Review: Burning Hope by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Kathryn Ann Kingsley's second book in the The Cardinal Winds Series, Burning Hope, just dropped in paperback and I had the chance to read a review ARC.  You guys. 

You. Guys.

It's got a little bit of everything. Magic. Complicated ruinous and abusive back stories. Origin story mysteries. Social justice issues. Political intrigue. Steamy goodness. Greek pantheon. A zoo. Love. Everything. 

When I first started, I wasn't sure I was going to really be able to get into it the way I got into the first in the series, Steel Rose, because the male lead Burning Hope, Nero, was an absolute unmitigated nightmare of a jerk in Steel Rose, right up until the very last heart stealing page of the book where he goes and makes you grow a tiny little soft spot for him.That said, it's tiny, and so I expected Burning Hope to be a big uphill climb for me. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't. He's a violent, hedonistic madman perfectly described at one point in Burning Hope as "He was playful. Like a murdering puppy. But still a puppy, all the same." Suddenly, his overbearing ways became oddly endearing and awkwardly charming. And the female lead in this? Hope? 10/10 do adore. She's smart, outspoken, and remarkably honest. I also appreciate a differently-abled character who isn't helpless. That's one thing that this series keeps coming back to, bodies that might not be perfect, people whose pasts have left them permanently psychologically damaged, and they're the focus of heart pounding lusty love stories mired in politics that are somehow still socially relevant to the here and now, despite being set in an alternate kind of science fantasy world of dirigibles and ray guns. The magic end of the story is pretty cool too. There are a very few people who can wield any type of it at all, the Cardinals of the four winds, and Nero, the South Wind, has powers of some pretty intense inhibition stripping hypnotism and fire. 

I admit, I want to go back and read a few scenes again, when I'm not being interrupted left and right like this lady. 

Because frankly, the super descriptive NSFW scenes were hot, and not just because Nero has control of elemental fire, and they deserve to not be read a few lines at a time. Of course, I didn't want to put the book down, so reading with interruptions it was.

Burning Hope is available now in paperback and will be available in September for Kindle. Excellent read. It can stand alone, so you don't have to read Steel Rose first if you want to dive straight in to the story, but you'll be missing out on one heck of a great story if you do. I just can't wait for the next two in the series, and am secretly pulling for some side stories (Otto and Kema need their HEAs too.)

Review: To Love a God (Lily of the Valley Book 1) by Evie Kent

Oof. Where to start with this one? 

If Evie Kent's To Love a God were a story AO3, one would have to list content warnings like noncon. It's a dark romance. There is violence. There is bloodshed. Abduction. Deception. Explicit content. All the things.

And boy howdy, is it one hell of a good ride.

This story is a wonderful opportunity to indulge in a time honored guilty pleasure: rooting for the "bad guy." In this case the "bad guy" is more like "the trickster god," and the damsel in distress is more of a street wise New Yorker. Pitting Nora against Loki wasn't exactly what the villagers who guarded his mountain prison had in mind when they abducted her and brought her as an offering to their captive god, but sometimes someone looks like they'll be a shrinking violet only to find out they're a little more shrieking violent. 

So yeah, if dark is up your alley, it's a great find. I to Love a God on Kindle Unlimited, and I'm glad I did. 

Review: Ghosts and Liars by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Kathryn Ann Kingsley's second book in the Impossible Julian Strande series, Ghosts and Liars is, if it is possible, darker, more psychologically twisted, sexier, and somehow even better than Illusions of Grandeur. 

I feel like this second book is told ever so slightly more from the perspective of the ghost than the first book, and I really enjoyed that. 

Now, for the record, I feel like for all that I've mentioned that it's dark and psychologically twisted, I know there's a lot of C-PTSD readers out there, so I'm going to just throw out there that omg, the gaslighting, manipulation, and other flavors of unhealthy abusive relationships get covered in this novel to some degree- if not portrayed per se, then perhaps discussed. On the one hand, if you're going into a dark romance, you probably know what you're likely getting yourself into. On the other hand... if you can't read people exercising poor judgment, well, you've been warned.

But like I said before when talking about book one, I've read this pair five times, and for a reason. It's good. The characters are deep multidimensional constructs, and oh, dear me, the magic system is even more exquisitely detailed in this novel, and the geekery abounds. 

I also read Ghosts and Liars first as a Kindle Unlimited offering that I later bought in order to have in my own personal library forever, because I know it will be one of those stories to which I continue to return.