Feature and Giveaway: Ashes Reborn by Keri Arthur

The next blazing-hot installment of the Souls of Fire series from the New York Times bestselling author of Flameout

The clock is ticking as Emberly—a phoenix capable of taking human form—races to take revenge against the sadistic and mysterious Rinaldo. The elusive rebel leader threatens to keep killing until he is given all of the research about a plague like virus derived from vampire blood.

Forced to reach out to the Paranormal Investigations Team for help, Emberly and her partner, Jackson, must decide who to trust as they follow the trail of dead bodies. When classified information is leaked and their safe house is ambushed, Emberly’s suspicions are confirmed—someone at PIT has betrayed them.

A final battle looms and Emberly will need to command all her powers—or watch the world turn to ash....

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ARC Review: Winter Halo by Keri Arthur

Book Two of the Outcast series. Keri Arthur continues the story right after the events of the first book, a couple of weeks give or take. Once again Keri Arthur has entertained and keep me on the edge of my seat. I love this post apocalyptic paranormal world. A world first divided by a shifter/human/vampire war, then nearly destroyed by the bombs the shifters dropped to end the war. But the bombs did something to the fabric of the universe and now deadly rifts appear and suck you in. Most people don't survive but the ones that do come back different. I do recommend reading the first book in the series because events happen in The City of Light that are mentioned but not explained in this book that pertain to what's going to happen. 

When the first book ended Tiger and her ghosts….(No spoilers just in case you haven't read the first book) and although she told Nuri and Jonas that she wouldn't help them anymore she gone off on her own to continue the search. But to find out what she needs she had to accept help from Nuri and Jonas, especially since the bad guys know who she is and where to find her they just can't get to her but that doesn't stop them from trying. 

Jonas and Tiger have been fighting the attraction they feel for each other. They should hate each other; him a shifter the race that mercilessly killed her kind, and she a déchet a genetically created blend of shifter human and vampire to seduce and kill shifters in the war. Jonas final admits that he judged Tiger harshly and is willing to see where this attraction will take them; Tiger just had to admit that's what she wants too. Tiger uses the connections Nuri has to get inside of Winter Halo the company that has control of false rifts and using them to kidnap children. They are also trying to control the vampires and the wraiths that come out of the rifts and that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

Overall, I can't believe how good this book is. One thing….Damn you cliffhanger!

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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Interview with Author Keri Arthur and Giveaway

Meet Keri Arthur author of Flameout.

Keri Arthur author of the New York Times bestselling Riley Jenson Guardian series, has now written more than twenty-eight novels. She’s received several nominations in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Awards and has won RT’s Career Achievement Award for urban fantasy. She lives with her daughter in Melbourne, Australia.

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ARC Review: Fireborn by Keri Arthur

Emberly Pearson is a phoenix, a spirit reborn from ashes and flame. She can control fire and devour it. Her former love, policeman Sam Turner, called her a monster before he left. As she waits in the cold to save his life, she wonders if his opinion has changed. Death waits on the corner across from her. Who will get to Sam first? The creatures chasing Sam are evil and grotesque. Once she rescues him, he explains a virus is infecting people, called Crimson Death. Emberly is a lab assistant to Mark Baltimore. His work is top secret and linked to the disease. Sam has seen too much death, including his brother’s and still doesn’t trust Emberly. Her fire mate, Rory, helps her heal from a scratch by turning into fire. They live together, but they aren’t in love. Her relationship with Rory destroyed hers with Sam. Mark turns up dead and the last person to have his notebooks is Emberly. Now the police, the vampire syndicate, a gorgeous fire Fae, Jackson, and a competing research lab are after her. She doesn’t understand the research, she just types up the notes. No one cares as she’s harassed, kidnapped, drugged, and dumped alongside the road. They want the notebooks. The police have her followed, but she avoids them at every turn. She and Jackson decide to partner up and get much better acquainted. They make progress, trip over more dead bodies, and are close to the killers. Too close and some bodies refuse to stay dead.

Emberly’s name is a nice pun about her powers. She throws fire at people. They don’t burn right away, but they get the idea that it can all change at the flick of her wrist. She’s an immortal who has died many times. Her curse is to fall in love and lose him every time. A witch put a curse on the phoenixes centuries ago. Her relationship with Jackson is a good one. Too bad her love belongs to Sam, the most unworthy recipient.

Sam is the meanest character in the story. He crushes Emberly’s spirit every chance he gets. He calls her names and implies vicious things about her. It’s a toxic relationship for her. It adds drama to the story, but every time he appears, I knew it would be bad.

This is the first book of a continuing story. Many plot lines are opened, but none resolved.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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Feature and Giveaway: Fireborn by Keri Arthur

From New York Times bestselling author Keri Arthur comes a brand new series featuring heroine Emberly Pearson—a phoenix capable of taking on human form, and cursed with the ability to foresee death…

Emberly has spent a good number of her many lives trying to save humans. So when her prophetic dreams reveal the death of Sam, a man she once loved, she does everything in her power to prevent that from happening. But in saving his life, she gets more than she bargained for.

Sam is working undercover for the Paranormal Investigations Team, and those who are trying to murder him are actually humans infected by a plague-like virus, the Crimson Death—a by-product of a failed government experiment that attempted to identify the enzymes that make vampires immortal. Now, all those infected must be eliminated.

But when Emberly’s boss is murdered and his irreplaceable research stolen, she needs to find the guilty party before she goes down in flames…

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ARC Review: Dancing With the Devil by Keri Arthur

Dancing With the Devil is one of Arthur’s earlier works and while finding this book not as cleanly written as her later titles it was still a very entertaining beginning to her Nikki and Michael urban fantasy series.

Nikki James grew up on the streets. A tough life made even more so by her telekinetic gift. Working as a PI now gives her the opportunity to use her power for good. Accepting a case from a wealthy father looking for his daughter Nikki quickly discovers that she’s passed through a door into a world in which her idea of evil pales exponentially to the reality that threatens to take her mind, body, and soul.

Michael Kelly is a vampire, of the non-human blood drinking sort. Being three centuries old and working endlessly to curb his bloodlust has left him in control of his urges, but in turn viewing the world in dim interest. Hunting down a dangerous and vicious vampire named Jasper was one of the drivers in his existence to keep him going. Working for the Damask Circle, a ruling body over being of a paranormal nature, generally let him be. However seemingly times were changing and he found himself tasked with keeping a particular woman with powerful psychic gifts alive.

Drawn together by danger, duty, and simmering chemistry Nikki and Michael work together to solve the case of the missing girl Monica Trevgard. Both carry their fair share of baggage and trust issues. This plus the several obstacles the outside world throws between these two coming to realize and accept what their feelings for each other mean is a long and arduous process. There are a few moments of sizzle and brief glimpses of emotions that lead me to believe that their romance beginning at a slow burn will grow to something solid and steamy as the series progresses. Personally in urban fantasy laced with romance I prefer the natural build up and though there were several moments when I wanted to scream at these characters to ‘get over it already’ I truly did enjoy reading their journey so far and continue to wish for their happiness in the future.

If you are a fan of Keri Arthur and urban fantasy in general I definitely suggest you check out this book. It’s not as well fleshed out and crisply written as her later works but it was a really good read. Also, it is always a treat for me to see how authors grow in depth and skill throughout their career and for being one of her first I think it is great to get such a sense of potential in early publications. I am looking forward to reading the next installment in this series and see how these characters grow.

**ARC provided by NetGalley**

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