation going here, which takes everyone’s best efforts to solve. It works out in a unique way, and I was biting cuticles while it played out.  Lots of secondary characters, who are quite vivid and have their own issues playing out in the background. One situation confused me at first but Kane’s playing a long game.

Quentin is still working out this whole intimacy thing, but he’s doing quite well, considering. He and Laurence take a twist on this I wasn’t expecting, but if it keeps Quentin level, I’m all for it. The slow burn from book one has dialed up a few degrees. Just a few, but Laurence is happy, Quentin is happy, and therefore so am I.

This series has a high ratio of plot to romance, which is just the way I like it best, and I can hardly wait for the next book. 5 marbles

Jack of Thorns by Amelia Faulkner

Title: Jack of Thorns
Author: Amelia Faulkner
Purchase or read on KU at Amazon
Cover Artist: Satyr Designs
Genre: paranormal
Length: 442 pages
Formats MOBI, Print

Florist. Psychic. Addict.
Laurence Riley coasts by on good looks and natural charm, but underneath lies a dark chasm that neither heroin nor lovers can fill. Sobriety is a pipe dream which his stalker ex-boyfriend is pushing him away from. Luckily, Laurence has powers most can only dream of. If only he could control them.

Aristocrat. Psychic. Survivor.
Quentin d'Arcy is the product of centuries of wealth, privilege, and breeding, and is on the run from all three. A chance encounter with an arresting young florist with a winning smile could make him stop. Laurence is kind, warm, and oddly intriguing but Quentin's wild telekinesis and his fear of sex make dating a dangerous game.

When opposites attract, they collide.
Desperate to fix his rotting life, Laurence prays for aid and accidentally summons a fertility god who prefers to be called Jack. Jack is willing to help out for a price, and it's one Laurence just can't pay: he must keep Jack fed with regular offerings of sex, and the florist has fallen for the one man in San Diego who doesn't want any.

If they're to survive Jack's wrath, Laurence and Quentin must master their blossoming feelings and gifts, but even then the cost of Laurence's mistake could well overwhelm them both. How exactly are mere mortals supposed to defeat a god?

Jack of Thorns is the first book in the Inheritance series and contains mature themes and events which may be distressing to some readers. It has a low heat rating and an HFN ending.

Oh my goodness I loved this book and gulped it down, all 440 pages of it.

Laurence isn’t obviously a sympathetic character at first, but he grew on me. He’s an addict, going nowhere with his life. There is a reason for his need of oblivion, he’s warring with a power he doesn’t understand and can’t control. His meeting with Jack, a fertility god he’s accidentally summoned, is both rewarding for what he learns, and alarming for what Jack wants. Laurence steps and mis-steps, and I was biting my nails for him to get more right than he gets wrong. He has the potential for greatness and disaster.

Quentin, oh, poor Quentin. We get hints and glimpses of the torment that must have been his early life. He’s a member of the British aristocracy, heir to the stiff upper lip, and yet still a commoner with a courtesy title until the old man pops off. He’s what we in the West recognize as a remittance man, although he seems more terrified of being dragged back to the family seat than being bribed to keep his distance. Strange things happen around him, and to him. He has a wild power that he’s never mastered, and until he meets Laurence, doesn’t really believe in. He needs to keep the world at a distance, even with his speech. He refers to himself in the third person, “one does this, one does that”, and it’s only later, when he can trust Laurence, that he’ll use less formal language.

So while Laurence and Quentin are discovering each other, Jack discovers the two of them, and he wants what he needs to survive as a god no one believes in. He can get his worship/energy fix one way or another, and sharing his plans with his mortal tools would only make them balky.

All of this is woven together to create a crashing climax where Laurence and Quentin have to work together and even more importantly, hold it together, to avoid a terrible future that plays on both of their worst fears. This was incredibly done, and kept me glued to the Kindle when I really should have been elsewhere.

The low heat rating is fine, because Quentin is so damaged now that to ask him for physical intimacy would be a grave betrayal. He has the potential to blossom, and I hope he does, but he has a lot of healing to do before it’s reasonable or kind to ask him for more. Also, that means more books about them, which I am all in favor of! 5 marbles

This review was written with a lot of discussion about the book with P.D. Singer, because she loved it too, and because she wouldn’t write a guest review. Said she was finishing work on another book. Honestly. Priorities.

P.D.’s note: Yes, I loved this book, and was thoroughly impressed with the way the author twined the two characters’ flaws and strengths together. Masterfully done! Personal communication with the author: the very formal, referring-to-self-in-third-person speech is standard in social circles most of us will never enter. It also really suits the character.  (That's a review, but Crys the stinker wanted another 300 words, so I made her do it. It's good for you to organize your thoughts, dear.)

Crys's note: :P I used enough of our chat, you might as well have done it yourself.

P.D.'s note: Sigh.